It was pouring rain when Kyril Kasimoff unfolded the pages of his just-delivered newspaper. Virtually instantly, his coronary heart sank.
There, among the many newest dispatches detailing the harmful and lethal deluges that walloped the Southland in early February, was {a photograph} of a storm-wrecked grand piano — caked in mud, upended by Mom Nature’s fury.
“I saved shaking my head watching it,” he mentioned of the picture on the entrance web page of the Feb. 6 version of the Los Angeles Instances. “What a tragedy.”
The persistent and pouring rain had triggered a mudslide within the Beverly Crest neighborhood of Los Angeles, pushing the piano’s dwelling off its basis and sending it sliding down a hill. The piano fell out a window, bounced off a carport and landed the other way up.
A grand piano lies the other way up after a Beverly Crest dwelling was pushed off its basis by a mudslide on Feb. 5.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Instances)
Kasimoff, 64, couldn’t cease trying on the picture. He inspected the image, scrutinizing the piano’s wood legs, its muddied pedals, its body.
“That’s a Blüthner,” he mentioned to himself.
That’s when he knew he had to put it aside.
Kasimoff’s complete life has revolved round pianos, their music and their historical past. And Blüthners have been on the epicenter.
His father, William Kasimoff, was a clarinet participant who opened a piano store in Pasadena together with his spouse, Helga.
The 2 imported their first Blüthner piano from Leipzig, Germany, in 1963, making them the oldest Blüthner representatives within the U.S. They’ve been a staple on the Southern California music scene, offering devices and providers to musicians and artists for many years.
However Blüthner pianos, first in-built 1853, have been the driving force of their world.
Kyril Kasimoff shuddered on the considered the Beverly Crest Blüthner being hauled away like a lot particles, as if its elegant body was simply one other piece of soddened, shattered wooden.
It was clear its sound would by no means be true once more — even a whole lot of hours of labor and 1000’s of {dollars} couldn’t flip again that clock. However Kasimoff was intent on securing it a second life.
Kyril Kasimoff, backside, and Dirk Braun pose with the storm-battered, 149-year-old Blüthner piano that was recovered from a mudslide and is now on show at Braun’s artwork gallery in Malibu.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Instances)
“These pianos are treasures, and I couldn’t see it simply thrown away,” Kasimoff mentioned.
With the assistance of a neighbor, Kasimoff obtained in contact with the piano’s proprietor and organized to place it on show. He’s since partnered with Dirk Braun, proprietor of an artwork gallery in Malibu, to show the muddied and battered instrument there.
In doing so, they mentioned, they hope the piano’s story would possibly proceed.
“It’s survived all this time,” Braun mentioned. “Its closing destiny shouldn’t be going to be that it was ejected from this home and salvaged. It’s an irreplaceable murals.”
Till April, the piano that the 2 males have dubbed “Storm Blüthner” shall be on show on the Dirk Braun Gallery. It sits now on its facet, crammed with hardened dry mud.
“There’s no want to wash it; it’s what it’s,” Braun mentioned. “It has its personal magnificence from what it went by, and it’s nonetheless there.”
The keys and strings of the vintage piano have been intact, however the instrument is now not playable, and can by no means be once more.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Instances)
Regardless of being violently ejected from a sliding dwelling, the instrument remained surprisingly intact, Braun mentioned. All of the ivory keys stay in place, and not one of the strings have been damaged.
After taking the piano, Kasimoff was capable of verify it had been in-built 1875. He and Braun are nonetheless working to study extra about its historical past, however have already confirmed the instrument as soon as belonged to Miliza Korjus, a Polish Estonian opera singer who was nominated for an Academy Award for her position within the 1938 movie “The Nice Waltz.”
“It’s had such an attention-grabbing and thrilling life,” Braun mentioned. “This piano was round since earlier than Hollywood was invented.”
Kasimoff’s mom, Helga, nonetheless helps run the household piano store, which has since relocated to Los Angeles. She mentioned she imagines Storm Blüthner in the course of social gatherings, surrounded by musicians and celebrities singing.
That, she mentioned, was what Blüthner pianos have been crafted for.
“Some folks suppose it’s mystical, however it’s the finest instrument to accompany different devices, together with the voice,” she mentioned. “It by no means competes. It by no means desires to be louder. It’s at all times supportive.”
Gallery proprietor Dirk Braud, left, and piano fanatic Kyril Kasimoff maintain items of “Storm Blüthner,” the piano rescued from a Beverly Crest mudslide.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Instances)
Now the piano’s melodic days are over. However Braun, a 37-year-old photographer and filmmaker, notes there’s magnificence even within the wreckage.
Being tossed out a window and coated in particles is now as a lot part of its historical past because the glitz and glamour of long-ago gatherings.
“The way it stands proper now, it’s an irreplaceable piece of artwork,” Braun mentioned. “In a approach, it looks like it’s a logo of demise however, if it has one other likelihood, it has the prospect of a rebirth and a brand new life.”
He’s at present engaged on a movie in regards to the piano.
What is going to turn into of it after April is unknown, they mentioned. They’re sill exploring choices, together with presumably lending it to the L.A. Opera to show.
At 94, Helga Kasimoff remains to be desirous to share a little bit of historical past about pianos, her husband and their store. She’s excited to see Storm Blüthner get one other likelihood.
When she first noticed its image, she was certain the piano had been broken past use. She remembered a cellphone dialog she had in 1964 with Rudolf Blüthner-Haessler, who headed the corporate on the time.
She’d come throughout one of many first 100 Blüthner pianos ever constructed, but it surely had been deserted and broken to the purpose that squirrels have been nesting on its strings. She questioned, might it nonetheless have worth?
“I’ll always remember his reply,” she mentioned. “He mentioned, ‘My expensive, this piano — put it to relaxation. It has achieved its obligation.’”
The within of the 149-year-old piano at Dirk Braun Gallery in Malibu.
(Michael Blackshire/Los Angeles Instances)
She paused.
“I believe this piano has achieved its obligation, however now continues in its current situation to meet its obligation,” she mentioned. “Every part involves an finish. However generally, one thing reminds us of what it had achieved, what it had been, and the previous. It served an important singer, and it in all probability has made many individuals joyful.”
