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Feb.6,2005 -Feb.13,2005 |
Fazioli Reinvents the Piano
What sets the Fazioli instruments apart?
By Niccolò Marras
Originally Published: 2005-01-23
Fazioli pianos have arrived in Toronto and will be distributed by Robert Lowrey.
Few Canadians are aware of this wonder, another product of Italian artistic genius coupled with high tech.
The world's first piano was built by an Italian, Bartolomeo Cristofori, in the early 1700s; he called the instrument gravicembalo col piano e forte (harpsichord that plays soft and loud). Nowadays, with production in the hands of Northern European giants - Bosendorfer, Bechstein, Steinway - and technique seemingly at its apex, another Italian took up the challenge of quality and innovation, and he won. Once again Italian talent has accomplished an amazing feat. In order to understand what sets Paolo Fazioli's pianos apart, we interviewed the engineer-cum-pianist during a visit to our offices.
An item like a piano, explained Fazioli, so perfected and refined, would seem impossible to further improve upon. What made this possible, however, was the convergence of three factors in the designer's life, namely, a degree in engineering, the ability to play the piano, and a knowledge of wood.
"I got my engineering degree and studied piano," Fazioli told us, "and I come from a family that owns several furniture factories."
"In order to create this piano," he continued, "I began with an idea, an ideal sound and instrument behaviour that I had in mind but that could not be reproduced by the pianos currently available. Finally I managed to make it."
The piano maker's fascinating tale is yet another example of Italian inventiveness. "First I drew a plan, then I chose the right materials... specific types of wood," he explained. "This is how I made today's pianos, characterized by rich harmonics and fullness of sound that enable musicians to create and develop their art."
The earliest Fazioli pianos were built in 1980 in Sacile, near Pordenone, in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region. The secret of its success includes a particular wood from the Alps, a wood so special that Antonio Stradivari used it to make his world-famous violins.
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