GOOSBY ON GETTING TO KNOW A STRAD
‘I’ve been playing the Cremonese ‘Strauss’ Stradivari of 1708, on loan from the Samsung Foundation of Culture, Korea, since January so we’re still getting to know each other! A luthier once told me that whatever it is that you’re trying to do physically, whether it be left-hand or right-hand technique, a great violin is like an amplifier for all of those nuances and details. I didn’t really understand that fully until I started playing the Strad. The slightest little deviation in the left-hand frame or the angle of the bow, the angle of the fingers of the left hand when you put them down, can have the biggest effect on the sound. It’s very comforting and inspiring to know just how many possibilities exist in an instrument of this calibre.