baroque cello after Pietro Giacomo Rogeri, Reinhard Ossenbrunner (Cologne 2017)

The process of getting my very own baroque cello built by Reinhard Ossenbrunner began with selecting the pieces of wood for the instrument: the starting point was a spectacular plank of poplar, which was large enough for the entire cello back being carved out of it in one piece. To this we added gleaming poplar ribs, a rather inconspicuous maple for the scroll and the neck and a wonderfully resonant board of spruce for the table.

The cello is slightly smaller than the standard cello dimensions nowadays and has a back length of 74.2 cm. The instrument is relatively wide, in particular at the c-bouts. The neck is fixed with two nails onto the top block. In historical fashion the ribs, the table and the purfling are uninterrupted by the neck and run underneath the foot of the neck or through a purpose-built cavity in the neck.