INSTRUMENTS -
Fiorini:
The violin upon which Pia plays in most of her performances is a rich-sounding
instrument with a beautiful reddish tint and was build in 1894 by the Italian
violin maker Raffaele Fiorini (1828-1898). With many apprentices and a son,
Giuseppe, who continued his father’s passion and work, Raffaele Fiorini
is known as the founder of the Bolognese violin making school. While Raffaele
was looking for new methods of making instruments, Giuseppe attempted to revive
the methods of the older “golden age” violin makers. With both
approaches father and son Fiorini influenced the future generations of violin
builders.
Rogeri:
For Baroque performances, Pia also enjoys playing an instrument dating
from the beginning of the 18th century made by Giambattista Rogeri
(1650-1730), a fellow student with Stradivarius in Amati’s workshop.
Modelled on the violins of Amati, Pia’s Rogeri has a fine and crisp
tone very apt for the sound ideals of the Baroque period. Pia was 12 years
old when she received the Rogeri from her first violin teacher, who
was then 92 and at the end of a long career. In the beginning of the 20th
century, he fled his native Russia with little more than his violin,
intending to travel to the United States. His journey, however, stopped
in Denmark, where he married and pursued his career as a concert violinist
and teacher. Nearly one hundred years after the beginning of his travel
from Russia, the sound of his violin has finally reached its destination.
Norwegian Hardanger Fiddle:
After a year of study in Oslo in the mid 1980s, Pia travelled to the northernmost
parts of Norway where she met with local fiddlers and purchased a Norwegian “Hardanger
Fele”. This instrument has nine strings - four to play, and five that
vibrate sympathetically with the sonorities created by the bowed strings. |
