Ruggiero Ricci – The Glory of Cremona (180g LP)

Label: Analogphonic  – 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl 

Mastered from the Original Masters of Universal Music!
Limited Edition – Pressed at Pallas in Germany

Violinist Ruggiero Ricci, accompanied by pianist Leon Pommers, performs compositional works by Vivaldi, Mozart, Brahms, Handel and more.

Nobody who attended the session at which Ricci made this unusual recording is likely to forget the sight which greeted one on entering the studio: the long table, flanked by two pistol-packing Pinkerton detectives, bearing no fewer than fifteen of the world’s highest pedigreed violins… Ricci took up the violins one by one, planted his feet firmly on the yellow chalk marks sketched at the prescribed distance from the microphones, and played on each instrument a selection chosen to show it to best advantage. It was a fascinating parade of pieces that are fiddle music par excellence, and Ricci’s masculine, unmincing approach suited most of them very well indeed.
-High Fidelity

Recording first published in 1963

A musical inquiry into the nature of violin sound, comparing the “voices” of fifteen historic and rare instruments made by:
A1: Andrea Amati, c. 1560-70
A2: Antonio Stradivari – The “Rode”, 1733
A3: Nicolo Amati, 1656
A4: Antonio Stradivari – The “Monasterio”, 1719
A5: Joseph Guarneri de Gesù – The “Plowden”, 1735
A6: Antonio Stradivari – The “Spanish”, 1677
A7: Joseph Guarneri de Gesù – The “Lafont”, 1735
B1: Gasparo da Salo, C. 1570-80
B2: Carlo Bergonzi – The “Constable”, 1731
B3: Joseph Guarneri de Gesù – The “De Beriot”, 1744
B4: Antonio Stradivari – The “Madrileño”, 1720
B5: Joseph Guarneri de Gesù – The “Ex-Vieuxtemps”, 1739
B6: Antonio Stradivari – The “Joachim”, 1714
B7: Joseph Guarneri de Gesù – The “Gibson”, 1734
B8: Antonio Stradivari – The “Ernst”, 1709

A brief history on each violin and its ownership is given in booklet