The concept behind the series is “Beauty and Power”. Beauty refers to its wide range of tonal colors, and its ability to create the most subtle musical voices. In the hands of a good pianist, the CF Series pianos can “sing” with an expressiveness rarely heard. Power describes its incredible tonal presence. Not only when played fortissimo but even soft delicate passages carry throughout the concert hall. The bass is amazing and all registers can project over the sound of a symphony orchestra, even in a very large hall.
It all began back in 1991 when Yamaha launched the successful CFIIIS concert grand piano. You’d expect their design engineers to take a well-deserved rest then, but they didn’t. They immediately started a major new project which began by analyzing virtually every aspect of the piano. They put together a project team composed of design engineers, wood specialists, metallurgists, acoustic scientists, the artisans who made the prototypes, the technicians who voiced them, and artist relations staff who tested the pianos with top musicians in concerts and at piano competitions. Altogether, around 40 people worked for 19 years developing the CF Series.
The team learned all about how a piano’s tone is formed. And learned how to put that knowledge into the designs. Using cutting edge scientific methods, they analyzed vibrations in the body, soundboard, frame, and strings. They were able to map out the vibration patterns of the different harmonics which together create the tone colors of each note using CAD technology accurate to 1/1000th of a millimeter. And using other technology such as ultra high-speed photography, they studied the way the strings react when struck by the hammers.
Finally in 2008, Yamaha were almost ready to begin production. But first they set up secret evaluation sessions in major concert halls in Paris, New York, and Tokyo, working together with 41 top concert pianists. Yamaha invited both Yamaha artists and those who rarely play Yamaha to try new designs and compare them against the best the competition has to offer in actual concert situations. These results helped Yamaha decide on just the right specifications.
