Cristofori’s hammer action is a mature and fully functioning action with a rapid and direct touch. It already incorporates the principles of the modern piano action, including the intermediate levers, the escapement mechanism, the hammer checks and the dampers. The hammer heads consist of hollow paper rolls (whose function anticipates the modern felt hammer) covered with small pieces of leather. The case of the Cristofori piano was not yet different from his harpsichords from the same period, though Cristofori used a special case structure for his harpsichords and pianos combining lightness and strength. The strings are of brass with diameters close to those of an Italian harpsichord. The range of the keyboard is four octaves (C to c3). There is an una corda register which is activated by sliding the keyboard by a few millimetres so that only one of the two strings per note sounds.

Information about the original instruments you can find under the section Research. There you can download acticles and other material about the Cristofori pianos. Some research results I put into my talks. You can download some of them (see Talks).

This Cristofori piano was my first instrument. It can already tell a twenty year history. I began building it in 1995. I was still working as a restorer in the Händel-Haus in Halle. I had set up a small workshop in the flat which I shared with two art students. It was quite a crazy situation because in the same room was our bathroom, just divided by a curtain (natural humidification!). I did the machining in the Händel-Haus and took the sawn and planed boards home. Thus the inner construction was built. In the autumn of 1996 I had the opportunity to continue the work for two months in the workshop of the Grassi-Museum in Leipzig, having the original Cristofori piano always under my eyes. The soundboard was glued in under the supervision of William Jurgenson in his workshop in South Germany.

From there I went down to Florence at the beginning of 1997. In the workshop of the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori I put on the strings and build the keyboard. The hammer action I made in Tony Chinnery's workshop in Vicchio, north of Florence. In December 1997 the inauguration concert in the Accademia Bartolomeo Cristofori took place. Since then I am using the piano for concerts, recordings and Master classes (for more Information see Instrument hire). From 2006 to 2013 the piano was exhibited in the Department of Musical Instruments inside the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence.

There are several recordings (see Discography) and concert recordings (see Instrument hire) on this instrument, two with my own label: "The Invention of the Piano", "Italian Violin Sonatas & the Cristofori Piano" see CD Label.