In 2014, New York-based violinist Ray Iwazumi performed a concert playing a replica of Il Cannone, a famous violin used by Niccolo Paganini and originally created by Giuseppe Guarneri. He hopes to recapture the success of that show when playing a different replica this weekend in Tokyo.
The violin he'll use is a copy of a 1733 del Gesu (a term used to refer to violins created by Guarneri), and both it and the Il Cannone replica were created by Tokyo-based violin maker Andreas Preuss. The original del Gesu was regularly used by famed violinist and composer Fritz Kreisler.
"When Preuss suggested presenting a concert using this exquisite replica of Kreisler's violin, it was only natural to consider either programming a concert of Kreisler's own works, or to relive the spirit of his concerts by borrowing an actual program Kreisler had played. We chose the latter," Iwazumi tells The Japan Times via email.
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