The cream of Crema

The city of Crema has a unique violin making tradition, and Azzo Rovescalli was its most prominent maker in the 20th century – even though it never made him rich. Lorenzo Frignani and Vittorio Formaggia examine his life and work, along with the instruments of his sons

Azzo Rovescalli

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY VITTORIO FORMAGGIA

Lying around halfway between Milan and Cremona, the city of Crema has had a tempestuous history, changing hands numerous times between the rulers of the two larger cities and several other interested parties. In 1098 it was given as a gift to the Bishop of Cremona; in 1159 it signed an alliance with Milan; around 30 years later it was given back to the Cremonese; and in 1335 it was claimed by the Visconti family, rulers of Milan. A hundred years after that it became a part of the Republic of Venice, along with Brescia, Bergamo and Cremona. Until the fall of the Republic in 1797 Crema was a prosperous town, with a thriving cultural milieu; it was the birthplace of Francesco Cavalli (1602–76), one of Italy’s greatest composers at the time, and its prosperity during these centuries is still in evidence today, from the number of grand buildings dotted around the city.

With the fall of Venice, Crema became part of the French Cisalpine Republic, and with the defeat of Napoleon it became part of the Habsburg Empire.

The 19th century saw the city’s musical scene take flight, with the birth of the composer Stefano Pavesi (1779–1850) and the double bassist and composer Giovanni Bottesini (1821–89), known as ‘the Paganini of the double bass’. Its musical reputation was enhanced further in the second half of the 19th century with the establishment of two major organ manufacturers in the city, encouraging other independent workshops to set up there, too. It was into this musical environment that Azzo Paolo Rovescalli was born on 5 January 1880.

The eldest son of Teodoro Rovescalli of Crema and Carlotta Colla from Milan, Azzo was registered as being born in the Via Ponte Furio. His birth certificate, now in the archives of Crema Cathedral, shows one interesting omission: while the wording figlio legittimo (‘legitimate child’) is always indicated for the couple’s other six children, this phrase is not present for Azzo. Despite Paolo being his second name, he was known in his lifetime as ‘Paulì’, the local dialect form of the name.

Left and right Front and carved scroll of a violin made in 1930 by Azzo Rovescalli Far right Scroll of a 1937 Rovescalli violin

Teodoro was an employee of the municipal government, but was also an accomplished amateur violinist. It was probably he who gave Azzo his first violin lessons, and his son proved so adept that he soon began playing at the municipal theatre, the Teatro Sociale Cremasco (destroyed in a fire in 1937). After moving to Milan, where he found employment in the tax office, he began performing with various musical groups in the city. Soon he made friends with a Cremonese double bassist named Assunto Freri who was playing in the La Scala opera orchestra, which led to him finding a position there himself.

Rovescalli’s relationships with Milanese string players quickly brought him into contact with the city’s instrument makers. Milan already had a strong lutherie tradition, beginning with the Grancino family and followed soon after by the Testores, then the Lavazzas and the Pastas. At the time of Rovescalli’s arrival there were Gaetano Antoniazzi and his sons Riccardo and Romeo, and Camillo Mandelli ‘da Calco’, who had returned to Italy after working for two decades in Argentina. As with many other names in the history of Italian violin making, Rovescalli found his friendship with luthiers, combined with his own spirit of adventure, would prompt him to take his first steps in instrument building. It seems his first results brought praise, and he soon gave up his post at La Scala to become a full-time luthier.

But the most important figure at this stage of Rovescalli’s career was the musician, luthier and entrepreneur Giuseppe Leandro Bisiach. Originally from Casale Monferrato, Bisiach had moved to Milan in around 1886, and after serving an apprenticeship with Gaetano Antoniazzi and his sons, he set up his own workshop, which quickly became a hotbed of talent for musicians and apprentices alike. It was Bisiach who encouraged the young Rovescalli to pursue his interest in violin making, introducing him to Riccardo Antoniazzi, who would become a key figure in his training. At the time, Antoniazzi was working for the firm Monzino and Sons, one of the largest instrument traders in the city, where he held the title ‘master luthier and workshop director’. Rovescalli’s time working with Riccardo gave his work an unconventional stylistic spontaneity, characteristic of the brothers Antoniazzi, which can be discerned in nearly all his subsequent output.

Despite all this time spent in Milan, it should be noted that Rovescalli never settled permanently away from Crema, except for very short periods. He continued to move back and forth to Milan, Lodi and, for a very short period, Bergamo – as evidenced by a label in a restored double bass now housed at the Bergamo Museum. From this, one could describe his life as ‘eventful’, although this was also probably the reason for the dramatic fluctuations in the quality of his instruments.

Front, back and scroll of a Manlio Rovescalli violin from 1927

INSTRUMENTS MADE SOLELY BY MANLIO ARE RARE, AS HE WAS MORE INTERESTED IN POLITICAL IDEOLOGIES THAN IN MAKING VIOLINS

Among the distinctive elements of Rovescalli’s work are the rather accentuated fluting of the purfling channel, as well as that of the lower f-hole wings, which sometimes highlights the lower eye. The scroll is often carved very deep.A feature of his instruments common to many former employees of the Monzino workshop is the frequent use of an alcohol-based poly resin varnish, sometimes of poor quality but very often of exceptional beauty. The colour varies from red–orange to orange– brown, with the occasional yellow–orange instrument. Many of his instruments show excellent workmanship, comparable to the works of the Antoniazzis both in the choice of wood and in the quality of the varnish and general craftsmanship. Sometimes Rovescalli drew his initials in ink on the button, in the manner of his master Antoniazzi; confusingly, Antoniazzi decided to reverse his initials, so the monograms of both men appear as ‘AR’. More rarely, Rovescalli’s initials appear on the bottom of the violin, around the end-button.

It seems that Rovescalli used neither an internal nor an external mould, but inserted the ribs directly into the plates instead. He almost certainly had an imprecise system for measuring thicknesses, and when it came to purchasing the raw materials he suffered from a chronic lack of money. He often fashioned his own accessories, such as pegs and tailpieces, rather than buying them in; he would procure the wood (mostly boxwood and dogwood) from local gardeners. All of this information is anecdotal, told by elder citizens of Crema who knew Rovescalli personally, such as his fellow luthier Nemo Freri and descendants of the Formaggia and Gallini families. In fact, Rovescalli was such a well-known figure in Crema that the townsfolk regarded him as representative of the whole violin making craft: when Vittorio Formaggia mentioned to his father that he was considering a career as a luthier, the response was: ‘What? You mean a violinist and violin maker? The job with the patches on the arse?’ It was obvious who Formaggia senior was referring to.

While Rovescalli’s skill as a luthier was never in question, the quality of his output changed markedly a number of times during his life. This discontinuity can be attributed to the fluctuating economic conditions of 20th-century Milan, as well as the changing fortunes of the family, the impromptu departures to different cities, the difficulties of the market and Rovescalli’s tendency to neglect the management of his business, a trait that haunted him throughout his life. Even when the economic conditions were relatively healthy, the raw materials he chose were not always of top quality, and some of the internal work (spruce linings and corner-blocks) seem to have been made in a hurry. The thicknessing of the plates is also less than perfectly finished. The archings are often particularly pronounced towards the centre, giving the instrument a ‘humpbacked’ look; and the fluting around the edges is often uneven.

In the last years of Rovescalli’s life he moved to the town of Lodi, around 25 miles south-east of Milan, and then finally back to Crema. His final workshop was in the Via 4 Novembre near the Trattoria della Pesa. It is said that in those final years he was always in need of money, and sold badly varnished and illfinished instruments for knock-down prices. Despite this, he never stopped working, and by the end of his life his output numbered some three hundred instruments including violins, violas and twelve cellos. He died on 7 December 1940 at the age of 60.

Rovescalli married twice, first to Bianca Laposani of Crema, and then to Luigia Lupi of Rome. He had five children, but only the two eldest went into violin making: the first-born Manlio (1904–45) and Tullio (1906–74). Manlio was essentially an amateur luthier, since he worked full-time as a traffic policeman in Crema, where he became a dedicated supporter of the fascist regime. He collaborated in the workshop with both Azzo and Tullio, and some of hisinstruments bear his signature, written in pencil on the interior. It is possible that he had a hand in carving the plates, which were then assembled into instruments by Azzo later on.  Instruments made solely by Manlio are rare, as he was more interested in political ideologies than in making violins, and had a short life since he was shot on 29 April 1945 at the age of 40, on Crema’s sports field. This was just four days after the Liberation of Italy, when Mussolini’s Italian Social Republic was going through its death throes.

Manlio Rovescalli

We know a little more about Tullio, who underwent more extensive, structured training in violin making, firstly with his father in Crema. He then went to Lodi and finally, in around 1930, arrived in Milan where he set up shop near the Corso S. Gottardo. He made new instruments and did some repair work for the musicians of La Scala. Very few cellos are known to have come from his workshop; the vast majority of his instruments are violins and violas. Unfortunately, the bombings of 1943 completely destroyed his shop, forcing him to abandon his lutherie activity after the war. Instead he moved to Brianza, north of Milan, where he devoted himself to building wooden toys. In 1967 he returned to Rozzano in Milan, where he died.

Tullio’s lutherie style is in line with that of his father, although it has elements of greater softness with more fluent curves, especially in the cut of the f-holes. His heads are generally more massive and carved with less skill than Azzo’s.

Tullio Rovescalli

Violin made by Tullio Rovescalli in 1936

TULLIO’S LUTHERIE STYLE IS IN LINE WITH THAT OF HIS FATHER, ALTHOUGH IT HAS ELEMENTS OF GREATER SOFTNESS

Today, the violin making tradition continues in the Crema region through the work of luthiers such as Vittorio and Nicolò Formaggia, Roberto Collini, Luca Pasquetto, Danilo Fiorentini and Luigi Gallini’s Casa della Musica, which has been a continual fixture in the city’s musical life since 1927. Anyone interested in learning more about the Crema violin making tradition would do well to seek out a copy of Mostra di Liuteria Cremasca – dai Rovescalli ai nostri giorni (‘Crema Violin Making Exhibition – from Rovescalli to the present day’), the catalogue from a 1996 exhibition held in the city’s Sant’Agostino Cultural Centre. The book is published by Artigrafiche di Crema.

TRANSLATION BY CHRISTIAN LLOYD