No newsletter this week

And probably the same next week: we’re on the road!

Feb 16

Hello dear readers! Just a quick note to tell you that there will be no newsletter this week and most probably also next week.

We are on a long road trip, taking advantage of the long week carnival holiday. Three years ago, with our friends and colleagues Takumi Takakura and Paul Shelley, we went to Lübeck, Leipzig, Eisenach and Nuremberg.

Violoncello da Spalla

Four luthiers in a car (Germany upside down)

Precisely one year ago, we left home on one of those mornings in which you’d rather have some skiing than a whole day drive, but we had a research adventure waiting for us! We didn’t plan it before, and it was just by chance that we stopped for lunch in Mittenwald. We had an appetiser of what was waiting for us: loads of German food and an…

2 years ago · 1 like · Daniela Gaidano & A. Visintini

It was ten fantastic days of brainstorming in that car! We had ideas and open questions. So now, on very short notice, we decided to get in the car and go there again to ask those questions! We will go to Leipzig, Lübeck and Markneukirchen.

Violoncello da Spalla

On dragons, beasts, and other cellist creatures

2 years ago · Daniela Gaidano & A. Visintini

Violoncello da Spalla

The Violoncello piccolo by Johann Wagner, Borstendorff

I was told that when I say something about the “Wagner model”, it looks like I want to keep some mystery. The truth is that we know very little about it and Wagner himself. In Lübeck, in the St. Anne museum, they have this little five strings cello, which is almost in original condition. It is not on display, and we went to see it in March 2020…

2 years ago · Daniela Gaidano & A. Visintini

Violoncello da Spalla

Are the Hoffmanns fakes?

In the late summer of 2019, we completed our first Violoncello da Spalla, and we decided to go for a road trip to make up our mind about it. We went to Utrecht to a baroque violin symposium, so we could show it to as many people as possible and have feedbacks, and on our way back, we stopped to Brussels to see and measure an original…

2 years ago · Daniela Gaidano & A. Visintini

Violoncello da Spalla

Are the Hoffmanns unique?

One day last week, waiting for his coffee, Alessandro was surfing into museums’ catalogues. It was just a 15 minutes “research session”, but the findings are worth sharing. Borstendorf is a village in Saxony, now close to the border with the Czech Republic. It is 120 km south of Leipzig. In the 18th century, it was a village of violin makers, and we foun…

2 years ago · Daniela Gaidano & A. Visintini

Do you have a question concerning the instruments in these three museums that you’d like us to investigate and report? Ask in the comment section below!