matesic

David seems to be in a grumpy mood. I enjoy reading the sincere views of enthusiasts, wordy or not. Much more edifying than a detailed explanation of why x is no good

Is this the future of classical music? Popsters have been doing it for decades.

When was the last time a Strad was discovered in an attic? Not for more than a century I suspect.

That's like saying Bach wrote great counterpoint - true but doesn't come close to explaining the thrill we lucky ones get. The Requiem was the first Brahms I performed as a treble in the chorus. Next came the second symphony as a second violin and I've been blown away at regular intervals ever since.

OK, I'd concede that a sampled piano can make music in the right hands, but never a sampled violin played on a squishy keyboard! Did you hear what Native Instruments makes of the Allemande from the D minor Partita (excerpt 10)?

Right you are. Unfortunately Pavarotti didn't survive long enough to have his talent preserved in such a way.

I know so many people who just don't "get" Brahms. Benjamin Britten was one (OK, I only got to "know" him at the length of a stick and a desk of second violins). Ernest Newman was probably the best British critic of his age. GBS unfortunately tried to persuade Elgar to write a third symphony when he was well past it.

Didn't Joshua Bell waste a lot of his valuable time playing samples like this, probably on another Strad?

Was that an iFreudian slip? Describes my technique rather well. Regardless of how the individual notes sound, to think you can create music one sampled note at a time is to miss the point astronomically

That's very mysterious. I expect I've been down the same google trail as you and come to the same impasse. I notice that the title page of the IMC edition has "Friedrich" in brackets (meaning what?) so I checked out JCF Bach too but without success. Didn't those Bach boys churn out a lot of music!

In a hopelessly dry acoustic (and making allowance for the skill of the player) it sounds to me just like any old violin

I restrained myself from bidding because I couldn't trust just 3 low-res pictures

Did you ask for any condition reports? G-H's are pretty crude at the best of times but there seems to be no condition information in their online catalogue

The "Pellegrina" viola pomposa is still up for offers. Apparently it was a traditional Welsh instrument used to accompany bardic recitations at the Eisteddfod. Or was that a crwth..?

I'm reviving this thread on account of the "Pellegrina" viola pomposa by Don Tatem that caught my eye (how could it fail to?) but didn't attract even a paltry £1100 bid at Brompton's yesterday. Clearly David Ravinus's model has failed to catch on in spite of being taken up by at least one principal of a major orchestra (I think it was the LAPO and presumably a 4-string rather than a pomposa?). Even on youtube examples are pretty scarce I think this is rather sad. Is there really no room for a novel take on the viola in this conformist world of classical music? In the orchestra it's hard to imagine anyone but the section principal playing one; anyone else who had the nerve would be putting their job on the line, or at least feel that they were.