Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Forum What do you think about Fazioli?

I found the tone of Fazioli impressive in its clearness and the treble sparkled in an uniqe way. Also, the bass was transparent in a way you could identify every single note in big chords.

BUT: over all the tone is VERY bright and lacks warmth completely - especially in the bass. I found it simply a too cold and bright tone - opposed to a much darker and warmer tone I prefer (S&S and Bösendorfer). In additon I feared/thought that in a home surrounding the throughout bright tone will be much more tiring to the ears than in a concert hall.

Some remarks about Fazioli recordings:

There are several Fazioli recordings available via "itunes" which - under consideration of the nature of recorded sound and its limitations - give a pretty good overall picture of the Fazioli sound imo:
e.g. the recent Beethoven sonatas recordings by Angela Hewitt use a Fazioli. Just compare these recordings with the same sonatas played by Oppitz (also on itunes) on a S&S D (both recordings sound gorgeous)

And the J.S.Bach English suites recording (complete) by Andrea Bacchetti use a Fazioli too. This recording imo shows also one problem of the Fazioli sound: Since the bass and tenor register don´t sound darker than the treble, the voices aren´t distinguishable as easily as on a Steinway (Perahia, Hewitt in their recordings of the English suites use the latter).

Final remark: my favourite piano sound (recorded) is the Bösendorfer used in Backhaus´ Decca recording of the Beethoven piano concertos.

Wzkit,

I think there is an easier way of optaining what you reaaly would like: just get your Sauter Delta regulated to a concert level which would at most take some 15 hrs and you should be amazed about the result.

Here is a testimonial of what can be done to bring the action at or even above the level of a Shigeru; I could not see how a quality instrument like your Sauter could not be made to match the touch of a Fazioli:

http://www.pianoworld.com/ubb/ubb/ultimatebb.php?/topic/1/25165.html#000024

On the other hand I do realize very well it is not always all that evident to find an extremely competent piano technician depending on the place on earth where you live.

schwammerl.

Schwammerl, I understand your point, and indeed the Sauter has already been prepped meticulously to factory specs, but perhaps I am pickier and my needs are more specific

The challenge is finding a technician who is willing to go beyond the factory specs to customise the touch to my specific tastes. I'll be looking at that real soon!

I would love to own a German made piano although I know Fazioli is made in Italy. I am not a fan of Bach. But when I heard Angela Hewitt played Bach on the Fazioli, I am really quite impress.

Grotrian, Bosie (Vienna) are also very nice. But for me, the touch is a little too heavy. I felt relax playing on a Schimmel. Having said that, I still favor Sauter (only tried it once). What can I say, it's love at first sight .

I know very little about tuning but it seems a piano's tone can be tuned to one's liking if the tuner knows how?

Someone claims that I will fall in love with Steingraeber and I will likely to put my order in once I have tried. Ha, we shall see.

It's fun shopping top tier grands and I will take my time to settle on what I believe is the best for myself. Thanks for all your comments, and keep them coming.

Warus

My Feurich is an awesome German made piano! It's tone is fabulous!


Be well and happy,
Terry C.

Hi Terry, the pictures are awesome and Bubba is cute! Let me try to hunt for F locally. Tx :-)

I love Faziolis. I do understand how some would not care for the tone. The sound is very direct and clean to my ear. I love the action and, of all things, the pedal mechanism. To me Fazzis are perfect for Jazz and Contemporary music. Some players want a more complex sound. Hewitts recording are wondeful.

If you want to hear a Fazioli in IMO probably its best application listen to Herbie Hancock's "River The Joni Letters" album.

As far as Schimmel goes, the endorsement is in my footer.

B

I've played the Fazioli here at the Vancouver dealer (who is apparently doing quite well with them). I was excited to play it because Herbie Hancock was going to use the piano a couple days later in a concert at the Orpheum.

I agree with previous posts about the sound being pure but not necessarily pleasing - I prefer a different more complex sound I guess.

The workmanship seems to very very high, however, which makes sense as the Fazioli family were well-established furniture makers for generations before branching out into pianos.

I'll agree with others about the touch. Playing Faziolis is a visceral experience. Everything about the action is responsive, and sometimes it feels almost as if the action knows what you want to do, and responds before you know it. Having a piano (and this one was prepped to within an inch of its life, no doubt) respond so clearly and cleanly to everything I wanted to do was an amazing experience. It was an enjoyable piano, to be sure.

Soundwise, I prefer something else. The sound is excellent, but I'm not going around saying, "Ah! I want a piano with Fazioli sound."

It´s nice to hear that German pianos have such a good reputation all around the world

I am glad that I work in Germany, so I tune a lot of German instruments which is much more fun than tuning bad instruments. And there is no single German piano manufacturer that I would call bad, poor or could say anything negative about. Aside from overpricing, perhaps.

Schimmel is regarded as a good piano. And I can´t say that a certain German brand is in general better than another. Every instrument has its advantages and drawbacks. Some like this sound, some like that sound. Some like a light touch, others like a heavier touch. Touch and sound are highly subjective. And what is quality? Something that makes the touch and sound nice, which is in turn subjective. Another dimension of quality is longevity, and regarding longevity all German pianos are beyond doubt. At least I think so and that´s my daily experience in field service.

Don´t ask for the category in which a specific brand falls. You have had your reasons for buying a Schimmel, and I hope it was not the price (compared to Steinway or Bechstein).

Gregor

i have been lucky to play two F212s, which i considered fairly seriously when i was looking for a +/- 7' grand.

i've also played the F278 and the F183.

their build quality is superb, and their actions are incredibly fast and responsive. i also very much liked the ceramic keytops they use; they have a 'cool' (temperature) feel that is unique.

however, the tone of these pianos is, to my taste, overly bright and somewhat 'clinical' sounding. perhaps this is because they have achieved a higher level of 'purity,' as fazioli says is one of their aims.

i'd take one in a second as a complement to my bosie 214---probably before a hamburg---but as a primary/only piano, i fell in love with the warmer, richer tone of the bosie.