A Cristofori piano (c1730) was commissioned by Jacqueline Ogeil and without the generous support of Dame Elisabeth Murdoch and a Margaret Lawrence Bequest for Women in Arts Leadership, this piano, the only one of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere, would never have happened. [Compass 56 notes: GG, AA to d3, e3.]
JO launches the Cristofori piano at the 2016 Woodend Winter Arts Festival with a performance of Scarlatti’s complete Essercizi
Photo taken at Cruden Farm, 11 July 2010
Rationale
Current research, including that undertaken by Jacqueline Ogeil in her PhD dissertation on Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas and her published article ”Did Scarlatti compose the first great piano music?” Domenico Scarlatti Adventures: Essays to Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of His Death, edited by Massimiliano Sala and W. Dean Sutcliffe, Bologna, Ut Orpheus Edizioni, 2007, is revealing that the original piano, created by Bartholomeo Cristofori around 1700, achieved much wider currency both as solo and continuo instrument than was hitherto believed to have been the case. There is evidence, for example, that the instrument was already known throughout Europe by 1731. This research has proceeded alongside the making of copies of Cristofori’s instruments by Kirsten Schwartz in Italy, David Sutherland in the USA and Denzil Wraight in Germany.
Download Dr Jacqueline Ogeil’s PhD thesis.
A Fortepiano made after the Cristofori-Ferrini workshop practice
The Cristofori fortepiano appears at first glance to be an Italian harpsichord, but the action inside is quite different … hammers with glued paper cylinders
Accademia Arcadia 