#lutherie

Oct 8, 2015

George Eliot on violin-making obsession and the genius of Stradivarius

To mark the UK's National Poetry Day, 8th October, here's George Eliot's great poem about violin making and the obsession with which...

Jun 22, 2015

Violin Utopia in Oberlin

As some of the world's finest violin makers gather in the small university town of Oberlin, Ohio, to share their knowledge at the annual...

Jun 11, 2015

Let’s show modern instruments some #love

The Elbow Music social media campaign puts modern instruments in the spotlight My recent article about Frank Peter Zimmermann’s dilemma...

May 25, 2015

Brave new violin world

A new collection of specially commissioned unantiqued instruments offers hope of a new Zeitgeist around modern violins. Will top soloists...

May 2, 2015

Is your violin wild, juicy, lingering or tart?

Coffee experts and barristas have a whole language for describing their craft. Can it help violin makers? I visited the London Coffee...

Nov 7, 2014

Do instruments have an objective value?

Donna Tartt's brilliant novel The Goldfinch contains insights into the antiques business that might apply to the violin business too I’ve...

Sep 12, 2014

When Guarneri met Stradivari

I'm currently reading this charming book about Guarneri 'del Gesù', written in 1974 by Leonard Wibberley. I found it on a bookshelf and...

Sep 5, 2014

The art of ageing

Whether you're a maker or a player, or just worried about getting old, you should see the Matisse cut-outs exhibition The Matisse...

Sep 4, 2014

The science of violin making

There are many different tribes of violin makers, in my experience. Conservatives, Futurists, Archivists, Geometrists, Philosophers,...

Aug 22, 2014

The real secret of Stradivarius?

I had a lovely morning yesterday talking to cellist Natalie Clein for two forthcoming articles – about her new Saint-Saëns disc, for...

Aug 11, 2014

James Ehnes on violin obsession and existential crisis

My latest interview for Cozio, with violinist James Ehnes, has just gone live, so please go and visit. He had so much to say about his...

Aug 6, 2014

An innovative solution to peg turning

I just came across this delightful footage on the British Pathé YouTube channel. It shows a class of 'budding Kreislers' from 1940...

Jul 23, 2014

Charles Beare – violin expertise ‘not the real thing’

At first I thought this New Yorker article about the Carpenter family by Rebecca Mead was going to be a puff piece, but it turns out to...

Jul 15, 2014

Stradivarius violin blind tests – do they matter?

A really interesting article about wine in the New Yorker suggests striking parallels between how we choose wine and our attitudes to...

Jun 26, 2014

Arnold Steinhardt: ‘Don’t put your parents in hock to buy a violin’

A couple of weeks ago I interviewed Arnold Steinhardt, leader of the Guarneri Quartet for 40 years, for the Cozio website. Steinhardt is...

Jun 11, 2014

Leading pedagogue blasts luthiers

I discovered this tirade in a seminal string pedagogical work: 'It is most regrettable that our present-day instrument-makers take so...