INSTRUMENTI S TIPKAMA IZ FUNDUSA GRADSKOG MUZEJA VARAŽDIN
KEYBOARD INSTRUMENTS FROM THE HOLDINGS OF THE VARAŽDIN CITY MUSEUM

Summary/Abstract: A group of keyboard instruments from the holdings of the Varaždin City Museum consists of 12 objects: ten pianos – the square piano built between 1790 and 1810, five historic pianos from the first half of the 19th century, four pianos from the second half of the 19th century – as well as two positive organs from the 17th century. They were built by the prominent instrument makers such as Rudolf Rapoldt, Johann Jakesch, Michael Rosenberg, Wilhelm Lange, Carl Schmidt, Carl Kutschera, Josef Kaspar Fritz, Johann Promberger younger, and brothers Carl and Johann Schweighofer. Most of the instruments originate from Vienna, which confirms its cultural influence on Varaždin; Styria and Bratislava follow. The number and variety of the keyboard instruments kept in the Varaždin City Museum is evidence of a favorable economical situation of their past owners that allowed them to purchase these keyboard instruments from reputable international workshops, their adequate music education, as well as intensive music life in „the little Vienna“ (as contemporaries used to call Varaždin). Instruments collecting in the City Museum of Varaždin is a testimony to a developed awareness of their significance and an effort to saving them as many of them as possible. Being stored in the museums saved many of them – important parts of the cultural heritage – from disappearing. Furthermore, for some of them indispensable restoration was provided. Rudolf Rapoldt’s positive organ and Michael Rosenberger’s historic piano were restored, while Johann Jakesch’s square piano and historic piano by an unknown builder, earlier owned by the Ban of Croatia Josip Jelačić, are in the process of being restored.

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