Italy's violin-makers play to global tune

CREMONA, Italy, July 20 (Reuters) To craft a violin that will last for centuries, you need red maple, one month of painstaking work and that magic touch that turns wood into an instrument that most resembles the human voice.

Master luthier Antonio Stradivari followed this recipe 300 years ago, and this is still how violins are made in his hometown of Cremona in northern Italy.

But like Italy's artisan cobblers, bag makers and weavers, violin-makers are feeling the pressure of counterfeits and cheap imports from Asia.

''Cremona is still the world's capital of violin-making. You can sense it by wandering through its old, cobbled streets and by peeking into its many workshops,'' said Gian Domenico Auricchio, head of Cremona's consortium of violin-makers.

''But counterfeiting has now reached the violin-making sector and the damage to our image is big,'' he said.

Cremona, a picturesque medieval town on the banks of the Po river, rose to world fame between the 16th and 18th centuries for its unrivalled expertise in violin-making.

Andrea Amati, who made a violin for French King Charles IX in 1566, created the design of the modern violin there.

He was succeeded by generations of Cremona-based violin-makers, most famously Stradivari and Guarneri del Gesu.

The violins made during this period are still prized. In May, a Stradivarius violin made in 1707 sold for 3.54 million dollars at Christie's, becoming the most expensive musical instrument ever sold at auction.

Of the more than 1,100 instruments Stradivari is believed to have made, only about 620 violins survive today.

Cremona's supremacy in those times was unchallenged, but modern violin-makers have to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

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