The Arnold Fibiger piano, made in Poland, became an integral part of the living room in the house of Sergey Sergeyev-Tsensky. The writer purchased it in the late 1920s. The piano survived the war and the German occupation.
Arnold Fibiger’s piano factory was one of the first major Polish enterprises to produce keyboard musical instruments. It was founded in Kalisz in 1878. The factory supplied musical instruments to the southern and western territories of the Russian Empire. Almost every big Ukrainian or Belarusian cultural center had at least one Arnold Fibiger piano.
The company’s history began when Arnold came up with the idea of making a good concert grand piano. His father was a carpenter, so the son knew all the intricacies of the craft. By 1900, the piano factory had been producing up to 30 grand pianos a year. In 1906, the piano company was awarded two Grand Prix at musical instrument shows in London and Paris. By the end of 1913, the annual production had exceeded 300 pianos. The competitiveness of the company and the high quality of its instruments ensured the enormous popularity of this brand in Russia.
In his article “Sergeyev-Tsensky — the Word-Painter”, Nikolay Mikhailovich Lyubimov, a Soviet translator and author of volumes of memoirs, wrote,
