
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


Welcome to Cremona - city of the violin. These Italian streets are brimming with horse hairs, varnish and chiselled wood. The central square is lined with storefronts displaying beautifully handcrafted wooden instruments. Braimah Kanneh-Mason, concert violinist and member of the musically gifted Kanneh-Mason family, travels to where the Stradivarius was born. Braimah learns about the techniques used to replicate the world’s most famous stringed instruments in the workshop of world-class violin maker Daniele Tonarelli. It was in Cremona, 500 years ago, that Andrea Amati was credited with inventing the “modern” violin. In his footsteps came the likes of Nicola Amati, Guarneri “del Gesù” and, most famously, Antonio Stradivari, who all perfected their craft in this northern Italian city. Daniele is the latest in a long line of Cremonese luthiers. Braimah gets a taste of the age old recipe that created these musical masterpieces hundreds of years ago. It is still used today. Daniele shows Braimah his newest violin – just 20 days old. How does this youthful instrument feel in the young violinist’s hands, and – more importantly – how does it sound? Are today’s Cremonese luthiers living up to the legacy the great violin makers left behind?
By BBC World Service4.5
3232 ratings
Welcome to Cremona - city of the violin. These Italian streets are brimming with horse hairs, varnish and chiselled wood. The central square is lined with storefronts displaying beautifully handcrafted wooden instruments. Braimah Kanneh-Mason, concert violinist and member of the musically gifted Kanneh-Mason family, travels to where the Stradivarius was born. Braimah learns about the techniques used to replicate the world’s most famous stringed instruments in the workshop of world-class violin maker Daniele Tonarelli. It was in Cremona, 500 years ago, that Andrea Amati was credited with inventing the “modern” violin. In his footsteps came the likes of Nicola Amati, Guarneri “del Gesù” and, most famously, Antonio Stradivari, who all perfected their craft in this northern Italian city. Daniele is the latest in a long line of Cremonese luthiers. Braimah gets a taste of the age old recipe that created these musical masterpieces hundreds of years ago. It is still used today. Daniele shows Braimah his newest violin – just 20 days old. How does this youthful instrument feel in the young violinist’s hands, and – more importantly – how does it sound? Are today’s Cremonese luthiers living up to the legacy the great violin makers left behind?

90,967 Listeners

7,608 Listeners

3,346 Listeners

1,048 Listeners

5,482 Listeners

1,798 Listeners

1,756 Listeners

1,042 Listeners

2,098 Listeners

357 Listeners

347 Listeners

351 Listeners

1,542 Listeners

239 Listeners

473 Listeners

59,413 Listeners

3,165 Listeners

725 Listeners

292 Listeners

15,931 Listeners

482 Listeners

836 Listeners

2,068 Listeners

69 Listeners