Dear Fellow Musician,

The greatest difficulty facing the violist in the crowd of an orchestra is the opportunity to be heard. Your voice can sometimes become lost between the highs of the first and second violins and the depths of the lower cello and bass. The challenge is to find a way to provide the projection to hear that voice but without losing the tonal qualities that contribute to the overall sound.

The physiognomy of the instrument does not lend itself to the delivery of power. The physical position of the player can also inhibit the ability to project with the violist, not infrequently, with his or her back to the audience behind the cello. In discussion with violists we could both understand these inherent limitations and also a sense of what the musician was looking for: a more pronounced sound but without losing the pronunciation.

The difficulty for the violist was trying to find a string set-up that could achieve this balance of volume and subtlety and this invariably ended up with a compromise. A sacrifice of one for the other. The delivery of a narrowly focussed projecting sound at the expense of a wider spectrum of sound colour and variety or vice versa with the richer palette lost, once again, in the crowd.

Our solution was based upon our long established and popular Original A. Over the years the Original A had almost become the default choice at the heart of any set-up for its reliable ability to offer both versatility and power. The qualities of the A were well established so the challenge was to develop the remainder of the set based upon this successful formula.

To design and define a synthetic core material with tremendous vibrating capacity to balance the qualities from A to C, dark to bright and soft to powerful at a balanced tension level. A complementary balance which we would seem to have achieved.

‘A golden, open and clear tone with a nice balance of warmth and brilliance.’

The new Virtuoso for Viola is available as individual strings or as full sets in Medium and Soloist editions. The Medium set delivers a rich sound texture whilst the Soloist is more focused and brings greater volume to the instrument. Please note: our Original A Medium is supplied as the ideal partner for both Virtuoso Medium tension and Soloist combinations packaged as sets.

The Original Viola A string is based upon a solid steel core, wound with precision rolled stainless steel flat wire. The Virtuoso Viola D, G and C strings build upon a synthetic multi-filament core and are wound with pure silver.

Kind regards,

Laurits Th. Larsen -Founder & Director