Violin making in Milan: overview
- Old Milanese violin making up to the end of the 18th century
- Violin making in Milan: a new heyday in the 20th century
- Contemporary Milanese violin makers
Old Milanese violin making up to the end of the 18th century
Even though Milanese violin making in its origins can hardly be compared to the great epoch of Cremona and Brescia – where masters such as Andrea and Nicolò Amati, Antonio Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù, Gasparo da Salò and Giovanni Paolo Maggini created nothing less than the definition of the violin that would endure for centuries, and a highly productive network of workshops that were successful beyond the region quickly emerged – its roots go back surprisingly far. Although Milan did not yet appear to have a well-differentiated violin-making scene in the late 17th and 18th centuries, the workshops of the Grancino family became the starting point for a tradition that would last for more than 100 years.
Giovanni Battista Grancino (1637–1709) is considered to be the founder of the family tradition. He may have had forerunners and teachers in his father Andrea and grandfather Francesco, and he certainly worked with his brother Francesco between 1666 and 1685. Why his work from the turn of the 18th century shows a clear influence of the Amati school is as unclear as the identity of two other bearers of his name, who have been identified by researchers as his descendants and students; however, it is also possible that Giovanni Battista “I.” only died at the advanced age of around 90 and that they were all the same person.
Even if his works occasionally reveal somewhat simpler standards, for example in the choice of wood – which probably allows conclusions to be drawn about the market conditions in Milan at the time – it is precisely the later instruments from the Grancino workshop that are still in demand today as instruments with a powerful sound, and the high proportion of violoncellos in his overall work justifies Grancino's high standing in the history of this discipline. 
Of Giovanni Battista Grancino's students, who included interesting masters such as Santino Lavazza, Gaetano Pasta and presumably also his father Bartolomeo Pasta, Carlo Rotta and Ferdinando Alberti, the great Carlo Giuseppe Testore (ca. 1660–1716) is probably the one who most deserves the title of legitimate heir to the Grancino tradition. His work, which, like that of his teacher, is famous not least for its outstanding cellos, reflects the style of Grancino, without lacking a strong personal touch. In this style, the older Milanese style developed further and found faithful custodians in Carlo Giuseppe's son Carlo Antonio Testore (1693–ca. 1765) and his son Giovanni Testore (1724–1765). Despite the outstanding abilities of Carlo Antonio in particular, some instruments from his workshop reveal that, like Grancino before him, he was not always able to work for the most affluent clients and was therefore forced to make a number of concessions, especially in terms of aesthetics. These circumstances seem to have weighed even more heavily on the work of his brother Paolo Antonio Testore (ca. 1690 – ca. 1750), who, like his son Gennaro Testore (ca. 1735 – ca. 1800), made instruments with a beautiful sound out of lower-quality woods.
Growing competition may also have played a certain role, resulting from the brief stay of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini in Milan and the rise of the Landolfi family of violin makers. Guadagnini only worked in Milan between 1750 and 58, before moving on to Turin via Cremona and Parma, where he was to make musical instrument history together with Count Cozio di Salabue. But even this short time seems to have been enough to have a lasting effect on the local market for string instruments, as can be seen not least from the work of Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi (ca. 1710–1784). His work shows clear inspiration, perhaps even training by Guadagnini, and this independence from the old Milanese tradition of the Grancino and Testore families brought a previously unknown diversity to Milanese violin making. Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi's school was influenced by his son Pietro Antonio Landolfi (ca. 1730–1795), but even more so by the violin makers of the Mantegazza family, who contributed significantly to the flourishing of violin making in Milan in the last years of the 18th century. In the workshop of Landolfi's student Pietro Giovanni Mantegazza (ca. 1730–1803), there were probably up to five other members of the family, whose exact family relationships remain a mystery to this day. What is well known, however, is the basis of their economic success: their extensive collaboration with Count Cozio di Salabue, who had numerous old Italian master violins “modernized” by the Mantegazzas. They apparently also completed many violins from the estate of Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, which Cozio had purchased on a large scale from his Turin partner.
Violin making in Milan: a new heyday in the 20th century
For reasons unknown, the Grancino-Testore and Guadagnini-Landolfi-Mantegazza lines of tradition did not continue into the early 19th century. Although violin making in Milan did not come to a complete standstill in the following decades, it would take almost a century before Milanese workshops were able to regain their former regional prominence.
The field was prepared by smaller ateliers, some of which produced good instruments without, however, having any kind of influence or forming a school themselves – and the Monzino company, founded around 1750, which had become internationally successful with the construction and distribution of plucked instruments and probably under the leadership of Giacomo Antonio II. Monzino (1772–1854) began to turn to the making of string instruments.
Toward the end of the 19th century, Leandro Bisiach (1864–1946) was also attracting excellent violin makers to his workshop in Milan, including his teacher Riccardo Antoniazzi (1853–1912), who had his own workshop in the 1870s and 80s, worked with Leandro Bisiach from 1886 to 1904, and then in the Monzino workshop during three periods of work, all of which were characterized by high standards of violin making in their own contexts. In the early 20th century, experienced, innovative master luthiers gathered in Milan as if to resume the tradition that had been interrupted 100 years earlier: In addition to the sons of Leandro Bisiach – Andrea Bisiach (1890–1967), Carlo Bisiach (1892–1968), Giacomo Bisiach (1900–1995) and Leandro II Bisiach (1904–1982) – mention should also be made of Gaetano Sgarabotto (1878–1959), who, with the support of Antoniazzi and Leandro Bisiach, taught himself to become a master who received many awards, as well as Luigi Galimberti (1888–1957), Ambrogio Sironi (1902–1939) and Raffaelo Bozzi (1905–1981).
Alongside Bisiach, Celeste Farotti (1864–1928) also established himself in Milan from 1900. He was an equally talented luthier who came from the same region as Leandro Bisiach and quickly made a name for himself with demanding repairs. Farotti became a true rival to Bisiach, who was only two months younger, when, encouraged by his successes, he turned to making new instruments and established a style that, with its orientation towards Giovanni Francesco Pressenda and Giuseppe Rocca, stood in interesting contrast to the emerging new Milan school. He was supported by Alfred Lanini (1891-1956), whose apprenticeship with Antoniazzi was cut short by the master's early death. After his time with Farotti, he worked in his native California as a highly productive and experimental master, as did his nephew Celestino Farotto (1905–1988), who also worked for Bisiach after the Second World War and received numerous awards for his extensive work.
Contemporary Milanese violin makers
Not least because of the Civica Scuola di Liuteria di Milano, the violin-making school founded in 1978, Milan now has a firm place in the world of violin making. But even outside the teaching workshops, a small but lively and interesting violin-making scene has emerged that ties in with the impulses of new Milanese violin making.
The most prominent example of this continuity is undoubtedly the luthier Nicola Enrico Antonio Monzino (1970–), with whom the tradition of this renowned family business has long since passed its 250th year. In the spirit of his grandfather Antonio VI Carlo Monzino (1909–2004), the heir to this long line of successful entrepreneurs and violin makers sees his workshop as a studio of classical violin-making excellence – as a new “Laboratorio Monzino”.
Delfi Merlo (1961–) is closely associated with the institutions of Milan's musical life. He began his career in 1977 as an apprentice to Monzino and a few years later completed a classical violin-making apprenticeship at the Scuola di Liuteria in Cremona. After opening his workshop, he received restoration orders from the Musical Instrument Museum in Milan's Castello Sforzesco and worked for the conservatory and the famous Teatro alla Scala. Since the early 1990s, he has also built a strong international reputation for newly made instruments.
One of the younger graduates of the Milanese school of violin making is Lorenzo Rossi, who discovered his love of violin making while studying physics. Since graduating, he has continued his education in numerous courses with international masters such as Carlos Arcieri and Guy Rabut, not least in the most modern restoration techniques. He has received multiple awards for his instruments at renowned exhibitions such as the Concorso Triennale Internazionale die Liuteria Antonio Stradivari.
Other, no less interesting accents are set by Stefano Bertoli, who also studied at the Milan school and has since worked closely with Carlo Chiesa. Bertoli shares a particular interest in classical craftsmanship techniques with another graduate of the same school, who has inspired him to take a deeper interest in the art of woodcarving.
