Oakland
Roll Over, Steinway
by | Feb 4, 2024 10:55 am
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Posted to: Music
Robin Lapid Photos
The interior of a Fazioli piano.
Paolo Fazioli Talk on Fazioli Pianos
Piedmont Piano Company
Oakland
Jan. 30, 2024
I was among a few dozen guests milling about Piedmont Piano Company when a bottle of Prosecco was opened, creating an extravagant POP! that reverberated throughout the room.
I nervously eyed the pianos encircling the rows of seats set up in the middle. Some of the pianos, including those made by the night’s guest of honor, cost in the tens of thousands of dollars.
Paolo Fazioli pianos have a growing coterie of famous fans. Australian goth-rocker Nick Cave is one. Herbie Hancock, the Grammy-winning jazz musician and composer, is another.
“Herbie Hancock is one of our best friends,” Fazioli said, adding that Hancock tries to have his Fazioli piano flown to his concerts, if it’s close enough to L.A. to ensure a safe trip.
Paolo Fazioli and Monica Chew after Chew's performance on a Fazioli piano at Piedmont Piano Company.
Most laypeople might recognize Steinway as the most famous piano brand, but Fazioli has already made a name among musicians in the know. Raised in a family of furniture makers in Rome, Fazioli wanted to combine his love of music with his keen eye for craftsmanship.
Armed with degrees in music composition and mechanical engineering, Fazioli broke from the family tradition and founded Fazioli Pianos in 1981. Since then, the company has grown in stature but stayed true to its ethos, favoring quality over quantity. While Steinway produces over 2500 pianos a year, Fazioli’s 50 or so employees handcraft around 140.
Seeing the Fazioli piano in person is sort of like seeing a Michelangelo up close. There’s an immediate recognition of greatness. With its gilded interior and streamlined spruce (the wood for Fazioli pianos is sourced from a specific forest in northern Italy), you can see why Fazioli says that the piano “is not an instrument, it’s a piece of art.” Fazioli, now 80 years old, looks like a polished Gandalf of piano makers, a wizened maestro of his own making.
During the talk on Tuesday evening, Fazioli said his aim was to stray from the accepted rules of piano making. He was told he was doing the impossible.
But his enthusiasm overrode the skepticism. “Before [I started making pianos], nobody was looking for something different,” he said. “But to do or have only one way is a mistake.”
Now, his pianos are so coveted that competitors have posed as tourists, visiting his factory to try to copy his design. “The single reaction from every pianist [I meet] is, This is the best piano I’ve ever played in my life,” he added.
After the Q&A, pianist Monica Chew played a selection of pieces on the prized piano in question, an eclectic set by composers from Brazil, Nigeria, the Philippines, and herself. Though each piece was different in mood and style, the sound did seem to strike a different chord on a Fazioli, lifting itself up and through the room. It was a beautiful, sonorous racket, a gilded canvas blanketing the audience in Afro-jazz and Bach and percussive tremors and chamber music.
Afterwards, Chew brought Fazioli back onstage and they raised their hand in triumph of the evening and his work. We raised our Prosecco in appreciation.
