Giovanni Battista Guadagnini

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini
Background information
Also known as	G. B. Guadagnini Giambattista Guadagnini
Born	(1711-06-23)23 June 1711 Bilegno in Val Tidone, Italy
Died	Turin, Italy
Occupation(s)	Luthier, pedagogue
Years active	1729–1786

Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (or "G. B. Guadagnini"); (23 June 1711 – 18 September 1786) 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".

Biography

Guadagnini was born in Bilegno in Val Tidone near Piacenza, now in Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He practiced his craft from about 1729 until his death, and 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. The instruments of the Milan and Turin periods are generally considered to represent his best work, and tend toward higher valuations. The world-record price for a Guadagnini violin was set by the ‘Dorothy DeLay’ of 1778 when it auctioned for $1.39 million USD in 2013 by Tarisio Auctions. However, private sales for his finest examples have approached $2 million USD.

Guadagnini's father, Lorenzo, his son, Giuseppe, and some other members of the Guadagnini family continued in the line of violin making through several generations.

He died in Turin in 1786.

Performers who have used or are using Guadagnini instruments

Violinists

Violinist	Date & place of manufacture	Instrument name	Comments	Reference
Mayumi Seiler	Circa 1940, Piacenza
Riccardo Brengola	1747, Piacenza	"Contessa Crespi"		[5]
Goran Končar	1753, Milan			[6]
Michał Kowalkowski	1753	"Gucio"
Adolf Brodsky	1751, Milan	ex-Brodsky		[7]
Amaury Coeytaux	1773			[8]
Roman Simovic	1752		on loan from Jonathan Moulds	[9]
Manfred Leverkus	1752	ex-Kneisel	missing since 2006
Zakhar Bron	1757, Milan			[10]
Andrew Dawes	1770, Parma			[11]
Julia Fischer	1742			[12]
Felix Ayo	1744			[13]
David Halen	1753			[14]
Carl Flesch		ex-Henri Vieuxtemps		[15]
Min-Jeong Koh	ca. 1767			[16]
David Garrett	1772		In 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 Greed	1757		Owned by the Yorkshire Guadagini 1757 Syndicate.	[17]
Arthur Grumiaux		ex-Grumiaux		[18]
Willy Hess	1740s			[19]
Marlene Hemmer	1784			[20]
Joseph Joachim	1767, Parma	ex-Joachim		[21]
Ida Kavafian	1751			[22]
David Kim	1757		on loan from The Philadelphia Orchestra	[23]
Manfred Leverkus	1752	ex-Kneisel	stolen in 2006
Mikhail Kopelman	1773			[24]
Jan Kubelik	1750	ex-Kubelik		[25]
Pekka Kuusisto	1752		on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation	[26]
Wayne Lin	1779, Turin			[27]
Tasmin Little	1757			[28]
Haldon Martinson	1750		Being used in the Boston Symphony Orchestra	[29]
Viktoria Mullova	1750			[30]
Linda Rosenthal	1772, Turin			[31]
Leon Sametini		ex-Sametini		[32]
Yvonne Smeulers	1785			[33]
Lara St. John	1779	Salabue	called "the Resurrection" by St. John	[34]
Henri Temianka	1752		Built on the Petro Guarnerius model.	[Certificate of Joseph Vedral, violinmaker, Holland, 28 September 1929]
Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio	1757			[35]
Lyndon Johnston Taylor	1777			[36]
Vanessa-Mae	1761	"Gizmo"		[37]
Henri Vieuxtemps		ex-Henri Vieuxtemps		[38]
Henryk Wieniawski	1750	ex-Wieniawski		[39]
Eugène Ysaÿe	1774	ex-Eugène Ysaÿe		[40]
Sini-Maaria Simonen	1760		on loan from the Finnish Cultural Foundation	[41]
Bob Wills	1784		Described as 157 years old when bought in 1941 for $3,000.00, Wills later claimed in an interview that he gave it away "to a friend of mine in Tayxas" and bought another for $5,000.00.
Jack Liebeck	1785	ex-Wilhelmj		[42]
Li Chuan Yun	1784		on loan from the Stradivari Society	[43]

Violists

• Li-Kuo Chang plays the 'ex-Vieuxtemps' G.B. Guadagnini viola, Parma c.1768
• Geraldine Walther plays a G.B. Guadagnini viola, Turin 1774

Cellists

• Natalie Clein plays the "Simpson" Guadagnini cello (1777)
• David Geringas plays a G.B. Guadagnini cello made in 1761
• Maxine Neuman plays a 1772 Guadagnini
• Han-na Chang plays the G.B. Guadagnini cello made in Milan in 1757
• Gilberto Munguia plays a G.B. Guadagnini cello (1748)
• Saša Večtomov played a G.B. Guadagnini cello made in Milan in 1754
• Sol Gabetta plays a G.B. Guadagnini cello (1759)
• Carter Brey, principal cellist of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, plays a Guadagnini made in Milan in 1745

Bibliography

• Guadagnini
• G B Guadagnini
• E.N. Doring: The Guadagnini Family of Violin Makers (Chicago,1949)
• A.H. König, ed.: Die Geigenbauer der Guadagnini-Familie. Die Turiner Schule (Frankfurt, 1981)
• G. Fiori: ‘Documenti biografici di artisti e personaggi piacentini dal ’600 all’ ’800 nell’Archivo Vescovile di Piacenza’, Strenna piacentina (1994), 67–111
• P.J. Kass: Violin Makers of the Piedmontese School
• Walter Hamma, Meister Italienischer Geigenbaukunst, Wilhelmshaven 1993, ISBN 3-7959-0537-0
• Duane Rosengard: G.B. Guadagnini - The life and achievement of a master maker, Carteggio Media, 2000

External links

• Images of the ex-Joachim G.B. Guadagnini Turin 1775