matesic

To the expert eye there's always something that gives the game away.

Thanks Uncle Duke, I never heard of David Ouvry before today and I now see he's approaching 90 and lives in the village just a few miles from me so why don't I give him a call and pass on your accolade? Or not?

I think it was a missed opportunity not to include programme notes in semaphore. We recognise that it's a "string quartet" with an abundance of 20th century string quartet clichés, but what are the gestures all about? Doesn't seem much like child's play to me.

It isn't unusual for labels to have little or no relevance to the date, nationality or model of the violin. but whoever sold you it should be able to explain the position.

Any performance can be compromised by a terrible sound, but a bad violin can't be rescued by a great bow.

I can tell when a player is playing a lousy instrument, but a bow? Nobody in the audience ever complimented a player on their bow.

Who are these people, so I can make a point of shunning them? I like the cello sonata, the viola sonata is another masterpiece but the violin sonata rather passes me by.

From the same period, another name you don't come across every day. https://imslp.org/wiki/String_Sextet%2C_Op.40_(Brandts_Buys%2C_Jan) One reason it doesn't get performed could be the unconventional instrumentation, 3 violins, 2 violas, 1 cello. Whatever energy I seem to have possessed at 60 is now vaporised.

Can I give myself a fist-bump for Paul Dedieu-Peters' daughter (?) Madeline? https://imslp.org/wiki/3_Pièces_pour_quatuor_à_cordes_(Dedieu-Peters%2C_Madeline)

For what it's worth, among the violins hanging over my desk are two that differ by as much as 20% in their rib height. It's the slim one that sounds most like a viola.

You must be right! So then I got a hankering to hear The Juliet Letters which even Philip might appreciate. Ludwig Neuner pish!

The violins on my wall are sufficient to be called a "clutch".

Sorry to barge in on this seminar, but wasn't that Oliver's Army?

This is getting a bit creepy! A (e.g. my) violin fetish is easily explained in Freudian terms, but bows are so thin!