(fl 1784–1824; d Madrid, 1824). Spanish piano and harpsichord maker. He was born in Murcia. By 1784 he had established a workshop in the Calle de San Bernardo, Madrid, where his first advertisements in Madrid newspapers (dating from 1784 to 1787) were for ‘Forte Pianos’ based on the English model; one of those, advertised in 1786, had seven registers. Between 1789 and 1790 he travelled to London, with financial help from King Carlos IV, in order to perfect his craft. On 20 January 1795 he was named organ builder and harpsichord maker to the Royal Chamber of Carlos IV, although his work consisted of making, repairing and tuning the pianos of the royal palaces. He worked first from a shop in the Calle de San Andrés before moving to the Carrera de San Jerónimo in 1814. He also made harpsichords and pianos for the Duchess of Benavente and for other members of the aristocracy in Madrid.
In 1795, following his trip to London he advertised combined harpsichord-pianos based on the models of J.J. Merlin. In addition, he offered glass harmonicas and barrel organs. In 1797 he made a piano with a compass of six octaves (C'–c''''), which was, according to him, the first with that compass in Madrid. In the same year he made a harpsichord-piano for the king in the English style, possibly modelled on the 1796 Broadwood piano now preserved in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, which had been a present from chief minister Manuel de Godoy to the queen. At his death he left unfinished an upright piano-organ intended for the king, the description of which indicates that it was to have been a luxurious and expensive instrument. His main rival was Francisco Fernández, who was also given a position at the Royal Chamber of Carlos IV.
Few pianos with Flórez’s signature survive. Six square pianos are preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, the Palacio Real, Madrid, the Museo Municipal, Madrid, and various private collections. There is also an upright piano, dated 1807, with six registers and a compass of five and a half octaves (F'–c''''), at the Palacio Real, Madrid.
B. Kenyon de Pascual: ‘Harpsichords, Clavichords and Similar Instruments in Madrid in the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century’, RMA Research Chronicle, xviii (1982), 66–84
B. Kenyon de Pascual: ‘English Square Pianos in Eighteenth-Century Madrid’, ML, lxiv (1983), 212–17
C. Bordas Ibáñez: ‘Dos constructores de pianos en Madrid: Francisco Flórez y Francisco Fernández’, RdMc, xi (1988), 807–51
C. Bordas: ‘Otros pianos de F. Flórez y F. Fernández’, RdMc, xiii (1990), 227–30
CRISTINA BORDAS