Fazioli grand piano - a concert review

[ShiroKuro]

I think I’ve written about this before here, but one of the concert halls at my uni has a Fazioli grand. I would guess it’s the one in the 7 foot range, because it is definitely not a 9 footer, and I think that’s the Fazioli line up in the concert sizes, a 7.5’ and then a 9’, or something like that. Anyway, I think this Fazioli “lives” in this hall. In other words, if there’s an event in this hall, the Fazioli is the instrument.

So, the first time I heard it (maybe two years ago), accompanying a violin performance, I thought it sounded great. I was completely enamored of the instrument and thought “ah ha, so this is the mythical Fazioli, it’s glorious!” That was long enough ago that my memory is fuzzy though, so I couldn’t tell you what about it made me react that way.

Anyway, about a week ago, I attended a cello performance (by the person I played with over the summer!). This time, again the stringed instrument was the main event, but my first thought about the piano was that it sounded ”clinical.” Don’t ask me what that means, I have no idea! That was just the word that popped in my head to describe it. The piano wasn’t the main event, and the cello was amazing, so my attention was there for the most part, but I wasn’t impressed by the Fazioli the way I had been when I heard it accompanying the violin two years back.

Then the other day, I went to a lecture/performance by my piano teacher (which I should make a separate post about btw, it was really cool!) This time, the piano was the main event of course. So I could really hear and focus on the Fazioli. And I definitely wasn’t impressed by this piano.

First of all, I thought it sounded dry, cold, and too bright. And yes, clinical. I also thought it sounded like a very expensive Yamaha that had been poorly prepped. And no shade to Yamaha, I love Yamaha pianos and currently own a C2 that I absolutely love.

The upper registers in particular sounded too bright to me. To the point of being unpleasant and harsh.

The bass I thought was pretty good.

But really, it made me wonder who’s prepping this piano.

So, here’s where my over-imagination kicks in. About three years ago, I had my piano tuned by one of the main piano tuners at the uni. And it was terrible, I thought she did a terrible job, and I never called her back. I happen to know that she’s relatively new there, so I wondered if the results were due to her inexperience.

Since then I’ve had my piano tuned by the former (retired) head tuner at the uni, and he is absolutely amazing. I love how my piano sounds and I’m convinced that he just does the perfect tuning for this piano. He also spent pretty much his whole working career as the head tuner at my uni, where there are about 500 pianos that need caring for. Whenever he’s here, we talk about pianos and it’s clear that he just has such true mastery of the instrument and such a keen devotion to acoustics as an artistic science.

So back to the Fazioli. I couldn’t help thinking that the dry brightness in the treble could be just a maintenance/prep issue, and I would hate to think that the woman who temporarily destroyed my piano with her crappy tuning is now destroying this Fazioli with more crappy tuning.

In the other concert hall in this building, there is a 9 foot Steinway, which I’ve heard at least four times in recent concerts, most recently, by my piano teacher from last year. This Steinway sounds just glorious. Exactly what I think of when I think of the perfect concert instrument.

So, either the same person isn’t prepping these two pianos, or they only know how to prep S&S but not Faziolis…. Or the Fazioli is a terrible piano. Those are the only possible explanations.

[Rontuner]

perception and preference... It is a part of any tuner's experience. Some will tune & voice to what they FEEL sounds best in the space. More difficult is to translate the words from the client into something that they HOPE will please them. More difficult in an institutional setting where they might be conflicting desires from staff and students.

Some people (tuners too!) just like a bright and direct tone. Some like it dark and warm. Some don't notice or care...

Some pianos are capable of quite a range for us to manipulate, others seem to have a narrower range.

[ShiroKuro]

@Rontuner said:

perception and preference

Yes, of course! But still.... I was planning to ask my teacher her thoughts after playing it, but we've canceled our lesson today just in case (bc Mr SK has covid and I don't want her to get it). I'll try to remember to ask next week.

@Rontuner said:

Some people (tuners too!) just like a bright and direct tone. Some like it dark and warm.

I think I like both. I love my Yamaha C2, which I think is a pretty standard Yamaha sound (it was made in 2000, before the Cx series btw), so more on the bright side than the warm side.

But I've also heard some pianos that I would call very warm and/or dark and I really liked them (esp. a Feurich grand and a Petrof grand, specific pianos I've encountered in person, I mean) .

So I think I have a more flexible than fixed set of piano preferences.

But yes, ultimately I get that most of it is preferences... but since I heard this same piano in the past and loved it, I can't help but wonder about the prep it's getting and whether that's a big part of it.

Which gets back to this:

Some pianos are capable of quite a range for us to manipulate, others seem to have a narrower range.

Two piano tuners have told me that they think my Yamaha is very responsive, I don't if that's my specific piano or common to Yamahas in general.

@rontuner Have you ever worked on a Fazioli? What did you think?

[ShiroKuro]

P.S. @rontuner I sent you a pm

[Rontuner]

I've only tuned a Fazioli for a recital/meeting for other tuners at the Pianoforte Salon downtown. So not much to go on!

[ShiroKuro]

@Rontuner Do you "forget" pianos you've tuned if you only meet/tune them once?

[Daniel]

@shirokuro I'm glad you had the experience. All of these related topics remind me of the audiophile community. Very subject and somewhat ethereal judgement calls. I've never heard one. I haven't seen one. It's not likely I will hear one. Good for you.