Highly Strung

I was recommended to the players that were there at the time.

We went in and played and I thought, “This is really cool.

Move to Adelaide, get away from the madness of Melbourne

and really focus on doing one thing.”

Kristian had been asked to join.

Then he gave me a call and convinced me, “Why not come and have a play?”

A friend of mine had met him and said, “Look out for this guy.

You’ll get to know him and meet him. He’s a good bloke.”

We had that introduction and then, yeah, became friends after that.

When the previous second violinist and cellist were moving on,

I just immediately thought, I have to express my interest to Kristian,

so he organized for us to play together.

That was a very good experience.

I got a call from Steve King. He offered me a trial.

I came to Adelaide for the first time and rehearsed with the guys.

Then we did a national tour. That served as my trial.

At the end of that tour,

Steve and Kristian told Ioana and myself that we’d got the gig.

We had the job.

Kristian and I had the privilege of really forming our own quartet in a way.

I think it’s about finding the people that have the same level of passion.

It’s my very great privilege to introduce to you

the two new members of the Australian String Quartet--

Ioana Tache and Sharon Draper.

Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Kristian and Ioana,

I welcome you all to this ceremony today.

Yeah, we kind of took everyone by surprise.

But I think that surprise is something that will be remembered as part--

There’s that experience that you’re talking about, of people saying,

“Wow, they’ve only been together, like, for a couple of weeks,

and, you know, now they get married?”

We’re just lucky that we both felt this strong musical connection

with working with each other.

But then the other side of things also happened to be just as powerful.

And Kristian and Ioana love each other.

The bride should be in the middle.

What am I supposed to do? I’ve never done this before.

Hi!

How many have you put me in?

I guess it’s not uncommon. You have two married couples in the Goldner Quartet.

...to share my life with me.

I don’t think having a relationship or marriage in a quartet should affect it.

Normally it’s on the left, but being a violinist, the ring gets in the way.

And the world will know that I am yours.

Naturally these things can work. It can become a match made in heaven.

Or it could fall apart.

I think we’re the only string quartet in the world

with a set of Guadagnini instruments.

For Ulrike, this has been her passion--

to have the Australian String Quartet playing on a set of four Guadagninis.

There’s something within me that...

is music.

I came to Australia with no capital, no assets, no money.

I came with a vision.

My husband, Jurgen, and I planned to create a skin care company

based on the healing properties of herbs.

Jurlique became a successful company.

Music was from the very beginning a part of our life here.

It was hard work, but it was very fulfilling.

And now I’m on a different journey,

something which gives meaning to my life.

She heard the quartet play with a guest artist

who had a beautiful instrument.

I’m not sure if it was a Guadagnini or a Stradivarius,

but it was an instrument of that sort of quality.

The sound he could produce on that instrument

had such a magic, had such a warmth.

The nuances were so obviously different

to the nuances that musicians of the ASQ could produce.

Suddenly I thought,

“We just have to do something about that.”

I was manager of ASQ at that time.

I was sort of thinking, “Really? What do you mean by ‘good’ instruments?”

Then it became clear that she meant really good instruments.

From there, the journey started.

When they asked us to help with sourcing some instruments,

of course, we immediately started looking,

very aware that the project was about acquiring very top-level examples.

So we do have an interesting Guadagnini, as it happens.

The name “Guadagnini” came up.

I had never heard about it. It was a totally new name.

Guadagnini was an unusual maker

inasmuch as he worked in a number of cities.

So he was slightly outside of the normal mold.

I had no idea about price tags.

If you want the very best,

you’re really paying a huge premium for that final 20%.

I must say I was a little bit overwhelmed,

but I could see that there is behind that is a much bigger vision.

Something could be done for the culture of Australia

to have these instruments permanently in Australia.

We set up a foundation so that they could be held in perpetuity,

and that’s actually how Ngeringa Arts was born.

It’s unusual to have a quartet of the same maker.

You’ve got a whole group of instruments

that are, if you like, equally sought after by the players.

It’s got huge power. It has depth.

It’s like a king-- a really good, very noble,

wise, understanding, but powerful king.

You can tell instantly that this is a really special instrument.

The whole room, it seems, just starts to buzz and vibrate

at the sound of these four instruments playing together.

I’ve never experienced anything like that before.

The first day that I got it, it was on my back--

We were just walking to the taxi, and it kind of hit me.

I have a Guad. It’s in my possession now.

To think that this thing-- 250-plus years old--

that in all that time nobody has come up with a better design.

It’s stood the test of time more than anything else I can think of,

apart from the wheel.

If you want the very best,

you’re going to be looking at one of those great 18th-century instruments.

At the time in Cremona, it was a perfect storm of craftsmanship...

generations of expertise.

These violin makers really had it down to a science.

They really understood acoustics, I believe,

in a way that we don’t even understand today.

That’s why Cremona becomes the fountain of violin making.

When I learned that luthiers from all over the world

would come to Cremona to have a look at this set of Guadagninis,

I must say I was a little bit nervous.

One of the luthiers came up to me and said,

“Thank you for taking care of our heritage

and allowing now these instruments to have a voice.”

That really touched me, because that’s how I see it as well.

We are the custodians of four incredibly rare masterpieces.

They treated them as a very fine-crafted jewel

of the past, of this master.

We made this trip to Cremona, and we were led by Roberto.

Ciao.

He opened the door into the world of violin making as it is today.

Here is a violin maker.

This is another violin maker.

Another one.

You know, in Cremona today, we have something like 150 violin makers.

Questo è il mio amico Scott.

Scott Hicks, he is making a movie.

Is this what you’re working on now?

Is a copy of--

The violin of Paganini, which is very good acoustically.

Bravo, Gaspar. Very nice.

- Grazie. Ci vediamo. Ciao. - Ci vediamo. Ciao.

Just to have the four Guadagninis back in Italy,

to have them in Cremona, was like those Guadagninis had come home.

You were most likened to our distinguished violin makers from Cremona.

We’ll share the beauty of this instrument made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini.

I can look at a work of Guadagnini and say, well,

“What would another great violin maker do,

knowing what he knew about Cremona and Stradivari instruments?”

Learning what you could learn from Strads,

there’s a precision of the workmanship that is studiable, copiable.

This is the next chapter of the story of violin making.

So Roberto came into our lives.

We really connected straightaway.

And this idea came to have a copy made of the cello,

which is the oldest and most mysterious instrument of the four.

Having a copy made to give to a young musician,

it seemed like a really worthwhile thing to do.

Okay.

Perfect.

Making a copy is a very traditional way

to learn how another master did it in the past.

Isn’t that how Guadagnini learned?

Exactly. Bravissimo .

The next step is going to be choosing the wood.

There’s a long tradition of knowing and selecting wood.

Okay.

Already 200 or 300 years ago, in the time of the great master luthiers...

this knowledge existed among the forest rangers.

So if we want to select a bit of wood for violins,

we should look from this part here to this part here.

These can easily be for violins.

We mark it like this with “R” for “resonance.”

“R” is for “resonating.”

As we have to make a copy--

We have this flaw,

so I find pieces with the flaw around this area.

When you work on a top like this,

you’re starting from a big piece of wood.

All these noise, they are really nice.

I think an interesting violin is one that’s made freely,

where you see the hand working.

People love them. They sense that. They feel it. They also sound better.

Very good.

It’s certainly what I love about Italian violin making

and what I try to do in my own work.

The culture of violin making, the culture of...

Voilà.

...loving the piece of work that you nurture by hand

and bringing out the sound,

there’s something really beautiful about that.

Good. I like it.

And it harks back to a beautiful time in European history.

I have a tool for retrieving the sound post,

but-- this way, it’s much easier, more fun.

This is the sound post.

What is it that makes a violin?

The genius of putting a sound post in an instrument--

that changes the way an instrument’s working.