Our experience exhibiting at Cremona Mondomusica
…and an exclusive video live of Sergey Malov playing Beethoven!
We exhibited at Cremona Mondomusica, the world's largest trade show specifically dedicated to bowed instruments, at the end of September. We brought there 3 da spalla cellos with 3 different setups: one with gut strings for the early music people (though, I am convinced that the sound of pure gut gives a sparkly character to folk music too), one with modern strings, and one with the modern handmade set by Eliakim Boussoir. The latter is made with a silk core, and all five strings are covered with flattened metal wire. The set is balanced following the modern fashion, so it is particularly easy to play, maintaining the texture of historical and natural material. The fact that it is handmade on commission allowed us to use it to experiment a different, very short, tailpiece, that required extra long strings. We will illustrate our innovative tailpiece in one of our future newsletters.
We were so busy with people coming at our booth that we hardly had the time to take a break, eat something, and visit the rest of the show. We missed the possibility to get acquainted with the other exhibitors, as the curiosity and enthusiasm of the people coming to visit our booth totally absorbed us. For most of the time there was such a continuous flow of people that it was hard to get the possibility to give to each person the attention they deserved. We had with us 40 Violoncello da Spalla books to present to those that looked seriously interested and were asking specific questions, and before the end of the show they were all gone.
Exhibiting in such an important show gave us the opportunity to meet friends, ex-colleagues musicians and colleagues luthiers that we hardly have the occasion to meet elsewhere.
On Sunday morning before the official opening we received the visit of some flutists friends, who were there for an important flute meeting. We played a few notes for them to show how the voice of the Violoncello da Spalla is well suited to accompany a flute.
News from da Spalla world
The pre-sell of the Warchal C string is still on! The first goal of 12 strings was met in only 5 days, but now we have to meet the 20 strings goal to plan for the developing of the other strings of the set. It’s fundamental that we make it, so if you were still thinking about it, take the occasion today and pledge for your string at this link!
Featured video of the week
An exclusive live video for this newsletter: Sergey Malov and Thomas Hoppe on Beethoven Cello Sonata n. 3, from the Piano Salon Cristofori in Berlin.
Very special article! Thank you!