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June 2020 / Strings WHAT’S in the CASE?

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June 2020 / Strings WHAT’S in the CASE? FOCUS ON CONTEMPORARY THE ROLE OF AN DOUBLE TROUBLE? TIPS FOR INSTRUMENTS & BOWS OPERA CONCERTMASTER PLAYING DUOS WITH GUITAR z Lara St. John Going to Extremes in Two Beloved Sonatas 5 Pros on Supportive Musical Parenting Contemporary Composers Find Symphonic Champions Scaling the Everest of Quartet Literature DEPARTMENTS 10 Editor’s Note 12 News & Notes Recent releases and 5 Minutes with . cellist Boris Andrianov 16 First Person Calidore violinist Ryan Meehan on Beethoven’s monumental quartet cycle 82 Shop Talk 78 Bow maker David Hawthorne on adjusting a bow’s camber PLAY WORK BENCH 62 54 On My Music Stand What’s in the Case? Jazz violinist Scott Tixier on the music Violinist Emmanuel Vukovich of Lyle Mays and Philip Glass plays violins both old and new 64 56 Rep Prep Tales of the Trade Creativity and technique come together in How Pirastro’s Evah Pirazzi strings Fritz Kreisler’s Praeludium and Allegro renewed the family-run company 68 58 Tech Support Your Instrument Tips for string players working with guitarists Keeping a cello rock-steady in all conditions will probably require 72 a variety of endpin options My Studio Preparing for success under pressure 60 New Products 74 Yamaha unveils its new Silent Bass Stage & Studio On the role of an opera concertmaster REVIEWS 78 For the Record Dirty Cello decides to record its second live album as a DVD, and picks a venue with loads of character 80 In Print Franz Clement’s Rondeau Brillant for violin 54 deserves far more attention than it gets, and more COURTESY OF EMMANUEL VUKOVICH; COURTESY OF DIRTY CELLO 6 May-June 2020 / Strings WHAT’S IN THE CASE? LEARNING FROM THE PAST AND SHAPING THE FUTURE Violinist Emmanuel Vukovich plays violins both old and new By Laurence Vittes !rst heard Canadian violinist Emmanuel Vukovich play at the Montréal Chamber I Music Festival in 2014. It was after he had completed his undergraduate studies at PHOTOS BY RODOLPHE BEAULIEU-POULIN Juilliard and McGill University, where he concurrently pursued degrees in music perfor- Instrument Bank. Over the past several McDowell. Vukovich is also preparing a mance and environment, and then spent three years he has played on violins crafted by debut album, which will include Sheila years co-managing an organic farm. He per- Gennaro Gagliano, Giovanni Tononi, Nicolò Silver’s “To the Spirit Unconquered” and formed Bach’s Violin Sonata in A minor, BWV Amati, and Giovanni Battista Guadagnini. Beethoven’s “Archduke” Piano Trio, Op. 97, 1003, from the center aisle of St. George’s Vukovich has simultaneously been a strong with the Parcival Piano Trio. Anglican Church. Five years and festivals later, advocate for contemporary violin making on a noontime concert at Montréal’s Salle and has owned and performed on several Tell me more about your violins. Bourgie, Vukovich seemed to have had a modern instruments, including a violin "e “Gruszblatt” violin is inspired by a 1744 guardian angel on his shoulder in a deep and built by Denis Cormier in Montréal and a Michele Angelo Bergonzi violin; it won the moving performance of Bach’s Chaconne. “Gruszblatt” violin made by Mira Gruszow Double Gold Medal in the Violin Society of In these and other far-ranging ventures, & Gideon Baumblatt in Berlin. America International Violin Making such as a recent performance of Beethoven’s I spoke to Vukovich from Montréal, Competition in 2018. Recently, I have also Violin Concerto in New York with the Stony where he is currently preparing his final had the privilege of playing a 1629 Nicolò Brook Symphony Orchestra, and the upcom- doctoral recital for Stony Brook University, Amati and currently, a 1753 [Giovanni ing creation and world premiere of a new including Bartok’s Sonata for Solo Violin, Battista] Guadagnini. violin concerto, inspired by Hindustani Sz. 117, and an original composition titled music, written for him by Sheila Silver, Parzival & Fiere!z for solo violin, voice, Afri- What do you know about their histories? Vukovich has bene!ted from the support of can drum, and chamber orchestra co-cre- The Gruszblatt was made for me—I the Canada Council for the Arts Musical ated with American composer John remember speaking with Gideon and Mira 54 May-June 2020 / Strings about a concept of sound for this violin as and the Guarnerius del Gesù.” He describes some rough measure of the eye,’ one could it was being created. The Guadagnini was this archetypal polarity in the sonority of infer a man at once passionate and compas- previously part of the Canada Council Stradivari violins as pure gold and the sound sionate, bull and saint, a temperamental Musical Instrument Bank collection and is of Guarneri del Gesù as “the red of Sainte- nonconformist. .” now privately owned. Chapelle stained glass.” Following Menuhin, I can place every What would your instruments suggest as How did you come to play them? What first violin I have played on this spectrum. Also, their beverage of choice? drew you to them and how did you know they more often than not, the physical charac- Guadagnini: De!nitely whiskey!; Gruszblatt: were the “right” fit? teristics of an instrument betray its voice. Riesling; Amati: Burgundy. As I just mentioned, the Gruszblatt was made "e Gruszblatt is golden colored, with rela- for me by Gideon and Mira. They have tively high arching, and has a very open and become close friends. We !rst met in Mon- clear sound. "e Amati is a smaller instru- tréal through mutual friends in both music ment, with a darker top, and very high and farming. arching, and has a warm and rounded tone. I have previously been loaned instruments The Guadagnini has very bright varnish, through the Musical Instrument Bank. relatively flat arching, and is extremely Through this unique program I have been powerful and focused in its projection. connected to instruments outside the Bank, and this is how I came to play both the Amati Does each of them perform better in certain and the Guadagnini. situations? How does each adjust to all the Many years ago, when I was looking for my different music you play? !rst full-size violin, I was told that an instru- I believe this is always more dependent on ment “comes to you.” I believe this and can the player than the instrument. Playing on say that it has happened with all of the both old and modern violins, I have come to instruments I have played. It is similar to believe that projection is not a question of meeting people we connect with—their force but of focus; that color and nuance are appearance, their voice, and the way they expressions of in!nite subtlety; and that VUKOVICH’S GEAR make us feel is what attracts us to them. beauty is expressed, above all, through our BOW capacity to be honest. The violins I play 1890 Charles-Nicolas Bazin What gifts do your instruments bring to your have helped me explore and expand my 1995 François Malo–Paris (round) playing? horizon and range of dynamics, color, and 2018 François Malo–Montréal We grow as violinists through the instru- timbre. Over time, as I connect with a vio- (octagonal) ments we play, especially in our concept of lin, and learn how to coax a wider and sound and our unique musical voice. To play deeper range of nuance out of it, the instru- STRINGS an instrument made by one of the old mas- ment becomes a friend, and eventually a Thomastik-Infeld Dominant, Vision, ters is like working directly with one of the part of me, as I also become a part of its life. Rondo, and Peter Infeld PI; Jargar E great composers whose artistic vision and For me, instruments are like keys to the forte legacy we continue today. Their wisdom human soul. "eir sounds touch us, can move and teaching are preserved within the works us, and if played well, can open our hearts CASE they have created, in their compositions and and the hearts of those who are listening. Bam in their instruments. To play on a modern instrument that’s What are your violins’ greatest strengths? ROSIN made expressly for you is like taking part in Gruszblatt: clarity; Amati: warmth; Guadag- Bernardel, Pirastro Gold the creation of a new musical work that will nini: power. help shape and change the future. It is to be ADDITIONAL GEAR involved in the creation of a new voice, which What are some of their limitations? Two humidifiers for the case; a fine has yet to be de!ned through your playing "e limitations are always in the player— piece of suede leather in which to wrap and the repertoire you play on it. not the instrument. Always! Menuhin writes, the violin; an extra latch and buckle “One must rise to a Stradivarius before it will at the top and bottom of the case What are your instruments’ personalities speak from its craftsman’s soul. It spurns the added by Wilder & Davis to keep the and temperaments like? Do they remind you man who lets his hand exert too much pres- case more tightly sealed in order to of anyone or anything? sure or his !nger fall ever so slightly wide of help in cold climates and deal with the In his memoirs Yehudi Menuhin writes, “I its mark. By contrast, from the rougher changes of humidity due to travel could recount my entire life in terms of a dia- hand of ‘del Gesù’, his choice of less good lectical argument between the Stradivarius wood and his f-holes ‘obviously gouged by StringsMagazine.com 55.
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