I borrowed a book

Last week, I borrowed a book from my violin teacher.

It is called "The Violin Masterpieces of Guarneri del Gesu" written by Peter Biddulph.

My teacher introduced this book to me after a lesson one day

I knew about this book, but I never seen it before

I was interested in it, because I love looking at pictures of great violins.

I was overwhelmed, because this is a very precious book

This book introduces violin masterpieces made by Guarneri del Gesu who is a violin maker as great as Stradivarius.

However, his personality was different from Stradivarius.

Stradivarius was calm and sensitive; on the other hand, del Gesu was aggressive, that when he was angry, he used his hands. You can see this clearly in his violin.

Stradivarius’ violin does not make any sound unless one plays it carefully and sensitively.

Del Gesu’s violin is very tough, and if a player plays it hard, del Gesu answers back and make powerful sound.  Some says del Gesu is greater than Stradivarius.

Violins in general are named after first player or owner.  For example, Paganini who was the first virtuoso (great violinist) ever, and one of del Gesu’s violin is named after him. There is also Heifetz, which is named after the greatest violinist of the 20^th century.   Heifetz had his own del Gesu and Stradivarius (His Stradivarius is called Dolphin. Currently used by Akiko Suwanai a Japanese violin player based in Paris).

Del Gesu is still loved by many violinists. Mayuko Kamio is a violinist I know personally. She was using Stradivarius before, but she now uses del Gesu after she got it recommended by many people.

I can’t play sensitively, so I would love to get del Gesu one day. If it is possible, I would like to get violins by Stradivarius and del Gesu.