Robbie,  In the MMD 970423 Daniel Wilson was writing about pianos.  It
reads like an advertisement for Fazioli !  Since Holland is a small
country, it's easy to hear Fazioli, Steinway and Boesendorfer grands
without much traveling.

I must confess that the Boesendorfer is the most beautiful grand piano one
can think of -- it's a singing instrument like no other piano.  However,
the drawback is that a Boesendorfer often is not loud enough for big
concert-halls or more modern music (post-Schubert).

If you need more "power" then you will more likely use a Steinway.
It's for that reason that good concert halls (like "Het Concertgebouw")
at Amsterdam do give soloists the choice between (several) Steinway and
Boesendorfer-instruments.

The Fazioli, in my humble opinion, is far behind Boesendorfer.  This
is not strange, since Fazioli tries to outperform Steinway in loudness.
And this causes the Fazioli the produce a metallic sound, which is not
what a piano should sound like.

It's not true that a Fazioli is more expensive then a Steinway (not to
mention Boesendorfer).  The Fazioli produces more sound for less money.
And since that is (in other fields as well) more-or-less what "modern
people" like most, the Fazioli can be sold.

It's remarkable that "Vredenburg", a major concert hall at Utrecht, did
get a Fazioli a couple of years ago, more or less sponsored.  However, not
long thereafter they decided to buy a new Steinway, since the Fazioli
turned out to be not very beloved by the musicians that had to use it.

But good marketing can make sell anything.

Jan Kijlstra

 [ Jan, which Boesendorfer design are you speaking of?  The old design
 [ is quite mellow compared to the new design of the powerful 270 and
 [ 290 cm. models, which, to me, are among the loudest pianos produced.
 [ (But they're very harsh and brittle-sounding.)   -- Robbie