Pianists and Pianos

Some interesting news from Italy about the piano and pianists.

Young Italian pianist Federico Colli gave a highly praised recital in London recently that is available on YouTube. Here is his performance of the Schumann Piano Sonata No. 1:

One interesting thing you might notice is that he is playing, not the usual Steinway piano, but a Fazioli, made in Italy. I think I first heard one of these pianos played on a clip by Maurizio Pollini and I was struck by the brilliance of the sound as opposed to the darker, warmer sound of Steinway or Bösendorfer. We learn from Norman Lebrecht that five of the six finalists in the recent Arthur Rubinstein competition in Israel chose to play Fazioli pianos.

The Fazioli company is located in Sacile, near Venice in north-east Italy. They make a few more than 100 pianos a year. It is a fairly new company, only dating from 1981.

And that's all I have for you this morning. Let's end with a bit more of Colli's recital. Here he is playing the Sonata no. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 "Appassionata"by Beethoven: