Yesterday morning I drove up to Freeport to try out some violins for one of my students. Frost Gully Violins has a sun-filled showroom with nice rugs, and before long I was walking around in my socks playing different violins as the very nice and knowledgeable staff (Justin and Kevin, this Saturday) worked at their workbenches.
I chose 2 violins to try for my student out of 6 or so, (turns out I chose the most expensive ones--ack), both French violins. There was a nice Chinese one also, but I didn't think it would suit my student's personality. Funny to think about that, no? But so true.
I would have been done right then and been able to drop off a job at Kinko's in Portland before my rehearsal, but at that moment Justin asked if I'd like to try some of their high-end violins, "just for fun". Well, I couldn't resist. A warm, sunny room, instruments displayed everywhere, lovely acoustics...and violins worth more than cars being delivered to me to play with. Wheeeeee!
I love my violin. But boy, now I have some new loves! I played a very rich-sounding Hungarian violin by Janos Michelberger and was sure I'd found the perfect violin for Tango, until I tried a sweet and powerful Italian violin by Ercule Fodera. These were my 2 favorites of the handful of violins I tried. I also played a newer instrument by Douglas Cox. I had started to play a bit of Bahia Blanca on the Cox while Kevin looked on, and when I hit the first note on the G string I said, "ohh....too bad about the G string". The violin sounds so glorious on the A & E strings that the lower register was a real disappointment. Kevin made a sound post adjustment (a delicate art that totally awes me) and that improved things a bit, but it still needs help.
It was at the moment when I was trying to describe to Justin why I liked one of the Italians over the other that I suddenly understood the language of wine connoisseurs. I had to snort a little at myself for using words like "sweet" and "crisp" and "powerful" and "responsive" and realized that English is sometimes a very poor medium for describing things like sound and taste. From now on, I promise not to roll my eyes when I read the back of a wine bottle.
I finally dragged myself out of there and brought my 2 selections to my student's house so she could play on them this week. She was home by herself and I'm pretty sure she ran up to her room to try them out as soon as I left. :-) I'm not the only one smitten...