The documentary in DVD "The Excellence of Stradivarius" was shot in 2011 by the Cremonese director Cristian Chiodelli. It offers a complete survey about the inlaid violins by Antonio Stradivari, an elite group of instruments par excellence and can be considered the most extraordinary existing works of that most illustrious violin maker of all time.
The docufilm consists of a first historical-technical part that offers information on the inlaid violins of Stradivari in relation to the precious exhibits preserved at the “City of Cremona Violin Making Collection”.
A second part, through the experience of the Cremonese luthier Marcello Villa, documented the reconstruction of an inlaid violin as it would have looked if it had just been completed by Stradivari.
A third part documents the "transformation" of the inlaid violins, from the Baroque period to the modern era.
An extract of the docufilm was presented at the exhibition “L’estetica sublime” in Cremona in 2011. It was then shown at the “Stradivarius” exhibition at the Ashomolean Museum in Oxford in 2013. Today it is part of the multimedia displays at the Museo del Violino in Cremona in the "friends of Stradivari" hall. The DVD offers audio in Italian and English.
The DVD is accompanied by an elegant book which, in addition to being accompanied by suggestive photographs, offers a detailed text in Italian and English that follows the contents of the documentary film, enriched by historical-bibliographic references and the sources that have allowed the philological reconstruction of the inlaid violin.
- Author: Marcello Villa
- Format: 30 x 21 cms
- Luxury color binding
- Pages: 65
- Languages: Italian and English
- Includes DVD with documentary on construction
