Prince Doria Guarnerius
| The Prince Doria | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Historical Information | |
| Maker | Giuseppe Guarneri |
| City | Cremona, Italy |
| Year | 1734 |
| Characteristics | |
| Instrument | Violin |
| Back | Two pieces |
| Scroll | Giuseppe "Filius Andrea" |
| Neck | Original |
| Harmonic plate | 368.3 Hz |
| Varnish | Golden-red |
| Measurements | |
| Length | Back: 35.1 cm |
| Width | Upper: 16.5 cm |
| Middle: 11 cm | |
| Lower: 20.2 cm | |
| Label | |
| "Joseph Guarnerius fecit
Cremone anno 1734" | |
The Prince Doria is a 1734 violin by renowned Italian luthier, Bartolomeo Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù.[1][2]. It is named after its original owners, the Doria family, who originate in France. Made during Del Gesù’s middle period, it is regarded as one of the best sounding of Guarneri’s remaining instruments[3]. It is currently on display at the Museo del Violino in Cremona, Italy.
Provenance
The Dorias are known to have owned many other fine Italian instruments including the “Armingaud” and the “Marquis Doria” Stradivari, two violins by Giovanni Paolo Maggini, and a decorated quartet commissioned from Jean Baptist Vuillaume.
Archival research on the Doria family and Prince Doria in particular, is ongoing. While a provenance letter by Rembert Wurlitzer indicates a Spanish branch of the Doria family that resided for generations in the city of Toulouse in southern France, a family crest used by Vuillaume to dedicate the Doria Quartet belongs to the Desfriches Doria, a noble family active in the arts, music and politics in Picardy, France.
Ownership
The Prince Doria has had few owners in the past 150 years. After generations of use in the Doria estate, Rembert Wurlitzer - a successful 20th century violin dealer and expert - acquired the violin through the mediation of Andrea Chardon, and in 1950 sold it to Leopold Godowsky Jr., son of the great Russian pianist and co-inventor of Kodachrome film. Godowsky was a concert violinist and had been concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francesco Symphony Orchestra. He married the sister of George Gershwin and, by 1935, transferred to New York City and then to Rochester, New York. Godowsky and pianist friend, Leopold Mannes, perfected color film at the Kodak Labs and were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame for their discoveries.
After 12 years with Godowsky, the Prince Doria was acquired by the Perera family for the aspiring young violinist, Zvi Zeitlin. Lionel Perera was a banker and currency exchange specialist. He played the cello and his wife, Dorothy Perera, was an accomplished violinist. The Perera were active in the musical circles of New York, where they met Zvi Zeitlin, the youngest scholarship student in the history of the Juilliard School and a star student of Sascha Jacobsen, Louis Persinger, and Ivan Galamian [6].
As a violinist herself, Dorothy Perera recognized the difficulty that young artists face in acquiring a first-class concert instrument and decided to help Zeitlin. In a letter from 1962, Rembert Wurlitzer wrote to her:
"We know of no instrument by this maker that from all points of view, and particularly its tonal characteristics, excels the example you have chosen ... Please allow me to tell you again that I think you are doing a wonderful thing in acquiring this very fine instrument for the use of a young artist."
— Rembert Wurlitzer20 March, 1962
Signed letter from Rembert Wurlitzer to Mrs. Lionel Perera, dated March 20, 1962 in New York City
Two years later, Zeitlin premiered the Schoenberg Violin Concerto on the Prince Doria in Buenos Aires and would go on to use it as his concert instrument for over 40 years, making solo appearances with the New York, Los Angeles, and Israel philharmonic orchestras; the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco symphonies; La Scala, Concertgebouw, BBC, and frequent tours of Europe, New Zealand, and Central and South America besides his regular teaching duties as a Distinguished Professor at the Eastman School of Music, before commissioning a replica of the violin from contemporary violinmaker Gregg T. Alf and consigning the original in 2002 for sale to its current owners [4].
Recent Years
Since 2014, The Prince Doria has been on long-term loan to the Museo del Violino (MdV) in Cremona Italy[5]. It has been the subject of a special monograph and an array of studies at the MdV’s Arvedi Laboratory for Non-Invasive Diagnostics [1]. Using scientific tools such as 3D Laser modeling, high resolution UV, VIS, X-ray, Microscopic and Endoscopic imaging, X- Ray Fluorescence Spectroscopy and Reflection Infrared Spectroscopy, more is being discovered about the materials, ground preparation, varnish formulation and working techniques of Guarneri del Gesù[6].
The Prince Doria is also played on special occasions by some of the leading artists of our times [7][8] and has been used to demonstrate specific violinmaking objectives to advanced violinmaking students in Cremona [3] and as far away as the Central Conservatory of Music in the Peoples Republic of China. In 2016 it was played for the King of Belgium in a special Paganiniane Concert presented by the Constantine Order of San Giorgio in Parma’s Basilica della Steccata [9].
The violin has also been presented in special exhibitions around the world, including at the Phoenix Musical Instrument Museum [10], at the Museo Internacional of the Baroque in Puebla (Mexico) [11], and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China.
Instrument
Acoustics
In 2014, The Prince Doria was completely updated with a new set-up and bass bar. At this time, the top and back archings were corrected and deep cleaning of the varnish was performed to remove built-up rosin and polish from the past [6]. Acoustical studies were conducted while the instrument was apart.
Made during Del Gesù’s middle period, the Prince Doria is widely regarded as one of the best sounding of the remaining concert violins by this maker, and has attracted keen interest from acousticians, materials scientists, and contemporary violin makers in their effort to better understand what makes some violins sound so well[6]. In 2019, it was selected for a historic recording in Cremona, Italy designed to archive the unique sound of Cremonese violins[3]. The experience of concert artists who play the violin is that it combines a rare combination of being powerful and strong while at the same time being colorful and warm in timbre.
Recent acoustical tests have shown the back to be quite stiff, with a free plate mode 5 of over 400 Hz despite being of an average weight [3][6]. The back of the violin is also quite thick, ranging from nearly 5 mm at the sound post down to an average of 2.8 to 3 mm in the upper and lower bouts. The top is 3.3 mm at the sound post down to an average of 2.3 to 2.5 mm in the upper and lower bouts.
Certification
Certification of authenticity was issued on October 24th, 1950 by Rembert Wurlitzer, America’s foremost expert at the time.
A second contemporary Certification, by Peter Biddulph[12], was issued with color photographs on February 19th, 2019. It describes the Prince Doria as “a very fine and characteristic example of the master’s work, currently in a very good state of preservation.”
References
- ↑ "Property". Tarisio Cozio Archive. Retrieved 2021-03-22. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Archivio della Liuteria Cremonese | Instruments | 1734 - Violin "Prince Doria"". www.archiviodellaliuteriacremonese.it. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "An Italian Town Fell Silent So The Sounds Of A Stradivarius Could Be Preserved". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-04-22.
- ↑ "Historical Owners (A-Z)". Tarisio. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ↑ "Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù 1734 "Prince Doria" - friends of Stradivari". www.friendsofstradivari.it. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Conferenza - Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù violino 1734 "Principe Doria ", retrieved 2021-03-22
- ↑ Ray Chen al Museo del Violino suona Il Guarneri del Gesù 1734 "Principe Doria", retrieved 2021-03-22
- ↑ The Strad. "Paganini performed on Guarneri del Gesù 'Prince Doria' violin, 1734". The Strad. Retrieved 2021-03-22. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ Alessandrospaghettini (2016-09-01), English: This is the concert scan for a Paganiniane concert organized by the Ordine Constantiniano di San Giorgio in 2016 in Parma. (PDF), retrieved 2021-04-05
- ↑ "MIM Musical Instrument Museum - friends of Stradivari". www.friendsofstradivari.it. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
- ↑ "New exhibition "Los violines de Cremona"". friends of Stradivari. Retrieved 2021-03-22. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Welcome to Peter Biddulph Ltd". www.peterbiddulph.com. Retrieved 2021-03-29.
Further Reading
- The Strad, issue January 1996
- Italian & French Violin Makers, Volume 4, Jost Thöne, Jan Röhrmann, Jost Thöne Verlag, Cologne (illustrated)
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