Mr. Ashkenazy is among many celebrated artists Steinway uses to burnish its image. Other makers try to do the same, but Steinway is the master of this strategy, pioneered in the 19th century when it sponsored the American tours of Ignace Paderewski and Anton Rubinstein. By the 1920's, Steinway was running ads proclaiming its piano the "instrument of the immortals," a slogan still in use.