The city of Cremona, 90 kilometers south-east from Milan, will inaugurate on Sept. 14. its ‘Museo del Violino’. The town where Antonio Stradivari and other master violin-makers worked, is to celebrate this grand opening with a month long ‘Stradivarifestival’ from 14 September to 13 October, through exhibitions, concerts and meetings.
The museum features a recreated violin-maker’s shop, where visitors can watch how the instruments are hand crafted. Other topics are the origins of the violin, ‘Classical Cremonese Violin Making’, the spread of the violin, objects belonging to Stradivari and also the ‘treasure box’ where one can admire creations of Stradivari and other famous Cremona violin-makers, the Amati and the Guarneri families, with the instruments in protective showcases, and hear violins being played.
‘Il Museo del Violino’ also has its own auditorium with 450 seats, conceived as a form of expression of the beauty of instruments and made of soft volumes, sinuous lines chasing each other and drawing a great organic sculpture which expresses the spreading of sound waves. The hall’s particular architecture presents a final suggestion: the stage is at the center of the scene, the audience wrapped around the musicians and the dialogue that is created between audience and players produces strong empathy and allows a new experience which goes beyond the classical concert concept.
The audience ‘wraps around’ the musicians in the auditorium at the Museo del Violino
Photo: G.Arvedi / Museo del Violino
