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Mario Del Grosso
- build Flemish,
French and Italian harpsichords, spinets, and fortepianos copies
of prestigious historical instruments presently conserved in museums and private
collections the world over. These instruments are born of and reflect a direct
musical experience, uniting the quality of outstanding materials (red spruce
from Val di Fiemme, linden wood from Slavonia, Tuscan cypress wood: and meticulously
seasoned) and the respect of the most rigorous historical criteria, thank to
a workshop equipped with the most sophisticated implements in order to enable
precise and accurate construction techniques. Numerous musicians and afficionados
visit our instrument - making facilities and participate in courses on maintenance,
voicing, tuning and stringing of historical keyboard instruments. Our workshop
is also proud of its collaboration with experienced decorators and painters,
expertly designing the aesthetic side of each instrument (decorated
soundboard, with tempered colours, covers embellished with oil
paintings, etc.) perpetuating a centuries-old tradition of co-operation between
artists and instrument builders, as exemplified by Ruckers and Rubens.These
historical keyboard instruments thus relive their antique splendour and interpretative
beauty, restoring authentic magnificence to the works of over three centuries
of great composers, from, Frescobaldi to Monteverdi, from Bach to Handel, from
Couperin to Rameau, from Haydn to Mozart, and many others who produced in their
musical epoch such a vast wealth of masterpieces. Early music really does merit
an instrument worthy of its art.