"Just a thank you note for you to give the opportunity to own a Fazioli 212. This piano grows with me daily. The harmonic richness and tone colour seem to emanate in the same way a high end Gem such as a diamond refracts white light into a beautiful luminescent rainbow. I have not experienced this with any other piano to date. I have owned many wonderful pianos in the past. This one is very different and unique."
Bill Lashmar, Piano Technician

"Several things come to mind about the Fazioli: First of all, through [Manuel's] sincerity, the dealership in Vancouver exhibits a touch of class. My immediate impressions after playing were that many aspects of piano building have been elevated to new heights. The action is so acutely responsive and precisely mated to what you hear, the sustainability especially in the upper registers is incredible. The feedback you get from these instruments allows you to create music you thought not possible. The F278 feels like you have an orchestra at your command."
Laurence Pellizzari – Pianist

Paolo Fazioli: I am writing you today to compliment you on the superb quality of your pianos.

Here at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts during the past several months we have had the opportunity of enjoying one of your F278 pianos during two different concerts. The piano for both events was provided by Showcase Piano's here in Vancouver.

Most recently Louis Lortie played Mozart's piano concerto no. 20 in D minor, K.466 in concert with the CBC Radio Orchestra. What struck me most about the F278 was the level of clarity and tonality that the instrument maintained and incumbent with that was the detail of rhythmic articulation that could be heard within the venue.

As the person responsible for adjusting the room acoustics to best serve the artist and audience a lot of my time is spent in critical listening. And having been here at the venue for such a long time, I have heard many different instruments played by numerous artists – to the point where I have begun to discern between individual Stradivarius - and in all honesty few pianos have sounded as nice in our venue and in my opinion only one sounded better.

I have always been fascinated by the mechanics and ergonomics of playing music and there respective influences on execution and interpretation of the repertoire being played. One of the privileges that I enjoy is having the opportunity to chat with some of the greatest performers of our age and on rare occasion, when time and circumstance permits, engage an artist in depth over the nuances and minutiae of their craft. One of the most generous with his time and knowledge has been pianist Krystian Zimmerman.

During Mr. Zimmerman's last visit we chatted for about 45 minutes where we discussed his preferences in balancing the action and tuning the piano; he shared his knowledge and insight about everything from hammer reflex to the coupling effects of wheels on various surfaces. Mr. Zimmerman is perhaps the most fastidious and particular pianist that I have ever had the pleasure of working with and without a doubt the Steinway instrument that he toured with sounded the absolute best in this venue. That piano was an instrument that he had spent weeks preparing prior to the concert tour.

In contrast your Fazioli fresh from the showroom floor faired just as well.

In a highly reverberant field, such as ours, it is often difficult to hear the detail or maintain the harmonic integrity during fast passages because the reverberant energy tends to build up to the point were it begins to obscure the rhythmic motion and chord structure. What I have noticed most with your piano is the balance of the overtones, the upper partials do not tend to smear together, but rather continue to sing and decay at a favorable rate. This is especially true with harmonics generated from notes in the lower registers – which to my ear is what differentiates a good piano from an exceptional one.

I know full well that different artists, with their different styles, different repertoire and differing preferences to tuning and hammer felt density all have a profound effect on how a particular instrument sounds. This is why I chose to reserve my opinion on your piano until after I had the opportunity to hear your instrument in a second setting, with a different artist.

In closing, as of yet I have not had the opportunity to hear your piano's in other venues, but in this one your F278 sounds spectacular.
Cheers, Jay O'Keeffe — Head Audio Technician Chan Centre for the performing Arts, University of British Columbia