German violin virtuoso with attitude

[Amalie]

For your perusal

An interesting article from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/21/ar...ic/21TETZ.html


" Sometimes, when I hear what people do in a violin concerto, I just don't understand why things have been made so complicated - why the natural singing of the instrument had to be abolished just so that people could have the most powerful sound, or the most convincing shifts.
If you have a piece buy Mozart, you can speak, you can sing like a singer, you can shape your phrases.
Why lose all that for the sake of a gigantic sound?"

~ German violinist, Christian Tetzlaff ~

[This message has been edited by Amalie (edited 05-23-2004).]

[Pastorali]

Tetzlaff plays a violin of german violin-maker Peter Greiner.Some months ago, I have seen a report about Greiner's work and the outstanding instruments he makes. He studied the kind and making of old violins very exactly, like those of Stradivari. Compared to Stradivaris, Greiner violins are sounding often even more beautiful and are better playable. At the beginning of his career, he gave them an old look, because he noticed the audience were disappointed to see a new violin and also about the sound. The use of old-looking instruments brought the audience to be enthusiastic. Often then people said "only an old Stradivari can sound like this!" So he told it.

[This message has been edited by Pastorali (edited 05-23-2004).]