Giuseppe Antonio Rocca (1807-1865) was born in Barbaresco near Turin. As his father was an unsuccessful violin maker, who mainly made copies of Guarneri, Rocca grew up in poverty; however, this did not stop him from going down the path of violin making and he faithfully dedicated his life to becoming a successful violin maker. Unfortunately, despite his hard work, he was not blessed with happiness in his personal life. In addition to losing his mother and sister to contagious disease on the same day in 1830, his wife passed away in 1832 after two years of marriage leaving Rocca and their daughter behind.
During this tragic period, Giovanni Francesco Pressenda unearthed his exceptional talent and invited Rocca to take up an apprenticeship in Pressenda`s workshop. As he did not have enough money to buy the finest materials, he could only afford to work with the unwanted materials of the other violin makers and used woods with knots, old darkened rosin, uneven grains, and unclear flame. To compensate for the poor quality of the materials used, he worked tirelessly and diligently to brush up his technique.
In 1842, he is yet again faced with the loss of his second wife, but it is also when he was to have a fateful encounter with Luigi Tarisio, known as the violin hunter, who became the turning point in Rocca`s career as a violin maker. When Luigi visited Pressenda`s workshop, Rocca was honoured with the responsibility to repair and maintain the finest of the finest work of Stradivarius, the `Messiah` of 1716, and the `Alard` Guarneri. During this time, he furthered his research on Cremonese instruments and a lot of his works were copies of `Messiah` and `Alard`. However, they were not just copies but his originality in tone was shown in his carefully crafted works.
This is especially seen in his `ex Sigerman` of 1843, which strongly suggests the form of Stradivarius while the low arching is very much like the works of Guarneri. Its reddish varnish, known as the golden diamond tone, and its wider bouts are the obvious characteristics of the works of Stradivarius. But most importantly, Rocca`s use of the finest materials, when he usually could only afford the leftovers, shows his intention of making this `ex Sigerman` his greatest masterpiece. After this, he was awarded a bronze medal at the 1844 Exhibition in Turin and also went on to receive much praise in Geneva and again in Turin in 1846 and 1850, respectively.
Taro Hakase has always been fascinated by Rocca`s spirituality, his will and earnestness to become a violin maker despite his unfortunate background, and the deep and powerful tone that his works are able to produce. This led him to acquire the `ex Taro` of 1845, on which Taro performed for 7 years; however, when he came across the `ex Sigerman`, Taro was blown away by its magical spirit and felt it to be on a different level from all of his other works. You can listen to Taro playing on this masterpiece on his CD [JAPONISM].
Taro Hakase
Taro Hakase without his violinWorld class violinist who writes his own rules Taro Hakase, violinist, entertainer and composer has created the musical soundtrack of modern Japan. His compositions can be heard everywhere, from planes to banks, on television and even on computer games. Hefs sold a staggering six million CDs in his homeland.
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