Fall destroys rare Stradivarius

[Macca1111]

Poor guy! I know he must be completely devastated and feel terribly guilty.

I remember being SO paranoid as a young violinist (started at age 10) that I would smash up my instrument. And it was only worth a few hundred dollars!

My son's violin instructor has a 300-year-old violin and she routinely leaves it out on the edge of the table (no case) with several 3-5 year olds dashing around the room! Now THAT (to me, anyway) is stupid!

And Macca1111, I find your opinion BEYOND ridiculous. He should feel INCREDIBLY GUILTY because he is human and had an accident???? One that he will likely replay in his head forever and would give quite a bit to somehow go back in time and avoid? Are YOU perfect??? Give me a big, fat, hairy break.

I stand by my statement. I've never fallen with my violin, dropped it, scratched it, or had any misfortune come to it. If I had a multimillion dollar violin I'd be even more paranoid about it, and it certainly wouldn't be in front of me as I was running down the stairs in slippery concert shoes. I understand accidents happen, and I'm sure he feels terrible about it, I'm just saying that feeling is justified.

 

[Beth76]

All the other ones have been lost to the ages, because of people being careless like this. These violins were meant to and are capable of surviving hundreds of years, and they are better than anything we can produce now. He should feel incredibly guilty not only because he destroyed a priceless, irreplaceable work of art but because he doesn't even own it. He just destroyed someone's multi-million dollar investment. I realize it was an accident, but that doesn't excuse the extreme level of clumsiness here.

There's only so much precaution you can take with objects. If it's truly so valuable and rare, maybe it shouldn't be played. Maybe it should be in a glass case in the Louvre. Anytime something is touched by human hands, there's a risk of damage. And maybe if it was made better it would have withstood the fall.

 

[Macca1111]

Oh, and it was his property.

And if you'd kept reading, you would have seen that I corrected that statement.

 

[Beth76]

I've never fallen with my violin, dropped it, scratched it, or had any misfortune come to it.

And I bet this guy never has either.......until this day. You might want to be careful. Karma can be a funny thing sometimes.

 

[ilisao]

I stand by my statement. I've never fallen with my violin, dropped it, scratched it, or had any misfortune come to it. If I had a multimillion dollar violin I'd be even more paranoid about it, and it certainly wouldn't be in front of me as I was running down the stairs in slippery concert shoes. I understand accidents happen, and I'm sure he feels terrible about it, I'm just saying that feeling is justified.

And it wasn't in front of him nor was he running. He slipped. And one day, you could do the same.

 

[Macca1111]

Fine. Are we done wishing bad karma on me for expressing my opinion?

 

[Galahad]

That makes me think of a soloist we had come into the CSO about 4 years ago...she told the story that she and her husband (also a violinist) had a choice whether to buy a violin or a house...and they chose the violin. They share the "good" one for their professional appearances.

DS is not in the same category (yet ), but his violin is 200 years old and was more expensive than any car we've ever owned. Good violins don't come cheap. We used this story to emphasize the importance of a good case and proper shoes.....

 

[Galahad]

Oh, and it was his property.

To be fair, most people that play Strads don't own them but are lent them by the owners (who often don't even play).

 

[The Mystery Machine]

This reminds me of something I am studying, Buddism.

The Tibetan Monks will make these fabulous sand art things, can't remember the name. They do it for days on end and it is painstaking and done as a meditation.

So I am sitting there as they show the beautiful intricate work they are making wondering what they do with it. How do they preserve the artwork?

Upon completion they run their fingers through it and destroy it.
The purpose is to mirror life and death. It is painstaking & beautiful but at the same time it ends in an instant.

I know the violin is a Strad and priceless, however all things will end.
It is a reality you have to accept.

 

[Micca]

I heard the guy was charged with domestic violins.

 

[Deb in IA]

Too bad for him, though. But is a Stradivarius that much better? And if so, why can't we create them anymore?

Here's some interesting reading on this from Wiki:

Theories and reproduction attempts

A Stradivarius in a Berlin museumThese instruments are famous for the quality of their sound. There have been many failed attempts to explain and reproduce the sound quality. One idea was that Stradivari used wood from an old cathedral to build his instruments, but tree-ring dating has shown this to be false.

Another theory is the idea that very, very old wood from the Little Ice Age was used to construct Stradivari's instruments. This theory bases itself upon the high density of this wood; some consider it 'ideal' for making stringed instruments. Trees that grew during this freezing period contained tree rings which were closer together and denser than would be produced in more temperate conditions.[3]

Further evidence for the "ice age theory", comes from a simple examination of the dense growth rings in the wood used in Stradivari's instruments.[4]

Yet another possible explanation is that the wood originated and was harvested from the forests of northern Croatia.[5] This javor wood is known for its extreme density due the slow growth from harsh Croatian winters. Croatian wood was a commodity traded by Venetian merchants of this era and is still used for crafting musical instruments by local luthiers to this day.

Some believe that a special wood glue was used in Stradivari's instruments, partly accounting for the high quality of the sound.

While the sound of Stradivari's instruments still has not been fully explained by modern research tools, devices such as the scanning laser vibrometer are aiding researchers in testing the theory that the careful shaping of belly and back plate, in order to "tune" their resonant frequencies, may be an important factor.[6]

Texas A&M University biochemist Joseph Nagyvary succeeded in making a violin somewhere near the quality of a Stradivari by leaving the wood to soak in brine.[7] Because of the lack of land in Venice, during that period imported wood was often stored in the seawater of the Venetian Lagoon, where a type of decomposition had a slight effect on the wood. Nagyvary managed to acquire wood shavings from a Stradivarius violin, and under a microscope he found the natural filter plates in the pores between the tracheids were gone. He also treated the wood with a preparation of borax in the manner of Stradivari, who used it to prevent infestation.

By late 2003, Nagyvary refined his techniques and produced a violin that was tested in a duel with the Leonardo da Vinci Stradivarius of 1725.[8] Both violins were played in each of four selections of music by violinist Dalibor Karvay behind a screen to an audience of 600 attended by 160 trained musicians and 303 regular concert goers. This was the first public comparison of a Stradivari with a contemporary instrument before a large audience where the audience would cast ballots on the performance quality of each violin. The consensus was that Nagyvary's instrument surpassed the Stradivarius in each category by a small margin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius#Violins

 

[Deb in IA]

Is this really a job?

Apparently THREE jobs.

Violinist back on his feet after £60,000 slip
By Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard 12.02.08
Add your view


Tripped: David Garrett fell on his violin

With his brooding good looks, tattoos and blond hair, David Garrett has been dubbed the Beckham of the violin.

But it was more like a stunt from a Mr Bean movie when the rising classical music star tripped and fell on his beloved 298-year-old Stradivarius after a concert at the Barbican.

The disaster left Garrett's rare instrument badly mangled and needing £60,000 worth of repairs.

It will be out of action for up to eight months with no guarantee it will ever sound as good again.

The accident meant the 26-year-old was left without a violin worthy of a virtuoso for a Valentine's Night concert - again at the Barbican - where he is due to play Bruch's Violin Concerto.

However, at the last minute he has been offered a loan of another Stradivarius from the "Golden Period" of 1705 to 1720.

It is being flown in from Milan to be presented to German-born Garrett by Marylebone violin dealers J&A Beare today.

The violin, made in 1718, is worth millions of pounds and comes with its own three-man security detail - led, coincidentally, by David Beckham's former minder Paul Hughes.

Garrett said: "I had just played a concert. I was all packed up and ready to go when I slipped and fell. People said it was as if I'd trodden on a banana skin.

"I fell down a flight of steps and onto the case. When I opened it the violin was in pieces. I was just sitting there on the floor, I couldn't speak and I couldn't get up. I didn't even know if I was hurt - I didn't care," he said.

"I have had that violin for eight years. It was like losing a dear friend. I have been looking around for the past few weeks but I was starting to get scared. Then I got a call from my manager to say we have been offered a Golden Period Strad. The guy had heard my playing in Milan and said we could have it for nothing."

Garrett's managers at Universal have insisted on security and insurance. "Since I trashed one they are determined there is not going to be a second time," he said.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/music...ack+on+his+feet+after+£60,000+slip/article.do

 

[SandraVB79]

All the other ones have been lost to the ages, because of people being careless like this. These violins were meant to and are capable of surviving hundreds of years, and they are better than anything we can produce now. He should feel incredibly guilty not only because he destroyed a priceless, irreplaceable work of art but because he doesn't even own it. He just destroyed someone's multi-million dollar investment. I realize it was an accident, but that doesn't excuse the extreme level of clumsiness here.

Well, I guess we could put them all in glass cabinets in museums all over the world, and not touch them anymore. But then, why have them, if we can't listen to the music they "produce"?
The same goes for paintings and all other valuables.

And being clumsy is human. Everybody has it to some extent.

 

[Deb in IA]

All the other ones have been lost to the ages, because of people being careless like this.

Here's a fascinating list of most of the known Stradivarius violins and their current status, again from Wikipedia:

Sobriquet Year Provenance Notes
ex-Back 1666 Royal Academy of Music Currently displayed as part of Royal Academy's York Gate Collection
Dubois 1667 Canimex Foundation on loan to Alexandre Dacosta [9]
Aranyi 1667 Francis Aranyi (collector); sold at Sotheby's London, 12 November 1986 [10]
ex-Captain Saville 1667 Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume;
Captain Saville (1901-1907)
Amatese 1668 Though listed in many reference books as one of Stradivari's earliest instruments, the modern consensus is that it is not a Stradivari; it was sold Sotheby's New York 3 February 1982 as "an interesting violin." [11]
Oistrakh 1671 David Oistrakh missing: stolen in 1996 [12]
Sellière 1672 Charles IV of Spain;
Spanish 1677 Finnish Cultural Foundation on loan to Elina Vähälä [13]
Hellier 1679 Sir Samuel Hellier Smithsonian Institution
Paganini-Desaint 1680 Nippon Music Foundation [14] this violin along with the Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue violin of 1727, the Paganini-Mendelssohn viola 1731, and Paganini-Ladenburg cello of 1731, comprise a group of instruments referred to as The Paganini Quartet; on loan to Kikuei Ikeda of the Tokyo String Quartet
Fleming 1681 Stradivari Society on loan to Cecily Ward [15]
Chanot-Chardon 1681 Timothy Baker; Shaped like a guitar
Joshua Bell
Bucher 1683
Cipriani Potter 1683
Cobbett; ex-Holloway 1683
ex-Croall 1684 WestLB on loan to Alexander Gilman
ex-Elphinstone 1684 Guarneri House Currently for sale
ex-Arma Senkrah 1685
ex-Castelbarco 1685
Goddard 1686 Miss Goddard[16] currently owned by Antonio Fortunato (Montrose, Scotland)[16]
Ole Bull 1687 Ole Bull (1844); Donated to the Smithsonian Institution in 1997 by Axelrod
Dr. Herbert Axelrod (1985-1997)
Mercur-Avery 1687 on loan to Jonathan Carney, concertmaster of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra since 2002
Auer 1689 Stradivari Society on loan to Vadim Gluzman [15]
Arditi 1689 Dextra musica AS, Norway on loan to Elise Båtnes, concertmaster, Oslo Philharmonic
Baumgartner 1689 Canada Council for the Arts [17]
Bingham 1690
Bennett 1692 Winterthur-Versicherungen on loan to Hanna Weinmeister
Falmouth 1692 on loan to Leonidas Kavakos
Gould 1693 George Gould bequeathed by Gould to the Metropolitan Museum in 1955[18]
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Baillot-Pommerau 1694
Ruston 1694 Royal Academy of Music on loan to Clio Gould [19]
Fetzer 1695 Stradivari Society on loan to Ruggero Allifranchini [15]
Cabriac 1698
Baron Knoop 1698 one of eleven Stradivari violins associated with Baron Johann Knoop
Joachim 1698 Royal Academy of Music
Duc de Camposelice 1699
Lady Tennant; Lafont 1699 Charles Phillipe Lafont; on loan to Yang Liu; sold at Christie's auction US$2.032 million, April 2005 [20]
Marguerite Agaranthe Tennant
Longuet 1699
Countess Polignac 1699 on loan to Gil Shaham.
Castelbarco 1699
Kustendyke 1699 Royal Academy of Music
Crespi 1699 Royal Academy of Music
Cristiani 1700
Dragonetti 1700 Nippon Music Foundation
Jupiter 1700 Giovanni Battista Viotti
Taft; ex-Emil Heermann 1700 Canada Council for the Arts on loan to Jessica Linnebach [17]
Dushkin 1701 on loan to Dennis Kim, concertmaster, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Markees 1701 Music Chamber on loan to Leung Kin-fung
Irish 1702 OKO Bank, Finland on loan to Réka Szilvay
Conte de Fontana; ex-Oistrach 1702 David Oistrakh (1953-1963); Riccardo Brengola; Pro Canale Foundation Oistrakh's first violin; on loan to Massimo Quarta
Lukens-Edler Voicu 1702 Romanian state on loan to the Ion Voicu foundation; ownership disputed between the state of Romania and the "Ion Voicu" foundation.
King Maximilian Joseph 1702 Stradivari Society on loan to Berent Korfker [15]
Lyall 1702 Stradivari Society on loan to Stefan Milenkovich [15]
La Rouse Boughton 1703 Österreichische Nationalbank [21] on loan to Boris Kuschnir of the Kopelman Quartet
Lord Newlands 1702 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Toru Yasunaga
Allegretti 1703
Alsager 1703
Lady Harmsworth 1703 Paul Bartel on loan to Kristof Barati [22]
Emiliani 1703 Anne-Sophie Mutter
Betts 1704 U.S. Library of Congress
Sleeping Beauty 1704 L-Bank Baden-Wurttemberg On loan to Isabelle Faust. One of the few Stradivari violins to have retained original neck.
ex-Marsick; ex-Oistrach 1705 David Oistrach acquired in trade by Oistrach for the 1702 Conte di Fontana
ex-Brüstlein 1707 Österreichische Nationalbank [21]
La Cathédrale 1707 Stradivari Society on loan to Tamaki Kawakubo [15]
Hammer 1707 Christian Hammer (collector) on loan to Kyoko Takezawa; sold at Christie's New York on 16 May 2006 for a record US$3,544,000 (€2,765,080) after five minutes of bidding. [1][2]
Burstein Bagshawe 1708 Stradivari Society on loan to Janice Martin [15]
Huggins 1708 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Sergey Khachatryan [23]
Ruby 1708 Stradivari Society on loan to Leila Josefowicz and Vadim Repin [15]
Berlin Hochschule 1709
Hammerle; ex-Adler 1709 Österreichische Nationalbank [21] on loan to Werner Hink
Ernst 1709 on loan to Zsigmondy Dénes through 2003
Engleman 1709 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Lisa Batiashvili
Viotti; ex-Bruce 1709 Royal Academy of Music purchased in 2005 for GB£3.5 million
Marie Hall 1709 Giovanni Battista Viotti; named after violinist, Marie Hall
The Chi-Mei Collection
ex-Kempner 1709 on loan to Soovin Kim
Camposelice 1710 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Kyoko Takezawa
Lord Dunn-Raven 1710 Anne-Sophie Mutter
ex-Roederer 1710 on loan to David Grimal.
ex-Vieuxtemps 1710 on loan to Samuel Magad, concertmaster, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Earl of Plymouth; Kreisler 1711 Los Angeles Philharmonic [24] In 1925, found in store room on the estate of the Earl of Plymouth (along with "The Messiah" and "Alard" violins). Purchased by Fritz Kreisler in 1928 and subsequently sold by him in 1946 [25]
Liegnitz 1711
Le Brun 1712 Niccolò Paganini; Charles LeBrun; Otto Senn Sold at Sotheby's auction November 13, 2001
Karpilowsky 1712 Harry Solloway missing: stolen in 1953 from Solloway's residence in Los Angeles
Boissier 1713
Gibson; ex-Huberman 1713 Bronislaw Huberman; stolen twice before Bell's acquisition
Joshua Bell
Lady Ley 1713 Stradivarius family now bought by Jue Yao - Chinese violinist
Dolphin; Delfino 1714 Jascha Heifetz; on loan to Akiko Suwanai
Nippon Music Foundation
Soil 1714 Itzhak Perlman
ex-Berou; ex-Thibaud 1714
Le Maurien 1714 missing: stolen 2002 [12]
Leonora Jackson 1714
Sinsheimer; General Kyd; Perlman 1714 Itzhak Perlman
David L. Fulton
Smith-Quersin 1714 Österreichische Nationalbank [21] on loan to Rainer Honeck
Alard-Baron Knoop 1715
Baron Knoop; ex-Bevan 1715
ex-Bazzini 1715
Cremonese; ex-Harold Joachim 1715 Municipality of Cremona
Joachim 1715 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Sayaka Shoji
Lipinski 1715 missing: stolen in 1962
ex-Marsick 1715 on loan to James Ehnes
Titian 1715 Jacob Lynam
Cessole 1716
Berthier 1716
Booth 1716 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Shunsuke Sato; formerly loaned to Arabella Steinbacher; formerly loaned to Julia Fischer
Colossus 1716 missing: stolen 1998 [12]
Duranti 1716 Mariko Senju [26]
Monasterio 1716 Cyrus Forough
Provigny 1716
Messiah-Salabue 1716 Ashmolean Museum Oxford on exhibit at the Oxford Ashmolean Museum
ex-Windsor-Weinstein; Fite 1716 Canada Council for the Arts on loan to Jean-Sébastien Roy [17]
Baron Wittgenstein 1716 on loan to Mincio Mincev
Gariel 1717
ex-Wieniawski 1717
Kochanski 1717 Pierre Amoyal reported stolen in 1987; recovered in 1991[27]
Sasserno 1717 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Viviane Hagner
Viotti; ex-Rosé 1718 Giovanni Battista Viotti; on loan to Volkhard Steude
Österreichische Nationalbank [21]
Firebird; ex-Saint Exupéry 1718 Salvatore Accardo Its name is taken from the colouration of the varnish and its brilliant sound.
Marquis de Riviere 1718 Daniel Majeske played by Majeske while concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra from 1969-1993.
San Lorenzo 1718 Georg Talbot on loan to David Garrett - damaged December 27, 2007 [28]
Lauterbach 1719 Johann Christoph Lauterbach, J. B Vuillaume, Charles Philippe Lafont [29]
Madrileño 1720
von Beckerath 1720 Michael Antonello
Antonius Stradivarius Cremonensis 1721 recovered in southern Germany in 2006
Lady Blunt 1721 Paolo Stradivari named after Lady Anne Blunt, daughter of Ada Lovelace, granddaughter of Lord Byron.
Jean-Marie Leclair 1721 Jean-Marie Leclair; on loan to Guido Rimonda[30]
Red Mendelssohn 1721 Mendelssohn Family; inspiration for the 1998 film, The Red Violin
Elizabeth Pitcairn
Artot 1722
Jupiter; ex-Goding 1722 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Daishin Kashimoto; formerly Midori Goto
Laub-Petschnikoff 1722
Jules Falk 1722 Viktoria Mullova
Elman 1722 Chi Mei Museum
Cádiz 1722 Joseph Fuchs on loan to Jennifer Frautschi; named after the city of Cádiz, Spain.
Kiesewetter 1723 Stradivari Society on loan to Stefan Jackiw. [15]
Earl Spencer 1723 loaned to Emmy Verhey
Le Sarastre 1724 Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, Madrid bequeathed to the Conservatory by Pablo de Sarasate; on loan to Chen Xi
Brancaccio 1725 Destroyed in an allied air raid on Berlin. Owned by Carl Flesch, until 1928 where it was sold to Franz von Mendelssohn, banker and amateur violinist.[31]
Chaconne 1725 Österreichische Nationalbank [21] on loan to Rainer Küchel
Leonardo da Vinci 1725 Leonardo da Vinci [32]
Wilhelmj 1725 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Baiba Skride; one of several Stradivari violins with the sobriquet Wilhelmj
Greville; Kreisler; Adams 1726 Fritz Kreisler
Barrere 1727 Stradivari Society on loan to Janine Jansen [15]
Davidoff-Morini 1727 missing: stolen in 1995 [33]
ex-General Dupont 1727 on loan to Jennifer Koh
Holroyd 1727
Kreutzer 1727 Maxim Vengerov one of four Stradivari violins with the sobriquet Kreutzer (1701, 1720, 1731)
Hart; ex-Francescatti 1727 Salvatore Accardo
Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue 1727 Nippon Music Foundation this violin along with the Paganini-Desaint violin of 1680, the Paganini-Mendelssohn viola of 1731, and the Paganini-Ladenburg cello of 1736, comprise a group of instruments referred to as The Paganini Quartet; on loan to Martin Beaver of the Tokyo String Quartet
Halphen 1727 Angelika Prokopp Private Foundation on loan to Eckhard Seifert
Vesuvius 1727 Antonio Brosa
Remo Lauricella
Town of Cremona
A. J. Fletcher; Red Cross Knight 1728 A. J. Fletcher Foundation on loan to Nicholas Kitchen of the Borromeo String Quartet; the instrument was made by Omobono Stradivarius [34]
Artot-Alard 1728
Dragonetti; Milanollo 1728 Giovanni Battista Viotti on loan to Corey Cerovsek
Perkins 1728 Los Angeles Philharmonic named after Frederick Perkins, formerly owned by Luigi Boccherini[35]
Benny 1729 Jack Benny; bequeathed to the Los Angeles Philharmonic by Jack Benny
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Solomon, ex-Lambert 1729 Murray Lambert; sold at Christie's, New York for US$2,728,000 (€2,040,000)
Seymour Solomon
Innes 1729 on loan to Eugen Sarbu; previously loaned to Wieniawski
Guarneri 1729 Canada Council for the Arts on loan to Yi-Ja Suzanne Hou in 2003 [17][36]
Lady Jeanne 1731 Donald Kahn Foundation on loan to Benjamin Schmid
Heifetz-Piel 1731 Rudolph Piel;
Jascha Heifetz
Duke of Alcantara 1732 An obscure Spanish nobleman described as an aide-de-camp of King Don Carlos; UCLA Genevieve Vedder donated the instrument to the University of California at Los Angeles' (UCLA) music department in the 1960s. In 1967, the instrument was on loan to David Margetts who left the Stradivarius on the roof of his car and drove off or claimed it was stolen from his vehicle. For 27 years the violin was considered missing until it was recovered from an amateur violinist. A settlement was made and the Stradivarius was returned to UCLA in 1995.[37][38][39]
Herkules 1732 Eugène Ysaÿe missing: stolen in 1908 [12]
Tom Taylor 1732 previously loaned to Joshua Bell
Des Rosiers 1733 Angèle Dubeau
Huberman; Kreisler 1733 Bronislaw Huberman;
Fritz Kreisler
Khevenhüller 1733 Yehudi Menuhin
Rode 1733
Ames 1734 missing: stolen in the 1960s [12]
Baron Feilitzsch; Heermann 1734 Baron Feilitzsch;
Hugo Heerman
Gidon Kremer
Habeneck 1734 Royal Academy of Music
Herkules; Ysaye; ex-Szeryng; King David 1734 Eugène Ysaÿe;
Charles Münch;
Henryk Szeryng;
State of Israel
Lord Amherst of Hackney 1734 Fritz Kreisler
Lamoreux 1735 missing: stolen [12]
Muntz 1736 Nippon Music Foundation on loan to Arabella Steinbacher
Comte d'Amaille 1737
Lord Norton 1737
Chant du Cygne; Swan Song 1737 Ivry Gitlis

Well, the tabulations didn't come out quite right. I tried exporting this to an Excel spreadsheet, but it didn't seem to help.

Here is the original table:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius

 

[Galahad]

Dragonetti; Milanollo 1728 Giovanni Battista Viotti on loan to Corey Cerovsek

My son got to play this one (for about 30 seconds.......)

 

[agnes!]

So how many are missing, either "lost" or "stolen"?

And that story about the UCLA violin (the one that was supposedly - but not really - left on the roof of a car and then the violinist DROVE OFF ?!?) Glad it was recovered.

That is too cool about your son Galahad.

agnes!

 

[Deb in IA]

Joshua Bell's Gibson ex-Huberman was stolen TWICE before he got it.

And I didn't know Jack Benny's violin was a Stradivarius!

 

[Deb in IA]

My son got to play this one (for about 30 seconds.......)

Cool! I take it he didn't fall on it?

 

[Galahad]

Cool! I take it he didn't fall on it?

Yeah. It was during a Master Class that Corey Cerovcek gave. Nobody dropped it, but some other kid - about 16 or 17 at the time - also was allowed to play it for a bit and declare "I don't like this at all, it sounds terrible". He had an attitude the entire class anyway, but that just sent the class over the edge and he got roundly booed.

 

[Deb in IA]

Galahad, what ever happened to the Strad that was owned by Josef Gingold?