Tracks (see detailed description below)
Track 1: all violins played by Susanne Scholz:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133057
Track 2: all violins played by Dario Luisi:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133058
Track 3: Susanne Scholz (starting first) & Dario Luisi (upper line) playing all six violins:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133059
Single violins played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Track 4: violin by Martin Rainer, Vienna:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133051
Track 5: violin by Hagen Schiffler, Laufen:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133052
Track 6: violin by André Mehler, Leipzig:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133053
Track 7: violin by Alessandro Lowenberger, Genoa:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133054
Track 8: violin by Sebastian Mende, Weimar:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133055
Track 9: violin by Valentina Montanucci, Piacenza:
https://phaidra.kug.ac.at/o:133056
Violins made by:
Martin Rainer, Vienna
Hagen Schiffler, Laufen
André Mehler, Leipzig
Alessandro Lowenberger, Genoa
Sebastian Mende, Weimar
Valentina Montanucci, Piacenza
Project description:
Musical instruments constitute one of the most valuable sources for HIP (historically informed performance practice).
As most of the most precious instruments have been constantly adapted to the tastes and needs of their players, copies of the few particularly well-preserved original instruments are an interesting option for the researching musician, but the instruments require the inquisitive minds of specialist luthiers and necessitate investigation and sustained discourse within the research community.
Providing a platform for this discourse was one of the main objectives of this project of the Institute of Early Music and Performance Practice at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz (KUG).
The criteria that led to the selection of the violin by Jacobus Stainer of 1668, preserved in the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, USA, included, on the one hand, a response to a request by the Institute for 17th century instruments, including a 17th century set-up that allows stringing with four pure gut strings. In addition, the instrument to be used as a model was to be made by an eminent violin maker whose career had some connection with the location of the university and whose instruments were to be very popular among the violinists. Jacobus Stainer was indeed an extremely important Austrian violin maker, much in demand in his day but rarely copied today.
One of the challenges was to reconstruct the instrument in its original 17th century set-up. The violin makers involved in the project – Alessandro Lowenberger (Genoa), André Mehler (Leipzig), Sebastian Mende (Weimar), Valentina Montanucci (Piacenza), Martin Rainer (Vienna) and Hagen Schiffler (Laufen) – are six specialists in the reconstruction of historical violin instruments with a focus on research, and they have particular experience with instruments of the 17th century.
The sound samples give the opportunity to listen to and compare the sound of the six instruments.
In order to do account for the fact that the sound of the instrument is decisively influenced by the player, the audio examples were recorded by two different players, Dario Luisi (Fachbereich Alte Musik, J.-J.-Fux Konservatorium Graz) and project leader Susanne Scholz (Institut Alte Musik und Aufführungspraxis, Kunstuniversität Graz). Both play with a comparable technique, a violin posture with the instrument resting on the chest and a bow hold with the thumb placed under the hair of the bow. On 9 February 2024, the two violinists recorded an ornamented cadence of a Sonata for two violins and basso continuo by Antonio Bertali and a cadence of a violin sonata by Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi-Mealli, each using a a bow by Manako Ito, Graz (copy of a bow from the collection of the KHM Vienna).
The first set of audio samples, one and two, presents all six violins played by each of the two violinists.
Track number three is a single audio sample, in which the two violinists play successively six different combinations of the six violins.
The last set of audio samples, from four to nine, consists of the solo recording of one violin played consecutively by the two violinists one after the other.
Music samples with one violin
Giovanni Antonio Pandolfi-Mealli (c. 1630–c. 1669/70), Innsbruck 1660,
Sonate a violino solo per chiesa e da camera, op. 3
Civico Museo Bibliografico Musicale Bologna, BB.74
Sonata terza La Melana, final cadence
Violins:
Track 1 all six violins played by Susanne Scholz in the following order:
Rainer, Schiffler, Mehler, Lowenberger, Mende, Montanucci
Track 2 all six violins by Dario Luisi in the following order:
Rainer, Schiffler, Mehler, Lowenberger, Mende, Montanucci
Track 4 violin by Martin Rainer, Vienna played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Track 5 violin by Hagen Schiffler, Laufen played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Track 6 violin by André Mehler, Leipzig played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Track 7 violin by Alessandro Lowenberger, Genoa played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Track 8 violin by Sebastian Mende, Weimar played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Track 9 violin by Valentina Montanucci, Piacenza played by Susanne Scholz and Dario Luisi
Music sample with two violins
Antonio Bertali (1605–1669)
From the ‘Partiturbuch Ludwig’, written by Jakob Ludwig, 1662,
Partiturbuch voll Sonaten, Canzonen, Arien…
Herzog August Bibliothek of Wolfenbüttel, Cod.Guelf.34.7 Aug.2°
No. 38 Sonata a 2 Violini Del Signor Ant. Berthali, final cadence
Track 3 Susanne Scholz (starting first) & Dario Luisi (upper line) playing all six violins in the following order:
Martin Rainer, Vienna & Hagen Schiffler, Laufen
Hagen Schiffler, Laufen & André Mehler, Leipzig
André Mehler, Leipzig & Alessandro Lowenberger, Genoa
Alessandro Lowenberger, Genoa & Sebastian Mende, Weimar
Sebastian Mende, Weimar & Valentina Montanucci, Piacenza
Valentina Montanucci, Piacenza & Martin Rainer, Vienna
Recorded on the 09.02.2024 in the chapel of Schloss Eggenberg, Universalmuseum Joanneum Graz (special thanks to director Paul Schuster and Marietta Schieraus)
Recording engineer and editing: Tommaso Settimi
Production assistant: Christian Prohammer
(Englisch)