Pauline Hardiing (left)and Charlotte Smith (right)test bows at Londons Royal College of Music
ALL BOW TESTING PHOTOS PAULINE HARDING
In an age of dwindling pemambuco, carbon fibre bows are on the rise. There was a time when the string playing community looked on such items with a certain degree of snobbery - and sometimes with good reason. But in recent years a number of enterprising makers, determined to take up the challenge of creating top-quality alternatives to wooden bows, have brought increasingly sophisticated models to the market. These handmade items, aimed at professional players, are light years away from the early experiments, yet a surprising number of players are still unaware of their capabilities.
We decided to put the bows of five leading makers to the test. To account for the very personal relationship between string player and bow, our experiment featured four musicians, each with quite different instruments and playing styles. Our contributing editor Pauline Harding and I tested the violin bows, while professional freelance musicians Victoria Beattie and Katy Whittle tested the cello bows. My own violin is a 1770 French model by Chappuy, Paulines is a Jurgen Manthey from 2004, Victorias cello is a handmade Chinese instrument from 1993 and Katy’s is a Kai-Thomas Roth from 2002.