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In Focus: A 1720 cello by Michele Platner

2023-02-21T09:27:00

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Christopher Reuning looks at an instrument which could be confused with one by Tecchler, but is actually by the other great Roman cello maker

It had been traditionally thought that Michele Platner was born in the Tyrol region of Austria and later moved to Rome, where he trained with David Tecchler, who was about 18 years his senior. However, research published in the 1980s by Patrizio Barbieri revealed that Platner was born in Rome in 1684 and baptised as Domenico Michele.

He was son of Alberto Platner (c.1642–1713), an instrument maker who emigrated from a German-speaking region as a young man. Only one violin with an original Alberto Platner label is known, but we know that he took care of the musical instrument collection of the important Pamphili family of Rome.

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