All Premium ❘ Feature articles – Page 3
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Premium ❘ FeatureTechnique: Developing bow control for improved tone
Violist Martin Outram on mix of exercises to help you draw out sound actively and attentively with the right hand
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Paul Makanowitzky: From prodigy to pedagogue
Swedish-born violinist Paul Makanowitzky ultimately helped create the American school of violin playing. David Hays explores his life and multifaceted career
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Making Matters: Hidden in plain sight
The Stradivari moulds preserved at Cremona’s Museo del Violino still have secrets to give up. David Beard re-examines all 17 survivors to find how they reveal details from rib heights to the maker’s working method
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Violin making in Seoul: Gangnam style
Over the past decade, a wide community of violin and bow makers has grown up in the Seocho district of Seoul. Luthier Hagit Gili Gluska speaks to colleagues young and old, both local and from overseas, who have made this area their home
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In Focus: A 1911 cello by Guglielmo Secondo Camillo Mandelli
Lionnel Genovart looks at the Italian maker’s instrument
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Viktoria Mullova: Her infinite variety
Violinist Viktoria Mullova talks to Toby Deller about her eclectic musical collaborations, mastering the art of improvisation, experimenting with technique, and her new Schubert recording with pianist Alasdair Beatson
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Pekka Kuusisto, a green violinist
Elegy for the Forest, Pekka Kuusisto’s short film made in collaboration with Greenpeace, aims to build awareness of deforestation. He speaks to Peter Quantrill about combining art and activism
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‘The kind of varnish used is simply a matter of taste’: From the Archive: May 1932
US violin maker Edward Hellier-Collens gives readers of The Strad the benefit of his expertise: good violin tone lies not in the varnish after all, but in the ‘filler’ (ground coat)
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Trade Secrets: Carving a ‘Hill-style’ saddle
Care and accuracy are needed to make a two-piece ebony saddle – in this case for cello
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My Space: Rainer W. Leonhardt
A Mittenwald luthier with an almost 100-year family tradition
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Jacob Stainer’s birth: A question of dates
For centuries, historians have tried to settle on a definitive birthdate for Tyrolean luthier Jacob Stainer. Heinz Noflatscher explains how we now have an upper limit for his birth year – and why researchers were foxed by the elegant handwriting of the master
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Casey Driessen: Music in other lands
In 2019, American five-string fiddler Casey Driessen and his family took off around the world for nine months for his music-sharing project Otherlands: A Global Music Exploration. In a tantalising snapshot of his journey, often into the musical unknown, he recalls meeting and playing with some of the great regional ...
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Making Matters: In tune with the types
Luthiers often examine a musician’s way of playing before setting to work on their instrument. David Leonard Wiedmer explains why it can be helpful to categorise players into two different ‘types’
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Gidon Kremer on Mieczysław Weinberg: Testament to turbulent times
2019 marked a century since the birth of Polish–Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg. Violinist Gidon Kremer tells Tom Stewart why he has become one of the composer’s greatest champions
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In Focus: A c.1620–1701 viola by Enrico Catenar
Gabriele Rossi Rognoni looks at the German maker’s oldest-known surviving instrument
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Johannes Moser: Surrounded by sound
The German–Canadian cellist Johannes Moser embraces experimentation. He talks to Peter Quantrill about channelling his inner Jimi Hendrix and exploring the sound of the electric cello which, alongside the conventional cello, features in his latest recordings for Platoon
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‘Stop! There is a violin; it might be good for my cabinet’: From the Archive: April 1902
Dr T. Lamb Phipson recalls the tale of an impromptu violin auction on the streets of Rome, where a bidding war ended with a happy twist
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Schroetter and Roth: Two of a kind
With the demand for mass-produced German instruments skyrocketing in the 1920s, enterprising makers sent family members to America to represent them. Clifford Hall explores the careers and legacies of Andrew Schroetter and Heinrich Roth
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Session Report: A meeting at the crossroads
For violinist Rachel Podger and pianist Christopher Glynn, recording Beethoven’s violin sonatas, which occupy the stormy transitional period between Classicism and Romanticism, brought together their disparate musical specialisms, as they tell Harry White
