For generations, anyone hunting for a premium upright piano would usually turn to the big European names first. Japanese builders have carved out a strong place in the professional and institutional scenes over the decades, but the absolute top end of uprights has often stayed pretty traditional.

Kawai’s new Master Series successfully bridges that gap. They’ve taken the kind of careful handwork and standards you find in their Shigeru Kawai grands and worked similar thinking into this upright range. The instruments get built with close attention to the details that actually matter, mixing in modern materials for better long-term reliability while holding onto old-world craftsmanship that give a piano its real personality.

The Kawai MS123 is the smallest in the Master Series. Standing at 48 inches tall, it fits easily into living rooms, teaching studios or any place where space would be a concern, but you still want top-tier musical quality out of your instrument. On paper it looks like a practical choice for tighter rooms, but once you sit down at the keyboard it quickly shows there’s much more going on. The MS123 possesses a surprising warmth and depth that makes it feel like a true luxury instrument rather than just something to fill the corner.

The MS123 comes equipped with Kawai’s Millennium III upright action. The company has been swapping in ABS-Carbon composites in the right spots instead of sticking purely with traditional wood. That change significantly helps the whole mechanism stay steadier when the weather shifts, less swelling or shrinking with humidity with no discernable difference in playability. In fact, these innovations improve the performance of the action as well.

What stands out when you play it is how lively and even the response feels. Repetition comes through cleanly, and the touch handles everything from the softest whispers to firmer playing without fighting you. They’ve fitted genuine ebony on the black keys and NEOTEX (simulated ivory key texture) on the whites, so your fingers stay comfortable and secure even after a couple of hours at the bench.

Most folks know Kawai for giving their pianos a warmer, rounder voice, which is quite different from the brighter edge you often hear with other Japanese makes. The MS123 keeps that character going. Sit down and run through the keyboard and you’ll hear a tone that stays impressively even and pleasant from bottom to top. There’s significant body in the bass and enough clarity up high to make it work for classical pieces as well as jazz or lighter modern material.

A solid spruce soundboard, backed by a sturdy reinforced frame and posts, gives the piano a solid base to work from. You can push the dynamics around and the sound stays together; it doesn’t go thin or get too shouty when you really dig in and open it up.

Every hammer on the MS123 is underfelted. That gives each note a clean start and then lets it fade away in a natural way, rather than stopping short. The voicing is done so the hammers match the rest of the piano nicely, you get solid definition, but nothing harsh or edgy sneaks in. It just leaves you with more say over how every single note comes across, whether you’re playing very lightly or putting real weight into the keys.

Right at the center is a tapered solid spruce soundboard. The MS123 manages to deliver a musically rich and full tone for such a compact upright. The bass in particular picks up some welcome warmth and substance, while the middle and upper registers hold onto their clarity without getting muddy or overly bright.

The cabinet on the MS123 has a clean, graceful shape that sits comfortably in virtually all rooms, while attracting attention with its elegant aesthetic. One nice feature is the lift-up top board, which recalls the way a grand piano opens and can give you a little extra projection when you need it. Inside, bird’s-eye maple accents on the sideboards add a subtle touch of refinement, quietly echoing what you see in the Shigeru Kawai grands.

Other nuanced details add to the overall impressive specs of the piano including hand-wound bass strings, a pressure bar with a stainless bearing bar, and the ability to use the muffler and sostenuto pedal together, which is something you don’t see on every upright. All of it adds up to an instrument that will certainly hold its tuning and its voice for an extended time, while providing an unparalleled musical experience to players of all levels