this week's blog - Raggetti Master Violin

After a few years of violin learning, my teacher’s finally agreed that it’s time for me to learn a Mozart violin concerto. So, I am learning Mozart’s G Major Violin Concerto this week, and I am frustrated about not getting the sound I want to express this music beautifully: the smoothness of the sound of those long phrases and the crystal clear sound of those fast strokes. Part of the joy about my job is I get to play all sorts of different violins in the shop. Hurray!! So, I am so eager to try this concerto on our shop violins to find the sound I heard in the recording of this concerto.

I know exactly which violin to start with: The Raggetti Master Series. I just know it won’t fail me on this because it has a rich deep tone on the lower register and beautiful voice-like E string. The volume the Raggetti Master series violin produces is just right, neither too aggressive like some old German violins, nor too shy to “speak up”.   

We have had this master series for many years and I always wondered the difference between each model in this master series. Richard’s favourites are the Heifetz model and the Maggini model which we have on display right now. So, I did a bit of homework and I found out that the Heifetz model is a copy of Jascha Heifetz’s favourite Guarneri violin nicknamed The David. Wow! Cool!

Since the Maggini model was taken out by a customer at the time of this blog, I had to compare the Heifetz model with the Diable 1734 model.  After playing a couple of scales up and down the fingerboard, I didn’t notice any substantial difference between the Heifetz model and the Diable 1734 model. Then, I started playing the Mozart concerto. You know the difficult part of this concert starts from the first chord.  Yikes!! After I pressed my fingers down the A and E strings nervously, I quickly moved my bow, and this beautifully rich tone of the first chord just blew me away. I remember lots of other violins failed me on this first chord. Now, I am happy.

So, I carried on, and suddenly this familiar sound started to ring in my head, that’s the sound I heard in the recording of this concerto. “Yes, this is the sound I want.” I said in my heart.

Then I reprised it on the Diable 1734 model. The sound was satisfactory but the higher register on the E string didn’t stand out as much as the Heifetz model.

Although the sound difference between each model is very subtle, but sometimes, it’s just that tiny bit difference that can either frustrate or satisfy you.
 

Posted by:

 Ying Wang

Posted 13 Sep 2011, 03:23:21 by whitehorsemusic

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