Mexico: “Los Violines de Cremona: Stradivari, el Barroco y más allá “

“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.