Portrait
Luc Deneys is a Belgian luthier born in 1953, working in Ghent. He has been making violins, violas and cellos on his own for more than forty years, and his output now runs to around two hundred instruments.
He does not work in series. He experiments constantly with form and sound so that each new instrument is an individual piece rather than one of a run, which is unusual at his level of output and makes his work difficult to generalise about. He draws on Stradivari among other models, and his instruments carry his own certificate.
In a blind test at Radio France in Paris, a Deneys violin was judged the best sounding instrument in a field that included Stradivari violins.
Deneys instruments are genuinely unique and the cello we had was one of our best examples. It has an extremely special and wide sound with a very rich resonance, and it is powerful enough to carry in any hall even when played quietly, which is the harder half of that equation. It suits a soloist or a principal who plays a lot of solo repertoire. Given the Radio France result, his work also deserves more attention than it gets outside Belgium.
Elsewhere
Compare instruments against each other, and against an antique, in a blind test with studio audio. No labels until you have chosen.
What models does Luc Deneys work from?
Stradivari, and his own experimental forms.
Where are Luc Deneys instruments made?
In Ghent, Belgium. Every instrument is then set up and checked in our own London workshop before it reaches a player.