To our utmost pleasure, the project we started about 12 months ago led us to our first acoustic test with a violin. On this long-awaited occasion, Maestro Wim Janssen played a violin made by Cremonese violin maker Maurizio Tadioli. Throughout his long-term career, the Dutch musician has regularly played the violin; he has also had the opportunity of playing Stradivari's instruments twice, notably the Sunrise and the Cremonese models. Owing to this experience, he is certainly the right person who can evaluate Tadioli's instrument as accurately as possible. Maurizio was born in Cremona on 16th September 1967. He became acquainted with violinmaking ever since he was a child, thanks to his grandfather, who was a self-taught violinmaker. In 1984 he was awarded a scholarship by the Stauffer Foundation and he made a baroque violin. In the same year, he won a golden medal in the competition for Young Violinmakers at Bagnacavallo (Ra). About education, he attended the International Violinmaking School and got the best mark on his school leaving exam. In 1992 he was given a silver medal for a viola and a bronze medal for a violin, once again in the Bagnacavallo Violimaking Competition. In 1995 Maurizio Tadioli came third (bronze medal) in the violin section at the violimaking competition of Baveno; he was also awarded two special prizes: the Cremona Province Prize and the Lebet Prize, as his works showed the most remarkable personality. In 1997 he participated in the Baveno competition and won the special prize “Conti Branca” for the best viola. In November 2004 his quartetto was given a Merit Certificate, owing to its acoustic qualities, at VSA Competition which took place in Portland (Or), USA. One of his violins was chosen by the First Violin in Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, in the course of the Cremona-Kremlin project. In September 2004 he attended a masterclass in Parma about “copied and antiqued instruments” held by master Samuel Zygmuntowicz, one of the most authoritative violimakers in the field. Maurizio Tadioli especially follows the classical models belonging to Cremonese school, but he is also interested in the models coming from other schools like the Emilian, Turinese and Milanese ones. For a few years he was a Laboratory and Varnishing teacher at International Viiolinmaking schoool. He is a member of the following violinmaking associations: ALI, professional ALI , Violimakers' Association and VSA. His workshop is in Cortetano, a village near Cremoma and it is a meeting place both for musicians and violinmakers. For our event, Wim Janssen played the copy of the violin Marquis de Rivière. The original instrument was made in 1718 by Antonio Stradivari and therefore it belongs to the great master's golden period. The instrument has a two-piece front, with fine and regular veining. The back is one-piece, with semi radial cutting which conveys the veinings rare and beautiful stripes. The scroll, which replaced the original one, is a fine example after the Amatis, probably Nicolò. Thanks to the owner of the violin, Maurizio Tadioli managed to have excellent photographs, together with surveys and measurements of the original instrument. As a consequence, the model “Marquis de Rivière” has become the Stradivari instrument (based on PG mould) which Maurizio Tadioli prefers reproducing, because of the elegance and harmony of forms as well as its peculiar sound. We recorded the violin test in Maestro Janssen's music room, on a fine Sunday afternoon. Wim played every piece of music without rehearsing; everything turned out to be very spontaneous and dynamic. After executing several scales and arpeggios, Janssen played the first movement of Bach's second partita (L'Allemanda), using a good German bow. The violin was really easy to use and showed high power and dynamics since the very beginning. Janssen pointed out two positive features of the instrument: its high-quality timbre, considered as warm but open, and its versatility in the different pieces of music. The violin is particularly successful; it is only a few months old and is already endowed with a full sound, which will improve as time goes by. The sound of the violin can be heard in the relative site.