WTF?! When your whole group plays a Guadagnini

BY STEPHANIE ESLAKE

 

Welcome to our series, What the Fact?!

Francesca plays second (Guadagnini) violin with the ASQ, having trained for the instrument since she was four years old at the Stoliarsky School of Music. Five years later and she was already performing as a soloist in the United States. Francesca went on to complete a Bachelor of Music at the Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University before enrolling in further study at the Australian National Academy of Music (completing a 2012 ANAM Fellowship).

Francesca has appeared as soloist with Orchestra Victoria, Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, and was awarded a full-time role in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. But it wasn’t until she joined the ASQ in 2016 that she laid hands on her beloved Guadagnini.

How to hack an instrument you never thought you’d play…

 

Hi Francesca! So, your whole group plays on Guadagnini instruments. How did that happen?

It was through the vision of an incredible supporter of the Quartet, Ulrike Klein. Ulrike wanted to secure world-class instruments for the quartet. She started the Ukaria Foundation and through her generosity, as well as many other individuals who contributed to the acquisition of the instruments, the Guadagninis are on permanent loan to the ASQ. We are beyond lucky to have them!

What’s so great about a Guadagnini?

There are plenty of great instrument makers. But the really interesting thing about Guadagnini is that unlike most other makers, he moved around during his lifetime and therefore didn’t have a regular stock of wood or stencils that he made from. This means that his instruments can be radically different from each other, and that is true of the four instruments in the ASQ. Take the two violins, for instance – you couldn’t actually couldn’t pick two more different sounding instruments! It’s great!

Of course, all musicians will have an independent timbre and expression. But still, when you’re all performing the same music on the same maker’s instruments…how does it sound?

Well, because each instrument and performer is so different, you hear the individual characters come through which is great. In my opinion, you want a quartet to have four very different players – it makes things more interesting!

The tricky thing is when you want to blend in a certain way that means you have to fight the instrument a bit. The violin I play is incredibly dark in character, and sometimes has difficulty projecting between a very bright violin and viola. The A string on Steve’s viola actually sounds much brighter than the A string on my violin, for instance, so he has to tone it down sometimes and I have to sound…less like a viola!

How old are each of your instruments?

They range from 1743 to 1784. The cello is the oldest, followed by the second violin, then the viola, and finally the first violin.

The cello and second violin were made in Piacenza and the other two were made decades later in Turin. Unfortunately, we don’t know much more than that.

When you acquire an instrument, it’s rare that you learn its full history, which is a bit of a shame, but it’s also interesting to ponder over. The violin I play is in absolutely impeccable condition – not one crack in its centuries of existence! It also has changed a lot in the last three years – or maybe I have? – which makes me think that it may have spent some years in a cupboard somewhere, but I can’t be sure.

How is it even possible that all players in your quartet are matched to Guadagnini craftsmanship? To get a little Harry Potter, isn’t choosing the perfect instrument kind of like a wizard choosing the perfect wand?

Haha! Well, it’s interesting, because we actually weren’t matched to our instruments. They were chosen by previous members of the ASQ and handed to us when we filled the positions, so it’s kind of the opposite scenario, and certainly more interesting!

I showed up to my trial in Adelaide with just my bow and a shoulder rest, thinking this violin is basically going to shoot out rainbows and make me sound like Janine Jansen, but it was not the case at all! I sounded pretty terrible. It’s a miracle they gave me the job!

So what influence do your instruments have on the repertoire you choose to play together?

Happily, none. We play music that we resonate with, and the instruments come along for the ride. It’s always been the case throughout history. All of these old instruments had longer necks grafted on, steel strings replaced gut and bows evolved to sustain sound as composers kept coming up with new ideas. Things are always changing.

During our last tour, we played a contemporary piece by Jörg Widmann, which is pretty crazy and involves a heap of extended techniques that sound pretty brutal. We found ourselves thinking, ‘Here we are making some really awful sounds of prized, million-dollar instruments after decades of individual study and practice to basically avoid sounding like this…’.

We had one audience member tell us off for putting the poor instruments through it!

The poor Guadagnini. Do other stringed instruments now just sound weird to you?

Haha! Am I now an instrument snob? No. The violin I played prior to the Guadagnini was a $5,000 English violin that I had since I was 12, and was almost certainly made as a cheap trade instrument. It had painted-on, fake purfling; and F-holes so close together, it could only fit a 3/4 sized bridge. I absolutely adore it still. It won me my first job and, just like the Guadagnini violin, it presented me with a bunch of issues I had to learn to overcome. We grew together.

You can tell a quality instrument when you hear one. But some of the best instruments can’t be attributed to a maker, just as some instruments by great makers can be….not so great…

What advice would you give emerging string players in choosing their own instrument?

Unless your violin is really awful, don’t buy a new instrument before you absolutely exhaust every possibility of the one you’re already playing.

Besides working on how to literally draw out the sound you want to make, change the set-up, experiment with different strings, make sure your fingerboard isn’t full of potholes. If it’s not getting much better, invest in a great bow instead. A new bow can completely change your sound, and what you think you are capable of with the same violin.

I was told once to buy a new violin when I was studying, and I’m glad I didn’t. Working on getting the best sound I could with the instrument I had made me a thousand-times better violinist. If I had taken the advice and bought the violin, it would have robbed me of that experience…and left me with a huge debt!

That said, if you absolutely need a new violin, try many before you settle on one. Take them to different rooms and halls, and have people listen to you playing it. Also, we’re all guilty of this, but don’t just bust out loud bits of concertos. Play the violin in orchestra and in chamber music rehearsals. It’s not just the projection that you want, but the colours and softer characters, too!

Any parting words?

Whilst us members of the ASQ are so incredibly lucky to have this set of amazing instruments from UKARIA, in our possession, for those who don’t have the privilege of being lent a Guadagnini, don’t forget that so much of the sound you make is your own. Yes, the better the instrument, the more colours and sounds it will enable you to discover. But it’s not going to replace hours of practice. In fact, it will probably make you have to practice a lot more…

Francesca will perform with the Australian String Quartet and ANAM Musicians in Benjamin Britten & the String Quartet 1, 11am September 7 at ANAM, South Melbourne Town Hall. She will return for the following concert Benjamin Britten & the String Quartet 2, 7.30pm September 8 at ANAM.

 

Check back in soon for our next What the Fact?! with professionals in the music industry.

CATCH UP: Nick Deutsche, who will also perform with Francesca on September 7, explains how to tune your instrument LIKE A TOTAL PRO.

 

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