The famed conductor and pianist will perform his upcoming Schubert recital series on his “radically different” instrument.

One of the world’s most eminent pianist and conductors, Daniel Barenboim, has turned his hand to inventing, with the launch of his new design for a grand piano, which he says is “radically different” from existing models.

The new instrument was unveiled at London’s Festival Hall in advance of Barenboim’s Schubert recital series, which he will perform using his new piano. The innovative design has the strings inside the instrument strung in straight lines, as opposed to existing designs, which are strung diagonally or cross-strung with the bass strings overlaying the middle and treble ranged strings.

Barenboim believes the new design gives a superior sound quality to traditional designs. The maestro was inspired to explore a redesign of the instrument after playing Franz Liszt’s restored grand piano during a trip to Siena, Italy in September 2011, which also employs a straight-strung construction. In an interview with the BBC Barenboim commented, “The clearly distinguishable voices and colour across its registers of Liszt’s piano inspired me to explore the possibility of combining these qualities with the power, looks, evenness of touch, stability of tuning and...