Expo 2025 Osaka is a massive exhibition held on a 155 hectare site, designed to showcase the technological and cultural advances of the nations of the world. Expos, which arguably have been running since 1791, now take place approximately every five years and have become huge international events. Expo 2020 Dubai, which was actually held in 2021/2022 was delayed because of Covid, but it still attracted over 24 million visitors.
Pianos always seem to appear at Expos, most notably at the Great Exhibition of 1851, when the piano was considered to be a reflection of “cutting-edge technology”.
Pianos at Expo 2020 Dubai included: “The Flying Piano”; “The Big Beleura” — one of the world’s largest pianos; and Fazioli’s stunning “M. Liminal Piano”.
The piano’s profile at Expo 2025 Osaka is a bit more modest, but interesting models can still be seen at the show.
Bösendorfer “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” Piano
In 1869, following the opening of Japan to trade from the West, Emperor Franz Joseph I personally gifted Japanese Emperor Meiji a Bösendorfer grand piano. This piano holds the distinction of being the first ever introduced to the Japanese court.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa grand piano. Photo: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH
To celebrate this link, Bösendorfer has produced a very special limited edition model 214VC grand piano entitled The Great Wave off Kanagawa, and which takes pride of place in the Austrian pavilion. This is the piano’s first public appearance.
The instrument features a lid the underside of which is adorned with a scaled up version of Katsushika Hokusai’s world famous woodblock artwork “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” (Kanagawa oki nami ura). This image, created around 1830, is from Hokusai’s Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji series which has inspired many of the world’s greatest artists including Monet, Klimt and Van Gogh.
Photo: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH
The inside of the rim is decorated using variants of the same intense blue of the image, as is the seat of the matching piano stool. The lacquer-finished frame is a deep red, and Hokusai’s signature on the music stand is rendered in the same colour.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa grand piano at Expo 2025. Photo: L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH
The Great Wave off Kanagawa piano is being introduced to the Bösendorfer catalogue as part of its Collectors Item series, and production is being limited to just 16 instruments, each of which is individually numbered on a special plaque.
One of the other 16 instruments is currently on display at the Bösendorfer Salon, Vienna.
The Great Wave off Kanagawa grand piano costs €188,860, or €236,500 if fitted with a Disklaview system.
More information is to be found on the Bösendorfer website.
The Decaphonic Piano
In Osaka, as part of the cultural events of the Polish contingent at Expo 2025, a very special concert took place by world-renowned jazz pianist and composer Leszek Możdżer. Możdżer performed a concert with two pianos, one a conventional grand tuned to the standard 12-tone scale (12-TET), the other a decaphonic piano tuned to the 10-tone scale (10-TET).
Leszek Możdżer and the Decaphonic piano (right) at Expo 2025
Both pianos were Yamaha grands, but the 10-TET instrument, was heavily modified to take the new tuning. The piano was developed by Aleksander Bogucki, Paweł Nurowski, Andrzej Włodarczyk and Leszek Możdżer in cooperation with the Centre for Theoretical Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (CTP PAS).
The decaphonic piano requires the keyboard to be adapted to take into account the missing two notes for each octave. To avoid a complete redesign of the keyboard, the Fsharp and Bflat keys for every octave were changed from black to white and play the same note as an adjacent key. This simple solution ensures compatibility with existing keyboards.
This is the first instrument of its type in the world and opens up a new range of possibilities to the composer. We hope to look more closely at the decaphonic piano in a later article. In the meantime a fascinating YouTube video about the decaphonic piano is available here.
Other Pianos
Petrof is exhibiting a P194 Storm grand piano in the Czech National Pavilion representing Czech craftsmanship. It was featured in the pavilion’s opening ceremony and will be used throughout the run of the Expo for live recitals.
A Pianographique show. Photo: Ars Electronica
Ars Electronica, a company based in Linz, Germany, is showcasing several Pianographique events at Expo 2025. Pianographique is an audio/visual recital that creates real-time visualisations of the music being played. A piano performance is captured by multiple microphones, and a computer analyses the signal’s frequencies, pitch, volume dynamics, and other parameters. This information is instantly utilised to drive a graphics engine, programmed by a digital artist, resulting in a visual display on a large screen behind the pianist.
It was rumoured that Kawai might be exhibiting a special green grand piano that was originally built for the Expo 1970 which was also held in Osaka. The piano was apparently played at an underwater restaurant at the 1970 Expo. In 2024 it was renovated, but its appearance at Expo 2025 has yet to be confirmed.
Expo 2025 Osaka runs from 13 April to 13 October, 2025. Expo 2030 will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Related Article(s): Pianos at Expo 2020 Dubai
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