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Michael Barker presents a video where he plays on the Bog Oak violin - an instrument that can perhaps lay claim to being the oldest violin in the world, despite being made only two years ago.

Barker performs two solo works and two duos by Belgian violinist and composer Charles-Auguste de Bériot.

Despite having serious misgivings, luthier Philip Taylor accepted the commission to craft the violin from Bog Oak, the specimen of which was discovered in 2021 at Wissington Fen in Norfolk.  ‘I wondered what I was letting myself in for,’ he confesses, ‘I couldn’t believe wood that had been asleep for 5000 years would sound very lively.’ 

What do you think? Learn more about the Bog Oak violin in our article: The world’s first and only Bog Oak violin (as far as we know)

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