Viola by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume anno 1858

This exceptionally well-preserved instrument is privately owned. The owner commissioned a copy of its original in 2019.

Violy copy by Gabriele Zeeck anno 2020

In order to exactly match the acoustic and optical character of the instrument, every instrument construction begins with the perfect choice of wood. Tonewood goes through several stages of a special aging process. For the acoustic properties, copying with millimeter precision does not lead to the goal, but rather the exact reproduction of the elasticity of the original.

Sound comparison played by Franziska Dürr

(Gabriel Fauré, Après un rêve)

Viola A:   

Viola B: 

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Franziska Dürr and Heike Bleckmann (piano) during the recording in Studio Rabus in Karlsruhe Durlach (July 2021). Recording by Roland Winger.

Franziska Dürr

Franziska Dürr studied violin with Gerhard Voss in Stuttgart as well as chamber music in the “Melos Quartet” class. This was followed by studies with Ernst Kovacic in Vienna, which ended with a concert diploma. During this time she took viola lessons with Prof. Hatto Beyerle (Alban Berg Quartet) and Prof. Siegfried Führlinger (Viennese string sextet). After switching to the viola, she continued her viola studies with Prof. Thomas Riebl (Viennese string sextet) at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She attended master classes for both violin and viola with Oscar Shumsky, Sandor Vegh, Atar Arad and the La Salle Quartet.

Since then, solo and chamber music engagements have followed in several European countries, including at the International Bach Academy Stuttgart, the “Carinthian Summer”, the Chamber Music Festival Austria and the “Open Chamber Music” in Prussia Cove (Cornwall).

Franziska Dürr has been principal violist of the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe since 1990. From 1992 to 2015 she taught viola as an honorary professor at the State University for Music and Performing Arts in Mannheim. Since 2016 she has been a lecturer at the Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences (Department of Music) Switzerland (complete CV).