Arbos

It is remarkable what you can achieve when you have a clear goal and little time. Study the technical works carefully and make your own exercises to save time. Use your imagination!

Apparently, strings kept long and around the pegbox was commonplace until at least the 19th century. I’ve always wondered why.

Whenever I listen to a test like this I focus on choosing the one I like the most, not the one I think is a Strad, because I don’t think there any particular qualities that make a violin a Strad, but there are qualities that make for a violin I like. If the violin I like the most is not a Strad I usually am quite happy, since that means I could probably buy it! in this case I liked the violin that was not a Strad!

Here in Spain the government announced a 15 day lockout a week ago. They need to go through both chambers to pass that emergency state again, but it looks like they are going to do it. I expect a 50 day strict quarantine, roughly the same as in China. Given the size of the US it’s hard to take measures like that, but I’m guessing it’ll happen: a 50 day quarantine everywhere in the world, just delayed. We got ours a week after Italy’s, so do the math.

I would also say that there are a somewhat limited number of playing styles and that each of them will favor a specific kind of violin. In that respect I think we could divide those playing styles by degree of constant pressure on the string, articulation, and vibrato. When I was a salesman and violin teacher in a violin shop in Texas, with instruments ranging from $500 to a $300000 Carlo Landolfi, my colleague and I would do blind tests with violins in every price range, always using the same violins and the same bow. I was the first one to do the test and to our surprise the winner was a humble Meinel violin. Different people did the test (ranging from students to symphony players from Juilliard et al) and the results were always different. Sometimes we couldn’t believe that this or that violin could be *that* good or *that* terrible from player to player! On the other hand, there were some instruments that everybody liked but never rose to the top of the competition. From that experience I think that there are violins that “work” for everybody but aren’t great for anyone, and violins that sound mediocre for some people but are just what someone else needs.

She must like those workshop violins... she recently purchased another. https://tarisio.com/digital_exhibition/hilary-hahn-j-b-vuillaume-1865/

So when someone makes a copy of a GDG, do they aim for that raw state or the current one?

I’ve played a Luff viola. Good instrument, very clear, perhaps not with the dark and chocolate-y sound one associates with a viola. As a violinist, I loved it (maybe because of that). I thought craftsmanship was good, but I am not an expert.

I would play the whole thing in first position. I would place a double stop on the second note of each bar of your Alberti bass (B-D on the first and second bars, not necessary on the next bar because of the open A, D-F sharp on the bar before the Forte). Then try to keep a very agile bow arm but with subtle accents every bow change, to give it some impulse. I believe Mozart wrote melodies for the voice but thought of the piano for everything else, which is hard to execute on any other instrument! Best of luck

Hello all, I’ve been reading this forum for a long time and finally I can write a little bit about something I kinda know! I’ve heard Francisco Fullana in concert and played that violin. I don’t think he is a very loud violinist or that he is interested in being one. I did not get the impression that the Guarneri was a loud instrument itself when I played it, but I had a hard time with his bow and that may have been the reason why. I might get the chance to try that instrument again soon, so I’ll keep you posted.