A Guarneri violin at the Scala theatre: Premio Internazionale LOMBARDIA È RICERCA- giornata della ricerca in memoria di Umberto Veronesi- III edizione

Once again one of our violins took part in the ceremony of Premio Internazionale LOMBARDIA É RICERCA (International Prize- Lombardy is research)- Research Day dedicated to the memory of Oncologist Umberto Veronesi, promoted by the Fondazione Umberto Veronesi and Regione Lombardia, at the Teatro alla Scala, Milano, November 8 2019. The prize was given to Doctor Guido Kroemer. The Jury awarded the first prize to his discovery of the importance of the reduction of the amount, a key factor to increase longevity, keeping the organism healthy.

Edoardo Zosi played on the violin “Spagnoletti”, by Guarneri del Gesù, 1734, on display at the Museo del Violino within the project friends of Stradivari, accompanied by Raphael Gualazzi, piano, in the amazing location of the Scala theater,  Milano, during the Ceremony.

Violin Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù “Spagnoletti”, 1734

This violin is an unique violin because it is the only instrument made by one of the early great Cremonese violinmaker that was named after a great Cremonese violin player. This violin player was “Spagnoletti” AKA Paolo Diana. In the summer of 1831, the virtuoso from Genoa performed in numerous recitals, and the posters printed for these concerts show Spagnoletti had the prestigious role of leader of the orchestra. We will never know whether, on those evenings, Paganini was struck “by the readiness, precision and elegance, by the vigorous sound, by the brilliant staccato and by the graceful adagio expression, all distinctive features of the Cremonese virtuoso”, as Spagnoletti was described by the Milanese Carlo Gervasoni in his Nuova teoria di Musica, published in Parma in 1812. What is certain, however, is that the two violinists were both performing on instruments made by Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’: Paganini on his famous 1743 ‘Cannone’ violin, and the Cremonese musician, now an adopted Englishman, on a 1734 violin that now bears his name.

“Los Violines de Cremona: Stradivari, el Barroco y más allá ” exhibition in Puebla (Mexico) about the history of the Cremonese violinmaking tradition, organized by the Museo del Violino, was recently closed. The exhibition was opened at the beginning of last June in the extraordinary Museo Internacional del Barroco, a masterpiece by the famous architect Toyo Ito, opened in 2016 in Puebla, the capital of the state of the Mexican state of Puebla, a town founded by the Spanish in 1600, that now has 1.5 million inhabitants and wants to be the cultural capital of Mexico.

A delegation from Cremona – composed by Paolo Bodini, President of “friends of Stradivari”, the General Director of the Museo del Violino Virginia Villa, the Curator Fausto Cacciatori and Gregg Alf, member of the Scientific Board who also worked on the exhibition- was in Mexico for the official closing.  They said “We are very satisfied with the result of this exhibition, with  the collaboration we had with our Mexican colleagues and with  the quality of the display in the really fascinating areas of this museum, that combines beauty and great efficiency”. More than 32.000 people have visited the exhibition, that was also extremely relevant on the Mexican national media.

15 instruments were on display, starting from the instruments made by Andrea Amati, Stradivari, Guraneri to those made by contemporary violinmakers. Great importance was given to the Baroque era, given the circumstances, and to the many artifacts from Stradivari workshop, images and videos of the Museo del Violino and Cremona.

The closing ceremony took place in the auditorium of the Museum and included a wonderful concert by the great violinist Juan Luis Prieto, who played the Stradivari “Marquis de Rivére”, 1718- whose owner is a private collector, the instrument came from the US  through the “friends of Stradivari” network- accompanied by the pianist Santiago Piñeura.  At the end of the performance the enthusiastic audience warmly thanked the Cremonese delegation.

On the way back home, the delegation pay a visit to the Italian Institute of Culture in Mexico City: thanks to the collaboration of the Director Marco Marica, in the evening there was a conference about Cremona and its violin making tradition, followed by a performance played on the Stradivari “Marquis de Rivére” and the Guarneri del Gesù “Principe Doria”, 1734. Also this time, the large audience showed great enthusiasm for the recital and great interest for the violin making of Cremona, confirming that worldwide there is curiosity about our tradition.

This exhibition once again confirmed that our activities around the world, strongly promoted by the Museo del Violino at the aim to spread the knowledge of Cremona and its unique role in the history of the violinmaking, are extremely effective.  We can consider this experience as another success, that equals the ones already achieved over these past few years in Fuessen, Moscow, Phoenix and Tokyo.

Eight extraordinary instruments by the greatest violinmakers of the past and one special  bow attributed to Antonio Stradivari are on display at the Museo del Violino within the exhibition “Reunion in Cremona”. These masterpieces arrived at the Museo del Violino from the National Music Museum of Vermillion, South Dakota that will be renovated this year. The Museum chose Cremona, birthplace of these incredible instruemnts , to house them until the renovation work are done. 

The National Music Museum is the home of more than 15.ooo pieces and this is why they decided to renovate the museum and add to it a Center of Preservation and Research.

A list of the instruemnts is available on this website. The Museum also published a catalogue of this one of a kind temporary exhibition.

On June 3 2019 in Puebla (Mexico) at the Museo Internacional del Barroco, was opened the exhibition “Los Violines de Cremona: Stradivari, el barroco y más allá”, by the Museo del Violino. The opening ceremony started with a performance on the famous violin “Marquis de Riviere” made by Antonio Stradivari in 1718, that arrived in Puebla thank within the “friends of Stradivari” network project.

The exhibition includes photos and videos of the town and of the Museum, is composed as well as 14 instruments that tell the history of Cremona and the five centuries of the Cremonese violinmaking tradition, of Andrea and Nicolò Amati, of Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù, Storioni, and of the modern violinmaking with the inlaid quartet of the Master Marcello Villa. Also, there are Baroque instruments on loan from the International School of Violinmaking of Cremona, a copy of the Baroque guitar by Stradivari and the artifacts of the Antonio Stradivari workshop. The exhibition ends on October 20th. 

ngg_shortcode_0_placeholder

This violin, made by Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù in 1734 is the only one named after a famous Cremonese violinist, Paolo Diana Spagnoletti and since February, Saturday 23 has been on display in the room number 9 of the Museo del Violino. The owner is a member of the friends of Stradivari network, Elliot Golub, and for the arrival of this special instrument a lot of friends of Stradivari decided to take part to this special preview on February, Friday 22, organized by the network for the members. We are glad that many members attended the event. During the evening, there was not only  the display of the instrument and a brief explanation of the preview given by the Curator of the Museum, Maestro Fausto Cacciatori, but also a performance on the Spagnoletti itself, played by Maestro Edoardo Zosi. Maestro Liù Pelliciari also plaayed the Guarneri del Gesù “Prince Doria” 1734.

We thank all the ones who supported us by coming to our preview and we are sure that we will meet soon to share our love for music and violin making.

ngg_shortcode_1_placeholder 

From October 9 to October 15, the TOKYO STRADIVARIUS FESTIVAL 2018 took place in Tokyo. The festival was organized in collaboration with the Museo del Violino and 21 Antonio Stradivari instruments were on display.

In Tokyo were displayed some important artifacts from Antonio Stradivari workshop from the Museo del Violino and two instruments that are usually dispalyed in the Museo within the friends of Stradivari project: the decorated violin Andrea Amati “Carlo IX” 1566 and the guitar Antonio Stradivari “Sabionari” 1679, that was played in a concert on October 13.

The members of the delegation from Cremona were: Paolo Bodini (President friends of Stradivari), Virginia Villa (General Director of the Museo del Violino), Fausto Cacciatori (Curator of the collections of the Museum), Roberto Domenichini and the Master Violinmakers Francesco Toto, Toshiyuki Matsushita and Gregg Alf (members of the friends of Stradivari network). In the exhibition there were also representative instruments of the modern Violinmaking craft.

#gallery-1 { margin: auto; } #gallery-1 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-1 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-1 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Monday 15, February, the Museo del Violino and the Amici delle Serate Musicali, organized an event in the foyer of the Conservatory of Milan to present the Museo del Violino.

Many people participated to the meeting. A movie about the Museo del Violino has been shown.

The speakers were: Virginia Villa, General Director, President friends of Stradivari and Fausto Cacciatori, Curator of the collections of the Museo del Violino. They presented also a very rare instrument of the collection: the violin Lam-ex Collin, 1669, Nicolò Amati. The instrument is now displayed at the Museo del Violino, as part of the friends of Stradivari project.

At the end of the conference, Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica  played a concert. For the “encore”, Kremer played the violin Lam-ex Collin, that the Museo del Violino gave him for the occasion.

#gallery-2 { margin: auto; } #gallery-2 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 25%; } #gallery-2 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-2 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

In 2009 the Stradivari Foundation has launched the “ Friends of Stradivari” project, an international network bringing together people who possess, use or keep in custody instruments of the Cremonese classical violin making tradition, as well as people who study them, love them or just want to support he promotion and development of the violin making tradition from a cultural standpoint. Over the last few years more and more music lovers, collectors or museums have joined our network, thanks to their participation, it has been possible to promote many projects and especially the loan of the instruments.

Next year one of the most important project will start. From January 16 to June 5 2016 the Fondazione Museo del Violino Antonio Stradivari, with the project “friends of Stradivari” network, will display at the Musical Instrument Museum (MIM), Phoenix ,Arizona, USA, some of the most important masterpieces of the classical Cremonese violin making tradition that are now displayed in the rooms of the Museo del Violino.

The instruments that will be displayed at the MIM are:

violin “Carlo IX” 1560 c., Andrea Amati

violin “ Principe Doria” 1734, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù

violin “ Violino piccolo” 1802, Giovanni Battista Ceruti

violin “Violino Barocco” 1941, Simone Fernando Sacconi

cello 1985, Primo Pistoni

violin 2003, Jan Spidlen

viola 2012, Ulrike Dederer

Some of the tools, patterns, internal mould from Stradivari’s workshop, also displayed in room 6 at the Museo del Violino since 2013, will be temporary on display at the MIM. Multimedia workstation will give the visitors the chance of listening the music played on the instruments on display. Will be organized also an exhibition focused on the wood used for the making.

During the exhibition there will be concerts played with the instruments on loan.

Thanks to the cooperation with the MIM, people from all over the world will have the chance to admire our wonderful instruments and discover the Cremonese violin making tradition.