Word: strad
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...price, an undreamed-of fortune, not only bought him a secondhand auto, it also prompted a decision. Frustrated by what he calls the "old-style communist-worker mentality" ingrained in his factory colleagues, he quit his job, calculating that he and his wife, working from home, could build two Strad-style violins a month and support their family. A year later he began setting up his own factory...
There's still a snob factor associated with violins, says Naomi Sadler, editor of the British magazine The Strad. "It's true that old Italian instruments are lovely, but some of the top makers today are also producing incredibly good instruments," she says. While most of the best players will use only an original Cremonese masterpiece, at least one world-famous violinist was impressed by a Gliga instrument. In a 1995 letter to Gliga, Yehudi Menuhin wrote, "Dear and very fine craftsman ... I shall treasure the instrument you made ..." At his headquarters in Reghin, Gliga displays the Menuhin letter with...
...like black jacket and pants, her long, lank brown hair pulled back severely, her strong Slavic features firmly set in contemplation of the coming battle. No makeup or jewelry lends even a hint of frivolity to her appearance as she wraps one large hand around the neck of her Strad, tucks it confidently under her chin and prepares to stare down the ghost of Paganini. For Viktoria Mullova, there are no frills in concert, just her, the night and the music. & "I work better under pressure," she says. "I am more concentrated...
...Midori showed she was that and more at Massachusetts' Tanglewood festival, where she was playing Leonard Bernstein's difficult Serenade with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, directed by the composer himself. When her E string gave out, she calmly appealed to the concertmaster, who handed over his Stradivarius. When the Strad's E string snapped a few moments later, Midori again turned to the concertmaster, by now playing his associate's Guadagnini. He traded again, and she flawlessly finished the piece, earning a tumultuous ovation from the audience and hugs and kisses from Bernstein and her two lenders. "It was really...
Like Casals, Slava is an unabashed romantic. Cradling his Strad between his legs?or, more precisely, embracing it?he seems to pour his Russian soul into every phrase, bowing long, singing lines with a subtle eloquence and a purity of tone. His technique is flawless. Modern composers lay finger-mangling minefields in the thickets of their pieces, but Rostropovich negotiates them with cheerful ease. "I don't even know why my hands do certain things sometimes," he says. "They just grab for the notes." His dynamic range, from the greatest fortissimo down the line to a pianissimo that comes...