Six Octave Cristofori Piano
Finished in December of 2007, this fortepiano is based on Cristofori's 1726 piano. However, notice that it has 6 octaves, a compass of CC to c''''. Like the 1726 original, this piano is double strung in Brass from the bass to the top note, it has a Cristofori action (with a few changes I have made to make the action more reliable, quieter, and easier to play and most especially to regulate) with parchment ring hammers using only one layer of voicing leather for the top four and a half octaves and two layers for the lowest one and a half octaves, light wood damper jacks with leather dampers, and all the basic design features of the 1726 instrument including the pinblock with the nut on the underside and a fully functioning Una Chorda.
How this piano differs from the original of 1726 besides the fact it has 6 octaves is that I have included a means of raising the dampers, pedals (because a 6 octave range is more suited to playing the music of later Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin all of which require the use of pedals) for the dampers and the una chorda, and two metal gap spacers.
Until this instrument, no previous maker, to my knowledge, has taken Cristofori's basic design and expanded it to a full 6 octaves. Silbermann, both Heinrich and Gottfried expanded the 4 octave Cristofori design to a full 5 octaves but no one since thought to extend that down to low CC and up to high c''''. And from what I have seen and heard most piano makers appear to have abandoned brass stringing in favor of the stronger iron strings. Why? I can only guess, because iron really sounds inferior to brass for pianos, in my estimation.
Curiously, I have found that I have no problems getting enough fullness and volume in my trebles even when the instrument is only double strung in brass. And I have also found that the brass wire in these pianos stays in tune far better than does iron in any Viennese fortepiano I have encountered. It is not unusual to have the instrument stay well in tune for 6 weeks.
How it sounds for Chopin and Brahms is something you can judge for yourself in the following recordings. Because the pianist is sightreading, the pianist wishes to remain anonymous. The recordings were made in my music room using my recording equipment prior to shipping the instrument to Scandinavia.
Click here for a Sound Sample to hear a Chopin Prelude on this new 6 octave Cristofori piano*
Click here for a Sound Sample to hear Chopin's "Rain drop" Prelude on this new 6 octave Cristofori piano*
Click here for a Sound Sample to hear a Chopin Etude on this new 6 octave Cristofori piano*
Click here for a Sound Sample to hear a Brahms Intermezzo on this new 6 octave Cristofori piano*
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