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Atelier Johannes Loescher - A friendly collaboration between Italy and Germany
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In 1986 two young musicians
from Germany made friends with each other in Cremona, the homeplace
of the classical school of violin-making.
Their names were Frank Eickmeyer (for his
Italian friends: Francesco Dalla Quercia) and Johannes Loescher.
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Having soon discovered their
shared passion, the cello, Francesco and Johannes spent a lot
of time together working and practising on their beloved instrument
(both were pupils in the local Conservatory, where building and
playing are taught alongside).
They untiringly discussed about
the sound and the tuning of their instruments in order to discover
which wood was the best and how they could work it, thus testing
their ideas and putting them into practice at almost the same
time.
While Francesco mostly dedicated
himself to building modern bowed instruments, Johannes studied
the art of restoration and reconstruction of period instruments
from the Baroque, Classical and Romantic ages. |
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In
1989 Dalla Quercia opened his "bottega" (workshop)
in the very heart of ancient Bologna, while Loescher's path
led him
to Nuremberg, where he went on studying the secrets of restoration
at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum during nearly a decade. Finally,
he was able to open his own shop in Cologne in 1999 as Meister
Johannes Loescher.
Every year the two friends
meet somewhere in Europe in order to inspect large amounts
of trees, such as poplars, firs and maples. |
The output of their quest
is stored in a country-house among the hills south of Bologna.
Quite a few pieces of selected wood, cut from the logs under
their direct supervision, are being seasoned there since ten
-- and even thirteen -- years.
Moreover,
they have in store precious “period” spruce from
the 18th century. Two violins and a viola Francesco has built
out of that wood proved
to be amazing masterpieces for quick response, smooth texture,
richness in overtones which contributes to good projection of
sound. |
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Loescher with a Viola d’Amore by Francesco Dalla Quercia. |
Loescher setting up (regulation of soundpost, bridge, type of strings) a Dalla Quercia cello.  |
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