Peter Temesvári 70 - The Instruments of a Master Violin Maker

Exhibition in the 5th room of the Museum of Music History

Curator: Anna BARANYI

TEMPORARY EXHIBITION

The exhibition is open: From 3 October 2024 to 30 March 2025 extended to 3 August 2025

The Museum of Music History presented contemporary violin makers for the first time in 2014 at the Pál Sáránszky and His Circle mini-exhibition, which was connected to our Master Violins and a Hungarian Violin-Making Workshop exhibition about the iconic Pilát–Sáránszky workshop. This was the start of the Hungarian Violin Makers series. The next parts were The Kónya Family and the Disciples (2015) and The Legacy of the Reményi Family (2018). We supplemented the latter with the 12 Contemporary Hungarian Violin Makers topics. In 2019, we commemorated the centenary of the birth of Pál Sáránszky and István Kónya, and then, thanks to the legacy of László Reményi, in 2022 we organized an exhibition and published a book entitled Sámuel Nemessányi, “the Hungarian Stradivarius”.

As early as 2014, we decided to include the works of contemporary Hungarian violin makers not only in group exhibitions, but also to organize individual exhibitions of their instruments. We will start the realization of this plan with the exhibition of Master Sáránszky’s first student, the 70-year-old Silver Master Craftsman Péter Temesvári.

The 30 instruments to be presented were made between 1990 and 2024. The master builds his instruments freely without a template. His violins are the closest to Stradivari’s models, while bearing the characteristics of Temesvári’s own taste and signature. Among the exhibited works are instruments inspired by Guarneri, Bergonzi and Paolo Castello, as well as a copy of a violin by an unknown Italian master. The two gourd-shaped violins are special, especially the 5-string quinton. There is also a viola, which he built after the model of Géza Vadon.

He always carefully selected his wood: he obtained it primarily from older Hungarian masters, but he also bought it in Transylvania and Mittenwald.

Péter Temesvári has so far made about 100 violins, 25-30 cellos and 15-20 violas. His instruments are in demand both in Hungary and abroad, and have found owners in many countries, from Canada to Japan.

Curator: BARANYI Anna

Edited and translated by:
GOMBOS László

Graphic design:
CZEIZEL Balázs

Photos:
TEMESVÁRI Katalin

Instrument photos:
Tihanyi–Bakos Fotó Stúdió

Execution:
ERDŐSNÉ BORZ Zsófia, GÖMÖRI-CSONKA Szilvia