Way Towards Ideal Violin Sound
We produce all the violin family instruments – violin, viola and cello in the style of great Italian classical works. These mainly include famous Italians: Guarneri Del Gesu and Antonius Stradivarius.
Like almost every violin maker, we started with copying the templates of Cremona giants. But we and, most importantly, musicians saw and heard almost no difference in a sound of differently shaped violins, created in accordance with good acoustic principles.
To be honest, starting our journey as violin makers we had no idea what caused a fine violin sound good and what is the difference between the sound of Stradivarius and Guarneri violins.
Luckily, in 1994 we became owners of an unique, limited edition CD – “The Glory of Cremona”. On that CD Maestro Rugiero Ricci recorded music on 15 violins, created by the most famous Cremona violin makers: Joseph Guarneri del Gesu, Antonio Stradivari, Gasparo da Salo, Carlo Bergonzi, Andrea Amati and Nicola Amati.
Major technical details
All the technical details are thoroughly described by the CD Producer Israel Horowitz:
“This album came into being as a unique attempt to explore the mysteries of violin sound via the techniques of modern recording. While it may not provide many answers to the question of why one instrument sounds different from another, it does show these differences perhaps more than has ever been shown before. Here one artist, under controlled conditions, plays 15 different famous violins in selections carefully chosen to present each instrument in music sympathetic to its individual qualities. Of course, the comparison would have no validity if the recording set-up were varied from selection to selection. Once a proper recording balance was achieved, Ricci’s position in the studio was marked and he held to it for the entire series of recording sessions. Microphoning and control-board settings, once arrived at, also remained constant.
For the most inquisitive student of violin sound one variable remained: the selections played on each instrument were different. So Ricci played the opening solo statement of the Bruch G minor Violin Concerto in turn on each of the 15 violins. This project could never have been realized without the generous assistance of the owners of the instruments and the dedicated application of Rembert Wurlitzer. Somehow he found the time in his busy schedule to research the problem, choose the instruments and arrange for them to be brought to our New York studio. The sense of responsibility was heavy indeed when these 15 irreplaceable works of art were all there and waiting their turn before the microphones.”
It should be extremely easy to imagine, how helpful careful listening and comparison can be in creating the ‘enigmatic’ violin sound. Trying to clear up what creates a violin’s voice, I wrote quite a long article about ideal violin sound.
It is also easy to imagine, how helpful it can be to listen to ideal violin-created sound. Being able to do that we move towards our goal more or less successfully.