Davide Alogna performs twelve contemporary compositions on the 1690 ‘Stephens’ Stradivari violin in a new album
Who says you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? A new album showcasing the brilliance of contemporary composers has the 1690 ‘Stephens’ Stradivari violin at its heart, which gives voice to a host of modern compositions.
Symphonic Stradivarius features violinist Davide Alogna performing on the aforementioned Strad, along with the London Symphony Orchestra, an album of repertoire exploring the environmental themes of our world by twelve living composers.
’The 1690 “Stephens” Stradivari belongs to the very first group of red varnished violins ever made,’ says Alogna. ’This trend was almost certainly triggered by the order of a quartet of instruments from Antonio Stradivari by the Medici court in 1690. It coincides with Stradivari’s innovation of his model, where he combined the model of Maggini with the longer body length and his previous Amati-style pattern, culminating in the outstanding sound of those long-pattern violins from the 1690s.’
This violin was recently used and played by Nancy Zhou, who won the 2018 Isaac Stern International Violin Competition in Shanghai. It has been on loan to gifted violinists during the past ten years through the Florian Leonhard Fellowship and is considered one of the best-sounding Stradivari instruments ever created.
The 1690 ‘Stephens’ Stradivari takes its name from Alfred Stephens, who bought the violin in 1928 from Nathan Posner. Stephens also owned the 1714 ‘Joachim-Ma’ Stradivari violin, which will go up for auction in February 2025 by Sotheby’s New York with an estimated value of $12-18 million.
Italian violinist Alogna is a graduate of the ‘G.Verdi’ Conservatory in Como and the Paris Conservatoire, where he graduated with a ’Premier Prix a l’unanimité.’ He enjoys an international performing career and has recorded for Naxos, including premiere recordings of Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco’s violin works, as well as Respighi’s Violin Concerto. He is a violin professor at the ’F. Cilea’ Conservatory in Reggio Calabria.
Symphonic Stradivarius features works by Sophia Serghi, Joseph T. Spaniola, Mark Dal Porto, Deborah Kavash, Liova Bueno, Barbara Jazwinski, Nan Avana, Michael J. Evans, Derek A. McKinney, Marcos Mares-McKinney, Paul Paccione and Richard E. Brown, performed by Alogna and the LSO, conducted by Miran Vaupotić. It is available now on Navona Records.
All photos courtesy Benjamin Ealovega.
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