As is often the case, instruments sell themselves and more reproductions of themselves. After vowing that the initial Dulcken fortepiano would be the “only” piano the shop would make, within a couple of years there were two more under way: one for the SUNY at Stonybrook, the other for harpsichordist Albert Fuller. A fabulous new building at Stonybrook would allow significant enlargement of the music department, and the budget for “capital equipment” was enough to include such exotica as “period” instruments, including a fortepiano. They got a nice frame-and-panel lid, just like the original. The order from Albert Fuller, who led the way for more than one generation into historically informed performance practice, teaching at Juilliard and Yale and establishing the Aston Magna festival in 1972, was a big feather in the shop’s cap. That he felt it was important to become well acquainted with the early piano was a bellwether for the coming decades. Too much of 1979 was spent learning to French polish in an unventilated (dust free!) room so that his piano, with its 1000-diamond marquetried lid, would sparkle in his New York studio.
Increasingly public clients brought more interest from newspapers and magazines, as in these articles from 1979. Photos include the pianos under way, and views of the unrestored antique harpsichord we purchased at auction in 1976. Made in 1785 by Jacques Germain in Paris, its acquisition was an extraordinary mini-drama, with lasting effects on the shop in the future. Stay tuned…
