A Violinist on Vibrato

Written by Joe Peterson of Fein Violins

According to Leopold Auer, the OG of the Russian school of violin playing, "The vibrato is primarily a means to heighten effect, to embellish and beautify a singing passage or tone. Unfortunately ... players of stringed instruments frequently abuse this effect ... by doing so, they have called into being a plague of the most inartistic nature." The Black Death of stringed instrument playing!  Oddly, any student of his off the top of my head, let's say Heifetz, Zimbalist, or Elman, had a constant vibrato. But I believe he did have a point, as a phrase cannot have a proper shape when there is something static about it. Leopold Mozart has a similar comparison as Auer's to a physical illness: As he delicately puts it,

Italian Violin Makers in Argentina

By Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins

One quintessential quest of many musicians is to find an instrument that gives you that wonderful Stradivarius or Guarnerius sound, at a fraction of the cost. There are any number of possibilities to fulfilling that quest.

One possibility, one that I particularly like, is to find an instrument made by many of the wonderful Italian makers working in the early part of the twentieth century. Many of these instruments are made with outstanding craftsmanship and sound wonderful!

Another possibility, albeit rarer, is to find one of the fine instruments made in Argentina by Italian violin makers, particularly those of the early twentieth century.

The cello made by Luigi Rovatti for Ennio Bolognini

Orchestra Apps: The Symphonic Future?

Written by Joe Peterson of Fein Violins

1.08 billion people. That's around a fifth of the worlds population, and also the number of people who use smartphones (Here's an info-graph showing worldwide Smartphone usage). Nowadays, it's hard to think of a business that can't be accessed on a smartphone through the use of an app or a mobile site, because, chances are, they have one. You have a Chipotle Burritos app, a Starbucks app, a Netflix app, a Best Buy app, the list goes on for miles. Oh yeah, and Fein Violins has one. Go ahead, click to our mobile site.

a bassoon app, a conductor app...

But now, amidst all of the burritos and Frappes and Batman and TVs, there are

Huguette Clark, a few hundred million dollars, a Cezanne painting and several Stradivaris. Eccentric?

By Andy Fein, violin maker at Fein Violins

Huguette Clark passed away in 2011 at the age of 104. She spent the last twenty years of her life living in a hospital room at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City. Not that she needed the hospital room. Or the hospital. Or much attention from doctors and nurses. But she had the money to pay for the twenty year visit and that's where she felt most comfortable. Eccentric? Maybe. Wasteful? Maybe. (She could have spent those years quite comfortably in her 42 room Fifth Ave. apartment, or her estates in California or Connecticut).

The Paganini Quartet of Stradivarius instruments

But it was her money, so who cares? Her distant family. They received a big, fat portion of Bubkis in her will.

Why would I care about this heiress or the legal fight over her estate? Violins, of course. Stradivaris. Several of them. And it's a great story.

The String Instrument FAQ

Written by Andy Fein, luthier at Fein Violins
 and Ben Schuneman

We get tons of questions every day, from friends and customers, about violins. Some are humorous to those of us who are around these instruments every day and know the terminology, but all are asked in complete and earnest sincerity. This will be a running blog that will get refreshed every so often. Enjoy!

"I have a Stradivarius that I found in my attic! It must be one of those lost treasures you hear about all the time! Is it worth millions?"