George Eliot on violin-making obsession and the genius of Stradivarius
To mark the UK's National Poetry Day, 8th October, here's George Eliot's great poem about violin making and the obsession with which...
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Apr 14, 2015
Pinchas Zukerman: violin geek
In honour of Pinchas Zukerman's performance tonight of the Elgar Violin Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at London's...
Feb 4, 2015
Spain’s Stradivarius quartet
A weekend in Madrid provided the perfect opportunity to view some unusual Stradivarius instruments There is a lot to do in Madrid –...
Sep 12, 2014
When Guarneri met Stradivari
I'm currently reading this charming book about Guarneri 'del Gesù', written in 1974 by Leonard Wibberley. I found it on a bookshelf and...
Sep 4, 2014
The science of violin making
There are many different tribes of violin makers, in my experience. Conservatives, Futurists, Archivists, Geometrists, Philosophers,...
Jul 15, 2014
Stradivarius violin blind tests – do they matter?
A really interesting article about wine in the New Yorker suggests striking parallels between how we choose wine and our attitudes to...
Jun 11, 2014
Leading pedagogue blasts luthiers
I discovered this tirade in a seminal string pedagogical work: 'It is most regrettable that our present-day instrument-makers take so...
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