Sergey Malov trying Daniela’s two instruments

And we went to his Bach concert in Nürnberg!

This past weekend, we drove up to Nürnberg to meet with Sergey Malov, see him in concert, and show him our last two instruments.

The concert venue: the church of St. Martha in Nürnberg. The altar, on which you see Malov’s Violoncello da Spalla, is made by two big Ls. Each of them is a single piece of wood. They are impressive.

As we entered the small church venue of the concert, we were dazzled by the beauty of the stained glass windows. They are original from 14th century on, and they are very finely realised. A wonderful expression of Germanic art of the period, with vivid details.

Stained glass windows in St. Martha, Nürnberg

So we sat and we googled the history of the church:

Built in the second half of the 14th century, St. Martha's church was closed due to the Reformation in 1526. Fortunately, the glasses weren’t destroyed, as it happened to many figures in many churches during the Reformation movement! Between 1526 and 1614, the Nuremberg Meistersingers (!!!) used it as a theatre. In 1614, plays were forbidden in churches, and in 1627 it was restored to use as a church. Now, it is an evangelical church. It was only lightly damaged during WWII, but during restoration works in 2014, a fire destroyed most of the interiors (the stained glasses were safe as they had been removed), so the nave was remade in a modern style. Here, sacred and secular art alternated at the highest level, and the same for antique and contemporary art and architecture.

Sergey Malov’s program on Bach and electronic improvisation was the perfect fit for this venue.

He starts with the toccata and fugue in A minor, (transcription for solo violin of the D minor BWV 565); then he says a few introductory words about his choices of program, instruments and their setup (his violin is strung with first and second in pure gut). Then you get caught in a magic musical world. The violin and the spalla are slightly amplified, but you hardly notice.

He creates magical moments, adding layers of rhythm and harmonies with the loop pedals; he shifts between violin and cello da spalla, playing improvised cadenzas to connect Sarabandes, Andantes, Bach’s movements from Suites and Sonatas and Partitas that are offered like magic, pure pearls. Everything is connected, there is no pause. This goes on for 40 minutes in a row, maybe more, until he switches everything off, and the “naked” sound of his violin drives you into that cascade of emotions and intimate cry that is the Chaconne. It feels almost rude to “wake up” and applaud after all this. What a profane way to express our gratitude for this gift of an emotionally intense hour of Bach’s music! But we have to get back to ourselves, sitting in a sweltering, humid, half-medieval, half-modern church, so that’s it, a long applause to Sergey Malov, his pedals station, his violin and his Violoncello da Spalla!

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Sergey Malov tries Daniela’s da Spalla cellos 2024

The following morning, in his hotel, Sergey was so kind to find the time to try Daniela’s latest two da spalla cellos.

This is “number 1”, with single purfling, strung with all Thomastick strings:

This is “number 2”, with double purflings and flower decorations, strung with gut Boussoir’s basses and pure Aquila gut trebles:

If you’d like to try them, get in touch now. Because in this right moment, we have five instruments in the workshop of two different models, but this will not last long!

Daniela and Alessandro at the train station with Sergey Malov: bis zum nächsten Mal!