WHAT THE CRITICS SAID
'Philip Pope tells the remarkable story of Paolo Fazioli, the venetian engineer, who in 1978 set himself the remarkable challange of designing and building a piano to rival the greats.'
Chris Campling
THE TIMES
'Philip Pope avoids gush, combining hard technical details with poetic comment.'
Martin Hoyle
THE FINANCIAL TIMES
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the Piano man1x30'
Musician, composer and actor Philip Pope presents the remarkable story of Paolo Fazioli, who redesigned the piano and created an instrument to rival Steinway.
In 1978 Venetian Paolo Fazioli turned his back on the family engineering business with a crazy ambition: to design a piano from scratch which would rival the great Steinway Grands. Remarkably, within three years he had done what no other piano manufacturer had ever done. He had reinvented a musical instrument and created a different kind of piano. Although the Fazioli looks and sounds like a piano, it is virtually a new kind of instrument and contains thousands of innovations.
This programme explores how Fazioli did it, what the impact has been on the world of serious music and just what it is that draws so many pianists and music fans to the sound of these instruments.
Featuring interviews with Paolo Fazioli himself, celebrated concert pianists and Fazioli devotees Nikolai Demidenko and Mark Swartzentruber, Gramophone magazine critic Bryce Morrison and Royal College of Music Professor Ruth Nye who was moved to tears the first time she heard the unique timbre of a Fazioli.
Presenter: Philip Pope Producer: David Morley Executive Producer: Bruce Hyman Broadcast: Broadcaster: |
