German manufacturer Pirastro has created two new cello strings that its technical director Adrian Müller says are the finishing touches to its Perpetual range. ‘Although we’d already covered a lot of what we felt cellists were looking for, there were still a couple of things that needed work,’ he explains. ‘Many players are always searching for a steel A string that gives them more warmth without compromising the power of their tone, for example, which is what the new Perpetual A Soloist Strong has been engineered to do.’ Greater power often equates with significantly higher tension, but Müller was conscious of the demands this puts on players’ instruments. ‘An A string with even higher tension would put a level of strain on the cello that many people, particularly those who play older instruments, would find unacceptable,’ he says. Based on the Perpetual A Soloist string, the A Soloist Strong instead substitutes increased diameter. ’ These changes required us to alter its physical composition, resulting a string that feels very strong under the fingers, almost more like a D.’
A beefed-up construction is also at the root of Pirastro’s other new introduction, the Perpetual C Edition Strong. ‘As with the new A string, we wanted increased power without compromising the warmth or the range of audible overtones,’ says Müller, comparing its sound to a lion’s roar.