Description
An extremely fine viola by Nathaniel Cross, London, 1731.
It is a mistake to think of Nathaniel Cross as simply a copyist of Jacob Stainer even though by the 1740s he styled himself “Stainiero” on some of his labels as the fashion for Stainer’s work came to dominate English taste. The Hills in their work Antonio Stradivari, His Life and Work expressed their confidence in Cross as one of the copyists, alongside Barak Norman and Daniel Parker, of Stradivari’s work during his lifetime. Many of his instruments show some evidence of his observation of Stradivari, but rarely amount to a copy. In fact, as he departed from Barak Norman’s workshop in 1724, moving to Piccadilly to work with John Barrett, he had begun to become a wide-reaching copyist, taking influences of the Roman maker, David Tecchler, from Bolzano, Matias Albani, and also old instruments. One small cello from 1724 is a near perfect interpretation of Gaspar da Salo’s work. In this viola, made after his return to the City of London and working in Aldermanbury, he combines the same kind of Stradivarian edgework that we find in Daniel Parker’s work with the deep arching also typical of Parker, but some concession towards Jacob Stainer. Similar blends of Cremonese influence and Stainer’s form appear particularly in the period after 1750 in Florence, and this viola is a compelling parallel to Lorenzo and Tomasso Carcassi’s work because it independently expresses the same confluence of elements. The broad and full arching, like later Florentine instruments maintains a full curve rather than the more pinched outcome that Cross applied to his proper Stainer copies creating a more Italian outcome, but with a depth of arching that distinguishes the tonal character apart from the violin or the cello, the viola player’s ideal. During this time, violas made in England by Norman, Parker and Cross that conform to the classical Italian contralto size are as rarely found as they are in Italy, perhaps only finding demand from professional orchestras at a time that the trio sonata dominated domestic music. Everything about this instrument contributes to a truly exceptional tone.
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