Antoniazzi
So my violin is in the shop right now having an open seam sealed and the loander fiddle I was given is a 1926 Romeo Antoniazzi.
What is everyone's experience with these fiddles? This is a FANTASTIC instrument, especially for its price tag of $65,000. It plays like a $165,000 instrument!
Preston
Replies (39)
exactly. The best pupils of Bisiach and Antoniazzi include, Garimberti, Ornati, Sgarabotto, Sderci and Sesto Rocchi.
And ofcourse the lineage continues via their pupils etc.
Thanks to the efforts of many of those great makers (which began with Gaetano Antoniazzi) and later with support of people like Sacconi, the glory of Cremona was re-established with the opening of the School of Violin Making (officially in 1938, Cremona).
ng.
As impressed as I was by the Antoniazzi, once I got my Vuillaume back I was once again blown away by the french instrument. It must have had a cold for a couple months...because after the slight overhaul it had, the sound is just WOW!!
However, my opinion of the Antoniazzi is not lessened by this. The sound is amazing considering comparably priced instruments.
Preston
To be sure. Unfortunately I didn't have $65K burning a hole in my pocket. :-)
One recently was being offered for $175,000
wow!!!
What year was the Vuillaume made Preston?
You know, I'm not sure. Thought if I remember correctly Robertson and Sons was offering it.
Peter Carter wrote: "On the subject of Antoniazzi,I had a fascinating instrument "competition" two years ago in our concert hall.The soloist had the "Heath" Guarneri and for fun we compared it with a Riccardo Antoniazzi (1910) a Leandro Bisiach Sr.(1899) and a Ferdinando Garimberti (1925)."
Peter; It seems to me I may "know" a couple of those Modern Italian fiddles you mentioned... Correct? :-)
Peter, you must be talking about Yi Jia Hou. She's had the Heath for about 4 years, and will have it another 2 years. That fiddle is incredible.
I agree that some of the modern Italians are really fantastic. I recently tried a Pedrazzini in Bishop's shop in London. Big sound with such quality. That fiddle really blew me away. Beautiful to look at as well. Maybe it's getting a bit hard to talk about these instruments as modern since they are around the 100 years mark most of them now. A modern i.e. new violin has little to do with a violin that's already 80-100 years old. I think Gennady quoted Sgarabotto saying a violin reaches it's prime at 100.
so what is the fiddle that you have Peter?
BTW, I know many colleagues who are enjoying their careers playing instruments by Fagnola, Antoniazzi, Erminio Farina (student of Antoniazzi, died very young in WWI), P. Parravicini (another pupil of Antoniazzi), L. Azolla, Bisiach (family), Ornati, Garimberi, Sgarabotto (Gaetano & Pietro), S. Rocchi, Sderci (Igino & Luciano), Fiorini, Poggi, Capicchioni (Marino & Mario), Pollastri (Augusto & Gaetano), O. Bignami, G. Pedrazzini, G. Lucci, Vincenzo Postiglione, Soffriti, Vincenzo Sannino, P. Michetti, and many others.
And they are extremely happy.
Some of these early 20th century makers are still available for under 65K.
my Rocchi is similar in sound and power to the Sgarabotto.
check out STRINGS issue from August/September 1999:
once on the site, scroll down to "Rocchi Honored" by Patricia Kaden
I know a girl who plays a Sesto Rocchi cello on loan. That's is a fantastic instruments and looks stunning. It's a copy of a Strad B-form cello.
Kristian,
what fiddle do you play on?
i did some googling, as a lot of these violins mentioned i've heard of before but never had the opportunity to play/see.
i found a pretty lengthy list of fine instruments, many of which gennady and the rest of the posters have mentioned, along with high quality photos at:
www.brobstviolins.com/
thought people might like to connect these names with examples of the makers' works. a lot of beautiful work all around - now if only we all get to try them out : )...
also tarisio.com photo archives has many photos that are available for public access.
Gennady:
This is off the topic (sorry for that) but I keep meaning to ask you...do you know a violinist Alexander Brusilowski (Spelling may be a bit off) from Russia?
Kevin
No, but I know of him. Why do you ask?
Gennady:
I saw him play a year plus ago. I thought it was pretty good. But I'd never heard of him.
His pianist, by the way, was Nina Kogan, so it seemed he operated in a pretty high echelon of players.
Thanks anyway,
Kevin
wow, it's a small world after all.
Nina is married to a friend of mine Julian Milkis who is a clarinetist (soloists). He is the son of Jascha Milkis. In 1975 Mr. Jascha Milkis joined the Toronto Symphony as Associate Concertmaster and in 1987 was appointed Second Concertmaster. As well as appearing many times as a soloist with the Toronto Symphony and other orchestras, he was a faculty member of the National Youth Orchestra, the Royal Conservatory of Music and a Professor of Music at the University of Toronto.
Gennady:
I suspect the musical world is very small. I think he was in my area because of a local pianist (I live outside Boston).
I recall that Nina Kogan's husband (maybe not her first one?) is a clarinetist. She has a daughter who is a talented pianist, I gather. A rather musical family!
Kevin
Yes, imagine the Kogan dynasty and the Milkis one..........Julian Milkis's sister is also a fine violinist lives in NYC.
Kevin, you forgot to answer my question as to what fiddle do you play on?
I am member of the Colon orchestra Theatre , violinist....I have a splendid Vincenzo Sannino( copy and labelled Januarius Gagliano.....) and i need to sell it sadly for the economic-politic situation of my country, and , of course, at the Colon Theatre.I dont know what I have to do to show pictures , but my violin its really georgius, anybody explain me , please? whatever , my emal is odysseo@speedy.com.ar, thank you and greetings.
Amílcar Carfi
Among other violins I own a 3/4 Romeo Antoniazzi. You can't imagine how beutiful its sound is despite the small size. Few years ago may nephew was initiating her study of violin and and she was almost giving up. Then I gave her my violin and she couldn't stop playing! Now she is grown up and I lent her a Garimberti that was made just for me (there's a label inside with a dedication). I had a chance to know Garimberti for many years: great man!
Ciao Pino! I see you have studied with Paolo Borciani, the Quartetto Italiano is my favorite quartet.
yes I did.
Actually I did study with him. A great palyer, he and his wife Elisa Pegreffi. I did not appreciate him so much as a teacher, despite the fact that he was the most famous teacher at the Milan Conservatory. On the other hand I have an indelible memory of my previous teacher Luigi Ferro who was founder of the Virtuosi di Roma that you may have known. In the sixties and seventies they were the most famous ensemble for italian baroque music i.e. Vivaldi. He was a great man and a great teacher and i sorely miss him. If you have a chance to listen to their edition of Vivaldi's Estro Armonico Op. 3 (especially the last four conscerts), it's a EMI edition you'll see what I mean.
I wish you happy holidays.
Pino
It's a 1957.
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March 3, 2007 at 01:53 AM · Preston, I am not surprised.
He was a Superb Maker.
Go figure, an early 20th century maker....the lineage of Antoniazzi brothers goes directly to Ceruti family with whom they learned their craft.
Ceruti Dynasty carried on the tradition from the times of Storioni - (Giovanni Battista Ceruti was a pupil of Lorenzo Storioni). Along with Bisiach, Antoniazzi's inspired a whole new generation of makers to whom they passed on old traditions.