Is this the piano of the future? It sure looks like it

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Has the evolution of the piano stalled? Having evolved from humble origins, the piano had reached more or less its present state — in both upright and grand configurations — by the end of the 19th century. While the 20th century saw a multitude of electronic keyboards put into use by musicians of all genres, the piano remained basically the piano. Gergely Bonányi thinks it's time for that to change.

The Hungarian pianist says he's spent ten years rethinking his instrument from the inside out, not a single one of the piano's 18,000 parts being taken for granted. The result is an instrument built to sound as good as he imagined a piano could sound, manufactured by German company Louis Renner.

The manufacturer claims that the new piano, with a redesigned soundboard and agraffe system (the system of pins to which the strings are tied), produces "a more refined tone sensation" that "provokes a novel perception of sound," whatever that means. Bonányi and Louis Renner claim that the piano stays in tune longer to boot, and is more resistant than conventional pianos to varying environmental conditions.

You don't need to look under the hood, so to speak, to know you're looking at a new piano: the entire frame, based on a concert grand configuration, has been redesigned to stand on two legs with a sweeping, airstreamed look.

Will the Bogányi piano become a new standard for classical musicians — or will it be the Google Glass of the concert stage, a pricey gadget that's never quite taken seriously? Only time will tell. As they say on Composers Datebook, all music was once new — and so were all instruments.