A Baroque bow tells you how to play, because this music was written for one. If I try to play Bach with a modern bow now, it’s very hard – almost unplayable. My advice to students now is to try and play with a Baroque bow and to learn from it – and you should also listen with an open mind to good musicians and period-instrument groups and how they play this music.
Viktoria Mullova, The Strad, July 2013
Geminiani considered vibrato (‘close shake’) to be an ornament. He associated it with affective performance, which may express majesty and dignity as well as affliction and fear. His recommendation to use vibrato ‘as often as possible’, not least because it can make the sounds of short notes ‘more agreeable’, is contrary to the sparing use advocated by his contemporaries and has been interpreted by many as cart blanche for the adoption of a ‘modern’ continuous vibrato.