Dimitri Musafia

As far as cellos are concerned, I can recommend Loeiz Honoré. He came to Cremona from Brittany at age 16 and was refused admission to the Cremona Violin making school due to his lack of fluency in Italian. Largely self-taught, he learned much from the Bissolotti style of making, and went on to win the only edition of the Stradivari Prize offered by the City of Cremona in 1988. He since then specializes in cellos, chosen by the likes of Rostropovich, Mario Brunello, and others, and keeps a very low profile.

I provide certificates with my cases, in part because there unfortunately fakes being made, in part to assist the client in a post-sales scenario. There are no images, but the serial number, model name, colors and eventual options. With this information, should the client need a replacement part it is easier to send him the right one; if there are durability issues with a supply of components, I can cross-reference the date of completion with our database of manufacuring changes to find out how many cases are affected and where they were sold; and lastly, if a case is stolen and the clie

I have to agree. Once I missed a connecting flight through Heathrow (their fault) and BA put me up in a Radisson for the night. Problem was, I had to get there. So, voucher in hand, I went to two guys who looked like ushers outside T3. Here's the conversation: Me: "Hello, do you know where I can find the bus for the Park Hotel?" "Of course, sir, where did you park your car?" "I didn't park my car, but I need to go to the Park Hotel." "Very good sir, where did you park your car?" The exchange went on for a while, fruitlessly, but I eventually found the bus stop on my ow

For those who are unfamiliar with the road, not only is it windy but it is particularly festooned with narrow, dark tunnels with Gothic-arch ceilings. Once I had to come to a complete stop to inch around an oncoming truck, also inching along, with the rock outcroppings threatening to break my sideview mirror.

It is actually, if you take the SS45 bis, a.k.a the Gardesana Occidentale, which originates in Cremona. For a while anyway, but when it runs along the Lake Garda it becomes downright scary. No wonder that they filmed a car chase scene in "Quantum of Solace" on that road (and an Aston ended up in the lake). My other favorite scary road is the Furka Pass in Switzerland, but I digress.

Now that is truly interesting, because in Italian language preservativi are condoms. Could that be Strad's secret?

David brings up a good point. The case lining covers the entire surface of the interior of the case, padding included. It makes a big difference if the case is lined in cotton velvet (think Gordge) or thin synthetic cloth. A cotton velvet case will absorby humidity like a sponge, but will provide a more stable environment in terms of relative humidity. Thinly lined, unpadded cases will react more quickly to the deployment of a humidifier, but then will be less able to maintain that stability, especially if the case is opened often.

From my prospective as a high-end case maker, I can say that many of my retailers are suffering, those who have walk-in shops that is, because they are in many places closed to the public. At the moment we as a company do not have any problems as we work by special order only, and we literally still have orders from 2019 to fulfill. That said, I have noticed that we have had a 2-fold increase in direct musician inquiries for our top end production. My guess is that these people are unable, for whatever reason, to obtain our cases from our retailers, so they write to us. It's worthy of no

It's a pity, they made very good quality covers.

Thanks for the kind thought... we're holding our own in Cremona but the contagions in the country are starting to creep up as people let down their guard. Average age for infection is now 23... young people returning from their vacation in Malta/Greece/Croatia/Spain infected, and then going to the disco to infect everyone else.

Hi Dwight, I'll agree with you, my middle school orchestra got a supply of factory violins and they came in cases just like this one. I would doubt that the whole cases were made in Italy though, I have no knowledge of case makers at that time making such a product. Cheers!

I second Davide's opinion, I believe this to be a poorly written and researched article, with a number of misleading statements starting from the first paragraph.

How about that. Thank you for this information, extremely interesting.

Very interesting, where is that painting located?