Penny and John Adie looked on a little nervously as removal men lowered a £100,000 Steinway concert grand from the back of a lorry yesterday.

The last time a piano was delivered to their Exmoor home in preparation for a music festival, it tumbled 14ft down a flight of granite steps, landing in pieces at the bottom. The demise of the piano, bought at auction in London for £26,000 a few days earlier, made news around the world. Yesterday the piano manufacturer Steinway came to the rescue with a temporary replacement while the Adies’ piano, a 9ft-long Bösendorfer, awaits the verdict of an insurance loss adjuster.

The Adies run the Two Moors music festival from their home on Exmoor and the Bösendorfer was due to take centre stage until it was dropped by G&R, a specialist piano removals firm. Steinway & Sons chose a different removal firm to deliver their two-year-old loan piano. Three workers from Piano Logistics, based in West London, managed to deliver the instrument without a scratch.

Mrs Adie, from South Molton, said: “My heart was in my mouth as they were moving it off the lorry. I was fighting a strong sense of déjà vu. They even got a small round of applause. I bet that doesn’t happen every day.” Mr Adie said: “The latest removal chaps said they weren’t nervous but there was a definite look in their eyes which suggested they were very keen not to make any mistakes. Accidents can happen to anyone, but frankly I just wish it hadn’t been us.”

Julian Rout, the managing director of Piano Logistics, said: “To be honest, I wasn’t any more nervous than usual — we shift ten of these a day.”

The Adies had saved for two years for the secondhand Bösendorfer. It should have cost around £45,000, but a musical instrument fair on the Continent meant that many dealers were out of the country when it came up for auction last month.

The Steinway replacement will be used for the first time tomorrow at the the final of the Young Musician’s Platform competition. Colin Turner, of Steinway & Sons, said: “We were completely horrified when we saw the pictures of the Bösendorfer. It must have been an appalling thing to watch and wait for it to arrive and then slip away like that.

We’re just happy to be able to help.”

G&R says that the cost of repairing the damage will be around £1,500 — a figure that the Adies dispute. A new Bösendorfer costs about £90,000. David Green, who said that his family-run firm had been moving pianos without incident for 40 years until last week, added: “The piano is not a write-off. Between £1,000 and £1,500 should put it right. If the piano is a write-off, the lady will not suffer any loss.”

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