Silver Mounted Viola Bow by Walter Barbiero, 2021

Walter Barbiero is an Italian bow maker in Padua and one of the leading archetiers of his generation. He makes bows for all the string instruments and for all periods, from baroque through to modern.

His particular passion is for baroque and classical bows. He made the bow Giuliano Carmignola used to record the Vivaldi concertos for Deutsche Grammophon, and another of his bows features on Viktoria Mullova's recording of the Bach Sonatas and Partitas for Onyx. He designs around the player rather than around the object, on the view that a musician expresses thought and emotion through the bow, and describes his own work as animating the creative movement of the musician.

His bows are played by Viktoria Mullova, Isabelle Faust, Mario Brunello and Giuliano Carmignola, among many other high-profile players internationally.

Walter has mastered his craft for both modern and period bows, which is rarer than it sounds. His bows have a refined sound quality usually associated with the French masters, soft and elegant, but the technical characteristics are what players notice first. They are beautifully balanced and give a crisp, precise tone, and they draw the best out of whatever instrument they meet. From the craftsmanship to the sound, everything about them is top quality.