When 63-year old Paolo Fazioli was a child the Italians, the first makers of the piano, hadn’t made pianos in years. In fact the idea of the pianoforte was taken up by the wealthier Germans who refined the design. They developed the piano. However, the elegance of the Italian design was lost.
Paolo Fazioli’s family had a family furniture business in Sacile, a small village 30 miles north of Venice. Young Paolo studied mechanical engineering in Rome to please his parents but secretly carried on with the piano and went on to become a pianist at the Conservatory Rossini in Peassaro. Through combining his mechanical engineering and his artistic side Fazioli decided to build his own piano.
The company began in 1978 when a Fazioli assembled a team of technicians, including acoustic physicists, wood technologists, piano makers and pianists. In all they make six models of grands the largest being the Fazioli F308, which at 10 ft 2 in in length is the longest piano available on the general market and is priced at $202,000US. The entry-level Fazioli grand piano is a five-foot, one-inch that sells for $86,000.
In addition to its unique styling the Fazioli is noted for its inclusion of a fourth pedal on the F308. This pedal, a Fazioli creation, brings the hammers closer to the strings, decreasing the volume while maintaining the normal tone.
Fazioli makes several specialty pianos in different styles and wood finishes. The most expensive is the Brunei, with mother of pearl, semi-precious stones and sequoia burr wood at $409,000. One of the most important parts of a piano, the sounding board, which Fazioli makes from red spruce from the Italian Alps, the same wood from the forest that was used to make Stradivarius violins. There are a lot of things that Fazioli invented. The Chinese are now making a knock-off, which steals the ideas from the Fazioli, but Paolo says they will never match the sound.
This Fazioli (the picture above) is the M. Liminal. Its asymmetrical shape looks positively aerodynamic, and it’s a blend of the old and the new with its wood on top and stainless steel base. So get into gear and have an Italian thoroughbred in your living room. It will cost almost as much as your home.
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