American Maker Violin, Viola Tonal Comparisons at Metzler's

[l33tplaya]

Tonal comparisons of contemporary American makers shown at Metzler Violins, 2020, but recorded, since the demonstration exhibition was cancelled.

Who made your favorite? I was trying to read Fatu's face to see which was the most comfortable.  And violas (clearly 2nd class fiddle): 

 

There's even at least one entrant of a forum Denizen - Barnes (above). Sorry, a general 2020 viola link is now marked private, and the general viola clipss are not able to embed, only individual ones, for some reason, so I started at the beginning.  Of course, it's the violas that give trouble....

 

 

Finally beat Rue to a post. lulz. 

[l33tplaya]

Bump

[Eugen Modri]

Thank you, it was quite interesting. I listened to maybe 3/4 of them and to be honest they do not "speak" to me. But then, tastes differ. The recording is hard to decode. The playing does not help much either.  A couple of those violin sound(ed) promising for a few notes but less so as the music carried on. I'll find some time and listen to the violas, too. 

Interesting, I was expecting a storm of opinions from the "usual culprits" but it looks like violin tone is not that important anymore. :)

[Violadamore]

19 hours ago, l33tplaya said:

Bump

 

18 hours ago, Eugen Modri said:

Thank you, it was quite interesting. I listened to maybe 3/4 of them and to be honest they do not "speak" to me. But then, tastes differ. The recording is hard to decode. The playing does not help much either.  A couple of those violin sound(ed) promising for a few notes but less so as the music carried on. I'll find some time and listen to the violas, too. 

Interesting, I was expecting a storm of opinions from the "usual culprits" but it looks like violin tone is not that important anymore.

They all sounded like good violins to me, except for the viola, of course.    I didn't hear anything to object to. 

[PhilipKT]

Too much is lost in the recording process. To judge you have to really listen in person.

Sides, no cellos…

[Rue]

It's still quite fun to watch! 

[l33tplaya]

I usually go in person - I couldn't get in this year (no one could), even when I offered to do the video.  The quality of the recording is much better this year, but I guess hard to hear differences.  One year, there was a good player - forgot his name - made many of the violins sound similar. Hos level of effort was different though, so very hard to judge.  I really liked Cho-Liang last year, easily one of the best players in this exhibition's history (well, Nate Cole was great, too)

So maybe Eugen is saying Fatu made them sound similar? Or the recording cut off the highs?

@Philip They usually have cellos, too, and they were planning on it, but they had toi change the artists and presumably some of the instruments at literally the last minute. The violist was supposed to be the LA Phil's first chair, but COVID.  One or two years, they had my friend, the asst principal violist.  Both of them are otstanding (and this is coming from soneone who is in the violin camp) :-)