‘The Lost Pianos of Siberia’ by Sophy Roberts
‘The Lost Pianos of Siberia’ is an unusual travel book by Sophy Roberts, a travel writer based in the UK. In this book, Roberts travels across eight time zones in Siberia in search of pianos. The book has three sections that span the last 250 years of modern Russian history. Each section traces the spatiotemporal fate of nearly 24 pianos, both indigenously produced and imported. Roberts’ quest for these instruments and the stories of the pianos are a palimpsest in which we see Russia’s history, landscape and regional travel writing.
Roberts tells us the unique story of each piano: their makers, owners, players, tuners, and the places they were housed in. She speaks of a Steinway Grand that travelled with the famous pianist Svetslov Richter who performed to sell-out crowds in a whirlwind tour of Siberia. Another piano that survived historical vicissitudes and Siberia’s damaging swings in humidity was made in the German workshop of Grotrian-Steinweg in the 1930s. It now resides in the basement workshop of the Lomatchenko family of piano tuners and restorers in the central Siberian city of Novosibirsk. They were deeply moved, one of them to tears, on hearing of Roberts’ interest in their work. The family dreams of starting a Russian piano factory to manufacture the best instruments in the world. The story of each piano in the book is therefore of people’s lives and aspirations as much as it is about instruments and history.
The stories are testament to Roberts’ experience and resourcefulness as a journalist. She meets people, gathers stories to trace provenance, tracking these pianos across a vast landscape. Her empathy for people comes through, but most of all it is her connection with the instruments we see, perhaps one of the reasons she tells the stories so well.
Shortlisted for the 2021 Stanford Dalmon Travel Book of the Year prize, ‘The Lost Pianos of Siberia’ reveals not only an unexpected musical legacy, but profound and brave humanity in the last place on earth you might expect to find it. We read it in our Champaca Book Subscription as we read along the theme of travel.
We’ve also put together a Spotify playlist, compiled by our curator Thejaswi Shivanand, to accompany your reading of ‘The Lost Pianos’—featuring both past and present Russian pianists!