Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi

Landolfi may have been the last of the classical Italian master luthiers to use Cremonese methods of construction and of compounding varnishes.

For his finest instruments, Landolfi chose the woods with exceptional care and used superb varnishes of a particularly striking hue.

Landolfi's best instruments have similarities to the work of Guarneri del Gesu, but the Landolfis have unique characteristics reflecting constant refinement over the course of his career. For example, Landolfi developed an approach that increased the arching of the belly of each violin and viola with relation to the back. And his careful workmanship included scroll carving of a particularly graceful manner, often smaller and broader than the work of other master luthiers.

Landolfi's finest instruments are noted for their full, powerful tone, which has made them particularly prized by solo performers over the centuries.

Musicians who have owned Landolfis include Carl Flesch, the Hungarian violinist and teacher (1873–1944), who played both a Landolfi and the Brancaccio Stradivarius, and the French Jewish violist Tasso Adamopoulos (1944–2021), who owned a 1755 Landolfi viola. Marie Bérard, a French-Canadian violinist and concertmaster of the Canadian Opera Company, plays a 1767 Pietro Landolfi violin.^[1]

• 
  Landolfi viola, constructed 1753

Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, PA