Winston Smith
Flunked Scientology
Re: The old days - Aboard the Apollo - 1973
Wow. There is enough material in this discussion to have me go on for hours. When I began cello I was also athletic and it became obvious it would have to be weight lifting or cello, not both. I chose cello. Strad's cellos are generally very large; in fact the instrument Janos Starker played for most of his life was so big that he had to adjust how he approached the instrument. No one else could play it. All his recordings are with the "Lord Aylesford" cello, a very deep rich mellow sound. Tragically, he did not own the instrument and sometime around the early 70s the owner offered to sell it to him but he could not afford the price, even though he was a world famous soloist and teacher at Indiana U. So the owner did the unthinkable. They took the cello back and some jackass violinmaker cut it down! No longer the "Lord Aylesford." I am sure it is still a good cello, but a crime has been commited against the world with that one.
I went to the "First World Cello Congress" at the U of Maryland in 1988, and there were dozens of the greatest cellists on earth there. In the exhibits, they had a collection of instruments that were odd sizes and tunings. This is probably what you are thinking about Roger. I did not hear any of them, but they were for sale.
People have always told me they wished they played cello instead of violin or viola. I find that a riot, because I was always inspired by great violinists. David Oistrakh was my idol. It think his dates were 1908-1974. He died on the podium in a rehearal in Amsterdam. Oistrakh to this day is the sound violinists revere, indeed everyone reveres.
Anyhoo, thanks for jogging my old brain. I may yet start telling funny stories of orchestral playing.
Yes, Winston, I did study violin for a few years.
In 1957 I was written up as "The Bohemian Surfer" in the Sydney Daily Telegraph ( a second string rag, last heard out of business). Such was their astonishment that a sportsman would also be into something like playing the violin!!!
Anyhow, several things coalesced to conspire to having me put the fiddle aside, sadly to never return.
I developed rather large, well muscled shoulders (made it uncomfortable to contort around the instrument) . . . see my period pic in my profile album of me at the time as an athlete, and spending many hours a day in the water meant my finger tips didn't develop the callouses and toughness for fingering the strings.
Loving the music though I did, what it took to play it was more than I was at that time willing to devote to it as I was intent on being a champion athlete . . . also $cn began to eat up my $$$s and time.
I always thought I'd get back to it. That's why I haunted the violin shops in London, and Basel . . . . but it has not been so.
None the less, the love of the stringed instruments is still there.
I went to a live concert recently of of a string quintet. An intimate affair in the local Seventh Day Adventist Church.
One of the cellos seemed to me to have a very unusual configuration. It was way differently proportioned to the other cellos in the group.
It fascinated me. I went up to the player after the concert to discuss his instrument. It turned out it was a replica of a Strad
Wow! fascinating to chat about and get the nuances of proportions and comportment of this cello as compared to the other instruments.
I just find it fascinating . . . . Virginia was amazed I spotted the difference from the audience.:wink2:
Though I'm happy with my life and what I've been, done, had . . . not still playing the violin is one of my less than ideal scenarios.
Actually, a more favorite instrument to me is the viola . . . I just love its tonal qualities. Great shame a lot more solo piece have not been written for it. I place the cello as joint second favorite with the violin.
I read recently that some musical wonks, having research the tonal ranges of the stringed instruments, actually expanded the number of instruments . . . I think, from memory it's either 5 or 6.
These folks then commissioned the making of the extra instruments (one is set between the viola and the cello). These instruments are in a museum in New Jersey. They have been very recently used in a concert.
It will be interesting to see what becomes of this development . . . maybe there is a huge opportunity here for some folks to do some special arrangements for such an array of instruments . . . .
Rog
Wow. There is enough material in this discussion to have me go on for hours. When I began cello I was also athletic and it became obvious it would have to be weight lifting or cello, not both. I chose cello. Strad's cellos are generally very large; in fact the instrument Janos Starker played for most of his life was so big that he had to adjust how he approached the instrument. No one else could play it. All his recordings are with the "Lord Aylesford" cello, a very deep rich mellow sound. Tragically, he did not own the instrument and sometime around the early 70s the owner offered to sell it to him but he could not afford the price, even though he was a world famous soloist and teacher at Indiana U. So the owner did the unthinkable. They took the cello back and some jackass violinmaker cut it down! No longer the "Lord Aylesford." I am sure it is still a good cello, but a crime has been commited against the world with that one.
I went to the "First World Cello Congress" at the U of Maryland in 1988, and there were dozens of the greatest cellists on earth there. In the exhibits, they had a collection of instruments that were odd sizes and tunings. This is probably what you are thinking about Roger. I did not hear any of them, but they were for sale.
People have always told me they wished they played cello instead of violin or viola. I find that a riot, because I was always inspired by great violinists. David Oistrakh was my idol. It think his dates were 1908-1974. He died on the podium in a rehearal in Amsterdam. Oistrakh to this day is the sound violinists revere, indeed everyone reveres.
Anyhoo, thanks for jogging my old brain. I may yet start telling funny stories of orchestral playing.
It was all violin . . . the first solo cello piece I heard was in England and then fell in love with it.
