John Soloninka
3 comments By John Soloninka
Dr. Du Sautoy, there is a large body of high quality research that debunks the idea that Strads or other Golden Period instruments are unique and unreproducible. Statements like "what makes these violins so special and why can’t we replicate Stradivari’s skills today? " were maybe appropriate 50 years ago, but not now. I suggest some quiet reading/watching of the "Strad vs New" series of double blinded experiments by Fritz, Tao and Curtin, and the Strad3D project at a minimum are in order...and then stay current with the excellent VSA online conferences and archives. These concepts and myths you mention may be new to you, but not to the academy involved in violin acoustics and luthier. Sincerely, John Soloninka, Toronto Canada.
The comment "Going through forty Strads and twenty-six by ‘del Gesú’ is highly unlikely for anyone today but going over sixty instruments is doable if the expectation is not too high." seems like a self-contradictory sentence without meaning or context. Is some editing required?
That was amazing on several levels: 1) the playing was incredible....and you get to hear very nuanced playing that you don’t hear when soloists are competing with orchestra 2) you get to hear incredible lines and technical details often obscured 3) this is like creating 30-40 new pieces for solo violin that we can hear with fresh ears...no one has done this before, but I hope many will try it now!!!! Congrats Hilary!!! Another uniquely creative milestone!
Commented on: 23 April 2021
Marcus du Sautoy explores the symmetry of Stradivari