This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment Nigel Kennedy owns and plays a 1736 Guarneri violin. I saw him play a = bunch of Bach on this violin. I'm no violin expert, but it did indeed = sound very sweet. >From http://www.nigelkennedy.com/ & click on "Kennedy's violins". "The Cathedrale", the Stradivarius Nigel used to play, wasn't his, but = fortunately, by the time he really wanted a violin of his own, somewhere = in the States this other violin popped up ......=20 "The American fiddle proved to be a Guarneri. These violins are not as = much publicised, but even more exciting. Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu was = a contemporary of Stradivari and created his beautiful pieces in = Cremona, Italy. The choice between these two distinguished maker is a = matter of personal taste but most of the players I admire have found it = necessary to move on to a Guarneri: Heifetz, Stern, Kreisler and = Zukermann all belong to the Guarneri club. This particular example, the = Lafont, was called after its first owner in 1736 and was considered good = enough to take on Paganini in a playing contest, which Lafont lost but = which caused Paganini to claim that the Lafont's sound quality was = superior to his own. In 1880 it came into the hands of Adolf Brodsky, = and has the distinction of being used by Brodsky on 4 December 1881 to = premiere Tchaikovsky's great violin concerto. This particular violin was = apparantly fabulous and, somehow, pressure was brought to bear and it = was flown to my Oslo concert in 1990. It was everything they had said = and more - the tone qualities were astonishing and it sounded far more = sophisticated. It was even a slimmer instrument than the Strad, and felt = more comfortable. The trouble was that it was even more than the Strad! = Grief on grief: having heard just how much better the Guarneri sounded, = the Cathedrale was never going to feel more than second best.=20 In a fast-moving chain of events literally unimaginable a year before, I = bought the Strad and immediately traded it towards the Guarneri. It was = a supreme moment for me: simce I was five years old I had been playing = violin, I had struggled and achieved most of the conventional = highpoints, and yet it took until that moment to be able to curl my = fingers around the neck of a top-quality fiddle and call it mine."=20 I'll refrain from commenting on the Steinway remark. ;-) Let's just say I don't find it overly surprising that there might be = another violin or two out there that is on a similar level or even = preferred by some violinists other than the one that happens to be the = household name violin. Perhaps there are some parallels in the violin = and piano world? I wonder if there is any common bloodline among the = marketing directors of Steinway and Stradivarius? (Oops, did I just = comment? Nope, that was a question. Whew!) Terry Farrell > Wondering if anyone out there has been fortunate enough to have heard > a Strad. live, and close-up, and could describe the differences in = sound > quality. Some > years ago while I was watching Johnny Carson, he had a young fellow, > virtuoso, > violinist perform on his show. When sitting with Johnny, the Strad. > subject came up. > He didn't play one himself and suggested that not all great violinists > preferred a > Strad; but some other fine violin. I was quite taken aback at this, > because I assumed > that it would be preferred by all great musicians.=20 Carl / Winnipeg. ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: https://www.moypiano.com/ptg/pianotech.php/attachments/18/07/c8/89/attachment.htm ---------------------- multipart/alternative attachment--
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