Violin making in Turin first appears on the musical instrument scene around the mid-17th century, and from the outset it was characterised by exceptionally high-quality craftsmanship, which was practised by a few master luthiers, most of whom were immigrants. Their personal achievements helped Turin to become the leading centre of violin making south of the Alps, while Italian violin making as a whole fell into a crisis after the era of the classical Cremonese masters.
Overview Turin violin making
- The beginnings of violin making in Turin
- The Guadagnini family of violin makers in Turin
- Giovanni Francesco Pressenda and 19th-century violin making in Turin
- 20th and 21st century violin makers
The beginnings of violin making in Turin
With Henricus Cattenar (ca. 1620–1701) – also known by the Italianised name Enrico Catenari – violin making in Turin enters the light of research, and, like the work of his contemporaries Andrea Gatto (c. 1660) and Fabrizio Senta (1629–1681), which was hardly less skilled, Cattenar's work shows strong influences from Flemish and other northern European styles. 
Of course, from the 1670s onwards, Turin violins show a growing orientation towards Cremonese models, particularly those of the Amati family, but in Cattenar's work in particular, their specifics combine to create a very unique artisanal and aesthetic formal language. The fact that this style was not gradually integrated into the Italian mainstream over the course of the 18th century is probably due to the constant French influence in Piedmont and the changing political conditions. and as little as we know about the artisanal relationships between contemporaries such as Gioffredo Cappa (1653–1717), Giovanni Francesco Celoniato (1676–1751) and Cattenar in detail, it is certain that they shared a foundation in the Flemish tradition, combined with an individually balanced proximity to the Amati tradition.
Like the other Italian violin-making regions, Turin also experienced a crisis in the 18th century, which researchers associate with political and economic developments, but also with a certain saturation of the market for first-class violins as a consequence of the long heyday of Cremonese violin making. In retrospect, the fact that the craft in Turin died out completely for a short period in 1770 appears to have been a necessary caesura that paved the way for a new and even greater era.
The Guadagnini family of violin makers
Just a few months after the old Turin violin-making tradition had come to an end in 1770, two personalities came to the city who would not only contribute to the revival of this art but would also write one of the most significant chapters in its history. Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1711–1786), who had just left Parma for economic reasons and moved with his family to Turin at the beginning of his seventh decade of life, and the young, just 16-year-old Count Alessandro Ignazio Alessandro Cozio di Salabue (1755–1840), who was on his way to the military academy – although he was much more interested in chess, playing the violin and excellent violins than in military training.
In 1773, their paths crossed and together they carried out one of the most famous business transactions in the history of music: the purchase of 10 original, unworn instruments by Antonio Stradivari and his workshop inventory from his heirs – a treasure that the passionate collector Cozio wanted to use with Guadagnini's help to revive the Italian violin-making industry, which was in crisis. In the years that followed, the two studied Stradivari's principles of construction, on the basis of which Guadagnini, thanks to a purchase guarantee from Cozio, made more than 50 instruments before his death in 1786.
In one fell swoop, the Stradivari model had become the standard in Turin violin making, and Guadagnini had found a solid livelihood for himself and his family despite his advanced age. And although his sons, out of pure necessity, had to concentrate entirely on guitar-making during the difficult years that followed, when Piedmont suffered from the upheavals of French history between the Revolution and Waterloo, their father's legacy as a violin maker remained alive to flourish again in the 1820s. After the early death of Giovanni Battista's younger son Carlo, his oldest son Gaetano Guadagnini (1796-1852) took over the workshop, guided by his uncle of the same name, Gaetano I (1750-1817). Under his leadership, both the family's guitar and violin making developed excellently, not least because he knew how to do good business on both the Italian and French sides of the music world, and, among other things, maintained extensive cooperation with the Vuillaume family.
After Gaetano II, his son Antonio (1831-1881) expanded his father's success. For the first time, the Guadagnini workshop became a hotbed of artistic excellence and innovation, where first-class masters such as Enrico Marchetti (1855–1930) and the brothers Enrico Clodoveo Melegari and Pietro Melegari perfected their art – and not a few of whom became serious competitors of Antonio's son and successor Francesco Guadagnini (1863–1948) around the turn of the century. Francesco was able to hold his own in this new upsurge of violin making in Turin and integrated newer approaches into the family tradition, in particular those of Annibale Fagnola, which soon became characteristic features of the new Turin style.
In 1943, the history of the great Italian violin-making dynasty Guadagnini finally came to an abrupt end when Francesco's son Paolo Guadagnini was killed in the Second World War and the Turin workshop was destroyed in a bombing raid.
Giovanni Francesco Pressenda and 19th-century violin making in Turin
Among the many great names associated with violin making in Turin, Giovanni Francesco Pressenda (1777–1854) ranks right up there with the Guadagninis. His instruments are much more sought after today than those of the other historic Turin masters, although the latter are by no means to be underestimated or undervalued.
Nevertheless, the work of Pressida is another special case in the Turin violin-making tradition, as he initially followed the example of Stradivari relatively closely, developing it into his own personal model in the 1820s and 1830s. Although the influence of his colleagues can occasionally be seen in his work – especially Giuseppe Rocca, but also unknown violin makers of the Mirecourt tradition – his works are characterised by an unmistakable style throughout his career and are distinguished by their extraordinarily good sound, which is also in great demand among soloists of our time. By concentrating almost exclusively on violin making, Giovanni Francesco Pressenda became one of the most important masters of the art, and his influence on 19th-century Italian violin making can hardly be overestimated.
Among his most important artistic heirs was the aforementioned Giuseppe Rocca (1807–1865), who tried to establish himself in Turin in 1837 and 1842, and then moved to Genoa after the death of his wife in 1851. There, too, he was unable to achieve the success that his work unquestionably deserved, and so he returned to Turin after the death of Gaetano Guadagnini, hoping for a new chance. But as was the case with Antonio Guadagnini, there was no room for him to make a living as an independent violin maker, and so he moved back to Genoa for the last years of his life.
With the departure of Giuseppe Rocca and after the deaths of Pressenda and Gaetano Guadagnini in quick succession, Teobaldo Rinaldi (1822–1888) established himself as a violin dealer in Turin in 1855 and tried to fill the gap that had arisen. He found support in his son-in-law Benedetto Gioffredo (1821–1886), who took Rinaldi's name and soon ran the business as Gioffredo Rinaldi. Although Rinaldi was nowhere near the standard of the unfortunate Rocca or the Antonio Guadagninis, he built up a very successful workshop, where both Enrico Marchetti and Carlo Giuseppe Oddone worked before moving on to Guadagnini. Marchetti was to become one of the leading protagonists of Turin violin making in the early 20th century. Rinaldi's successor was another employee in his workshop, Romano Marengo (1866–1926), who was henceforth known as Marengo Rinaldi. Both Gioffredo and Marengo Rinaldi also went down in violin-making history as chroniclers of their era and wrote the first biographical works on Pressenda.
Violin makers of Turin in the 20th century and the present
The fact that Turin was able to maintain its status as a centre of violin-making excellence in the early 20th century is due in no small part to the two major workshops that had dominated the local scene since the second half of the 19th century: the House of Guadagnini, with a tradition dating back to the 18th century, and its important competitor Rinaldi. Carlo Giuseppe Oddone (1866–1935) began his journey as an apprentice at Rinaldi's workshop before moving on to work for Frederick William Chanot in London for two years after Gioffredo Rinaldi's death. It was in London that he was able to study the secrets of the art of French violin making at its most advanced. Back in Turin, he set up his own workshop in 1892 and probably initially worked for Marengo Rinaldi and Enrico Marchetti, but he soon earned an excellent reputation and was considered one of the best luthiers in Italy in the 1920s.
The career of Annibale Fagnola (1866–1939), who was born the same year as Oddone, followed a completely different path. He initially worked as a baker and taught himself the art of violin making in the tradition of Guadagnini and Rinaldi. He apparently used every opportunity to study the masterpieces of Pressedas and Roccas on site, and within a few years he had established himself internationally as one of the most sought-after Turin masters – who, with a gold medal for a string quartet at the Turin Exhibition of 1911, also received the honour he deserved from his hometown.
Among the numerous students trained and inspired by Fagnola was Plinio Michetti (1891–1991), who, like Fagnola, was a self-taught luthier who, not least because of his extraordinary talent, also received instruction from other great violinmakers such as Carlo Giuseppe Oddone, Euro Peluzzi, Cesare Candi and Paolo de Barbieri, and quickly developed into a master craftsman who received multiple awards.
Today, the specific Piedmontese violin-making tradition is represented in the contemporary scene of Turin by the founder and president of the Accademia Liuteria Piemontese, Enzo Cena (1944–), who has influenced many excellent young masters in the spirit of the great Turin masters through his teaching. Furthermore, as in times gone by, the city attracts talent from further afield, such as Francesco Piloni (1979–), who trained in his native Cremona and worked for Carlson & Neumann before opening his workshop in Turin. His workshop partner, Kanna Osaki (1981–), also trained in Cremona, studying bow-making with Giovanni Lucchi. A particularly interesting discovery is Yael Rosenblum, a former professional violinist and violist who studied violin making in Jerusalem and Cremona, specialising in baroque instruments, and has been working with leading orchestras and soloists worldwide from her workshop in Turin for more than 20 years.
