The Ancient Piano Museum in Arquà Petrarca is located inside Villa Centanin in the picturesque medieval village of the Euganean Hills and displays a collection of pianos from the 18th and 19th centuries made by famous German, English, French, and Italian builders.
There are about forty musical instruments, including fortepianos and grand pianos, table pianos, uprights, and other unusual shapes, some belonging to the Masiero and Centanin Musical Foundation and some coming from private collections. The setup of the Museum is not only aimed at preserving historically significant specimens but especially at reviving the instruments, after appropriate restoration, in their technical and sonic characteristics and with their expressive means, which are often so different from those of modern instruments.
The instruments are presented alongside approximately 120 examples of Antique Prints with musical subjects by some famous engravers from the period ranging from the 16th to the 19th century, including Amman Jost, William Hogarth, Aveline, Bartolozzi, Remondini, J. G. Wille, Dequevauviller, and Rops. The prints depict portraits of musicians and musicologists, real and mythological figures related to music, ancient musical instruments, players, scenes from concerts, and musical academies.
The instruments of the Ancient Piano Museum in Arquà Petrarca are often used during concert activities organized by the Masiero and Centanin Musical Foundation: the Spring Concerts, Autumn Music in Villa Centanin, the Euganean Summer Festival, and the Concerts at the Eremitani Museum. Visitors can also briefly play some of the instruments if they wish: it is simply requested that the repertoire is contemporaneous to the instrument and that they have an appropriate "touch."
