Giovanni Battista Guadagnini


Giovanni Battista Guadagnini was an Italian luthier, regarded as one of the finest craftsmen of string instruments in history. He is widely considered the third greatest maker after Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri "del Gesù". The Guadagnini family was known for their violins, guitars and mandolins.

Biography

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini was born while both Stradivari and Guarneri were at the zenith of their production years, roughly 30 km away from the City of Cremona on 23 June 1711 at Bilegno in Val Tidone of Piacenza.
Recent research has shed light as to the influence of both Casa Stradivari and Casa Guarneri of Cremona on the lines of symmetry of instruments by Guadagnini, hence J.B. Guadagnini was still a youth while his father Lorenzo, both in Bilegno and Piacenza, was a contributing maker of instruments for Stradivari's workshop, the leading violin shop in the first half of the 18th century.
It was the normative use of trade in 18th-century Italy for a young person to start as an apprentice in a master's workshop around age 12, to be allowed to practice a given trade afterward. Guild shops, either in consortium or under one roof, were headed by a master who provided journeymen papers for successful apprentices. Trade guilds, providing career opportunities for skilled tradesmen including musical instrument makers, were a mercantile arrangement in Europe since medieval times, including in Italy. Guilds were a pre-capitalist industrial organization under ducal oversight which regulated trade practice, quality of articles produced, and pricing policies.
J.B. Guadagnini died in Turin in 1786.

Violin maker

His work is divided into four main periods corresponding to, and named after, Piacenza, Milan, Parma and Turin, the four cities in Italy where he lived and worked. Each period has its own style and characteristic. The Guadagnini's Milan style are more popular in Europe while the Turin style is more sought-after in the United States. Because of different arching built for each style, the Milan models make soft and colorful sound, whereas the Turin models sound are flatter and more powerful.
Appreciation by both connoisseurs and musicians alike attest to the fact that J.B. Guadagnini may possibly be considered the last of the great master violin makers in the second half of the so-called "golden age", while Italy was under Bourbon rule.

Performers with Guadagnini instruments

;Violinists
ViolinistDate & place of manufactureSobriquetCommentsReference
Felix Ayo1744
Riccardo Brengola1747, PiacenzaContessa Crespi
Adolf Brodsky1751, Milanex-Brodsky
Zakhar Bron1757, Milan
Amaury Coeytaux1773
Andrew Dawes1770, Parma
Richard DeakinEnglish chamber musician and soloist, currently teaching at RAM in London, was using one in 1980s and likely still is.
Julia Fischer1742
Carl Flesch1750sex-Henri Vieuxtemps
David Garrett1772In December 2007, Garrett fell after a performance and smashed his Guadagnini, which he had purchased four years earlier for US$1 million. He now uses it for mainly his outdoor crossover performances.
David Greed1757Owned by the Yorkshire Guadagini 1757 Syndicate.
Arthur Grumiaux1752ex-Grumiaux
David Halen1753
Jascha Heifetz1741, Piacenzaex-HeifetzProvenance - by Rembert Wurlitzer in 1946 and Dario D'Attili in 1991
:nl:Marlene Hemmer|Marlene Hemmer1764
Peter Herresthal1753, Milan
Willy Hess1740s
Joseph Joachim1767, Parmaex-Joachim
Ida Kavafian1751
David Kim1757On loan from The Philadelphia Orchestra
Min-Jeong Koh1767
Goran Končar1753, Milan
Mikhail Kopelman1773
Michał Kowalkowski1753Gucio
Jan Kubelik1750ex-Kubelik
Pekka Kuusisto1752On loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation
Manfred Leverkus1752ex-KneiselStolen in 2006
Jack Liebeck1785ex-Wilhelmj
Wayne Lin1779, Turin
Tasmin Little1757, Milan
Mauro Lopes Ferreira
Haldon Martinson1750Being used in the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Stefan Milenkovich1780, Turin
Viktoria Mullova1750
Ginette NeveuPurchased early spring, 1949. Involved in an air crash later that year, in which Neveu died. Scroll later apparently appeared in Paris, having changed hands several times.
David Plantier1766
Simone Porter1745On loan from The Mandell Collection of Southern California
William E. Pynchon1779, TurinPurchased March 26, 1957. Played in San Francisco Opera until 1998
Linda Rosenthal1772, Turin
Leon Sametini1751ex-Sametini
Mari Samuelsen1773, TurinOn loan from ASAF.
Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio1757
Mayumi Seiler1740, Piacenza
Ittai Shapira1745, Piacenza
Sini-Maaria Simonen1760On loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation
Roman Simovic1752On loan from Jonathan Moulds
Yvonne Smeulers1785
Lara St. John1779SalabueCalled "The Resurrection" by St. John
Lyndon Johnston Taylor1777
Henri Temianka1752Built based on the Petro Guarnerius model. Certificate of Joseph Vedral, violinmaker, Holland, 28 September 1929
Vanessa-Mae1761Gizmo
Pablo Valetti1758
Pavel Vernikov1747, Piacenzaex-Contessa Crespi, ex-BrengolaOn loan from Fondazione Pro Canale. Worth $1.5 million in 2016. Stolen in December 2016.
Henri Vieuxtemps1750sex-Henri Vieuxtemps
Henryk Wieniawski1750ex-Wieniawski
Bob Wills1784Described as 157 years old when bought in 1941 for $3,000, Wills later claimed in an interview that he gave it away "to a friend of mine in Tayxas" and bought another for $5,000.
Eugène Ysaÿe1774ex-Eugène Ysaÿe
Li Chuan Yun1784On loan from the Stradivari Society

; Violists
; Cellists
; Groups