Focus
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FocusFrom the archive: a c.1845 violin by Pressenda
Recent research shows that Giovanni Francesco Pressenda worked as a farmer before turning his hand to instrument making. In this article from the April 2005 issue, Alberto Giordano examines a late c.1845 violin
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FocusThe Strad Quiz: test your knowledge of all things strings
This week our questions take in The Carnival of the Animals, horse hair, a couple of very famous violins and more
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FocusSession report: Gabriel Schwabe on recording the Schumann Cello Concerto
Until recently, Schumann’s works failed to connect with German cellist Gabriel Schwabe. But the opportunity to record them opened up a whole avenue of possibilities
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FocusWhy is the thickness of the front and back of Stradivari's instruments so unpredictable?
Although there is no record of how the Cremonese makers finished their instruments, Dirk Jacob Hamoen argues that the final scraping was done after they had been strung up and played in the white
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FocusFrom the archive: kitchen stove-top experiments in Cremonese varnish
In the April 1938 issue, a hapless amateur maker relates his unfortunate experiences while attempting to find the ‘secret’ of Stradivari
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FocusChristian Tetzlaff on the personal resonances of Beethoven's seventh violin sonata
For the German violinist, op.30 no.2 evokes a cascade of memories as disparate as freshly baked cookies, Wild West writer Karl May, and a sense of security
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FocusDid Beethoven write idiomatically for the string quartet?
The Casals Quartet has embarked on a large-scale Beethoven cycle, both in the studio and on tour to celebrate its 20th anniversary. The players speak to Richard Wigmore about the demands of the repertoire, which in so many ways was ahead of its time
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FocusWin the Casals Quartet’s first Beethoven album
©Josep Molina The Casals Quartet will release the complete Beethoven string quartets on three albums for Harmonia Mundi in June 2018, spring 2019, and 2020. The first album, ‘Inventions’, feat
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FocusFrom the archive: a 1759 viola by Antonio Bagatella
In this article from the February 2015 issue of The Strad, Jens Stenz takes a close look at a short but broad 18th-century Milanese viola
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FocusBollywood strings: how the violin became the signature sound of Hindi cinema
The sound of massed violins underpins the music in thousands of Indian films. Tim Woodall traces the instrument’s colourful history in Mumbai’s film industry