Da Spalla Cellist Wenhan Jiang visits our workshop
Just after our US trip, on which we’ll report later, we received the visit of Wenhan Jiang, violist (principal viola at Royal Philharmonic Orchestra) and da spalla cellist. He plays on a Violoncello da Spalla made by Daniela Gaidano in 2023, and he visited us for a sound adjustment before his coming Chinese tour.
He will play in solo recital in many important venues, if you want to follow him, here [https://weixin.qq.com/sph/AP3BrqTqjr] is his WeChat/Weixin channel.
He was so generous to play for us, on our instruments, and let us take a lot of videos. We had too little time together, however we could bring him to see the little church close to us that belonged to the family Hafner, a branch of the Mozart’s friends Haffner family, who helped Leopold organizing the first Italian tour. In this church there’s a small wooden altar with the coat of arms of the Hafner, which represents a golden pot with 3 white liliums and which I reproduce on my instruments with the purflings decoration and sometimes with a carving on the back of the pegbox. It is also on my label! As this is now the shield of Meltina, it also represents my gratitude for the beautiful place we live in, and our little connection with Mozart!
Wenhan ended up borrowing a new instrument for his tour and leaving his one to us to change his fingerboard with a solid Sonowood [https://www.swisswoodsolutions.ch/en/] one, that will give him an easier playability. So we will meet him again soon!
In this video you can hear him playing first with his own Violoncello da Spalla, then with Alessandro’s brand new one (settled up for the occasion), and finally with the one he borrowed for the tour, made by Daniela.
If you want to try a Violoncello da Spalla write us a message, and come and visit us: you could also enjoy a holiday in the wonderful Dolomites mountains!
_____
Are you a luthier interested in making a Violoncello da Spalla?
In the archive of this newsletter I documented the whole process, sharing measures and templates. You can check the index and some of the posts at this link, and if you subscribe to a payed plan you have instant access to all the posts and to a private chat where you can ask me any question.
https://violoncellodaspalla.substack.com/t/how-its-made [https://violoncellodaspalla.substack.com/t/how-its-made]
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit violoncellodaspalla.substack.com/subscribe [https://violoncellodaspalla.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]
