Event of the year at the Museum of Music:
Russia and Italy open a unique exhibition of Stradivarius violins Automatic translate

The exhibition "Myth of Stradivarius", a unique joint project of VMOMK named after M.I. Glinka (Russia) and the Museum of the Violin (Italy), began its work on November 30 at the Central Museum of Musical Culture and presented the masterpieces of the masters of the Italian school - Stradivari, Amati, Guarneri.

On November 30, at the Central Museum of Musical Culture, with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the grand opening of a unique exhibition of violins by the famous masters of the Italian school Myth Stradivarius, prepared by the joint efforts of VMOMK named after IM Glinka (Moscow) and the Museum of the Violin (Cremona), was held. According to the president of the Stradivarius Foundation, Paolo Bodini, this project is “the first event of its kind not only in Russia but also throughout Eastern Europe and Asia,” which combined the richest collections of the two museums.

The exhibition features 15 instruments by Antonio Starduvari, Andrea and Nicolo Amati, Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu, Enrico Cheruti and other Italian masters who mark the various stages of the long history of violin business in Cremona, acquainting viewers not only with the history of creating violins, but also with secrets skills, stages of production, design and assembly of tools.

Mikhail Bryzgalov, Director General of the All-Russian Museum Association of Musical Culture, spoke about the unique musical objects presented at the exhibition: “Today we present 15 instruments. 10 masterpieces - from the state collection of musical instruments of Russia and 5 instruments that were specially brought to us from the Violin Museum of the city of Cremona specially for this exhibition. And here are a few words-characteristics: the oldest instrument presented at the exhibition, the Amati violin, which the master created in 1566, the Amati violin, which was made in 1628, is an instrument with tremendous preservation, the famous Stradivarius violin of 1671, made according to forms of Amati, the alt of 1715, which is in a state of play today, is one of the 10 Stradivarius altos preserved in the world, and, according to experts, it is one of the best instruments in the world in this genre and much more. ”

One of the main sections of the exhibition “Workshop of the violin master” opens the veil of secrecy of Antonio Stradivari, whose name is among the ten most famous Italian names around the world and whose violins are recognized as reference and still have high prices at auctions. Here you can see the path to the birth of masterpiece violins through complex processes that require the master to have multifaceted talents, devotion and love for his work.

During the opening ceremony, the first adviser to the Italian Embassy in Russia Walter Ferrara spoke about the importance of Italian culture for Russia: “This exhibition is a great example of Italian-Russian cooperation. This event becomes one of those events in which the Italian Embassy took part. These days we summed up our activities. We calculated that over the past year, Italy in Russia held more than 150 events that affected all spheres of culture. These events were attended by over a million people. And in this context, music is one of the foundations of Russian-Italian cooperation. ”

At the end of the opening ceremony, Mikhail Bryzgalov announced the creation of Russia’s first Center for the Restoration of Musical Instruments, aimed at preserving the museum fund of Russia, one of the largest in the world: “After some time, specialists will also appear in the field of restoration and manufacture of musical instruments. First we will start with strings and, of course, we will come to wind instruments. ”

The evening ended with a wonderful concert of the laureates of international competitions Sergey Pospelov, Gayk Kazayan, Fedor Belugin. The performances of young virtuosos on the instruments presented at the Myth Stradivarius exhibition were greeted by prolonged applause from the public.

About Cremona

The small Italian town of Cremona, home to only 72,000 people, is the only point on the world map, where for five centuries the traditions of violin making have been passed down from generation to generation. It was here in the XV – XVI centuries. Andrea Amati created his first violin, and after 150 years, Antonio Stradivari brought his creation to perfection.

Cremona is a truly unique city, and not only because of the Golden Age heritage of the Cremona violin school, which is presented at the Museum of the Violin, but also because there are more than 150 violin workshops to this day - this is no longer the case in the world. In 2012, the Cremona tradition of making violins was included in the list of masterpieces of the oral and intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO.