The Well-Tempered Ear
Classical music: Another Stradivarius violin is rescued – and teaches us a valuable lesson about loss and perspective.
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By Jacob Stockinger
Stradivarius violins may be rare, but they have sure come in for their share of adventure in the past year and a half.
First, there was the theft of the “Lipinski” violin owned and played by Frank Almond, the Paganini Competition-winning concertmaster of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
That story made national headlines.
Now comes word of a second Strad (below) that has been rescued 35 years after it was stolen.
This violin belonged to Roman Totenberg. He was the concertizing violinist and violin teacher at Boston University who was the father of the well-known and prize-winning legal affairs reporter for NPR, or National Public Radio, Nina Totenberg (below center with her two sisters). She is probably best known for her stories on the U.S. Supreme Court. When her father died in 2012 at 101, she also did a memorable obituary.
(At the bottom in a YouTube video, you can hear Roman Totenberg playing the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, with the Boston University Symphony Orchestra on the occasion of his 90th birthday.)
Roman Totenberg bought the so-called Ames Stradivarius for $15,000 in 1943. It is now said to be worth tens of millions of dollars after restoration. But his daughters promise it will be sold to a great violinist who will play it and perform with it as their father did — and not go into some museum or investment collection.
The story was all over the media -– maybe because it was good news amid so much bad news, a happy ending amid so many unhappy endings.
And what do you say when Nina Totenberg explains that her heart-broken father, who suspected who the thief was, moved on after the theft and bought another violin – a Guarneri del Jesu -– because he had personally suffered much bigger losses such as the deaths of his family in Nazi death camps during World War II.
That is perspective at a time when we sorely need perspective, especially about the worth of material objects versus humanist values.
Here is a story from NPR in which Nina Totenberg takes part and in which you can hear excerpts of her father playing a violin and piano sonata by Johannes Brahms and solo violin music by Johann Sebastian Bach:
And here is the big story it got in the New York Times:
Tags: Ames Stradivarius, Antonio Stradivari, Arts, Bach, Baroque, Boston, Boston University, Chamber music, Classical music, concentration camps, concerto, death camps, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jacob Stockinger, Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms, Karol Szymanowski, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music, Nazi, New York Times, Nina Totenberg, NPR, Piano, Poland, Polish music, Roman Totenberg, Sonata, Stradivarius, Supreme Court of the United States, United State Supreme Court, United States, United States Attorney, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Violin, World War II, YouTube
Classical music: See what goes into making a Stradivarius violin great, from the special Italian spruce trees to the master violin-makers who come to Cremona, Italy from around the world. But are the old violins really better than the best new ones?
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By Jacob Stockinger
Ever wonder what goes into a great violin made centuries ago by Stradivarius or Guarneri or Amati that makes them the favorite instruments of great performing virtuosos?
(The Ear will forget for a while the stories about how blind hearing tests with professional violinists showed that new or modern instruments outscored the centuries-old masterpieces.)
For whatever reason last weekend brought two terrific stories about what goes into making world-class violins – in specific the violins, worth millions of dollars, by Antonio Stradivari (below) and other master crafters and luthiers in Cremona, Italy.
The stories followed the great violins — and also violas and cellos — from the special Italian spruce trees grown in the dolomite Alps, which are celebrated and serenaded with music, to the actual makers of the instruments and the overall cooperative music culture of Cremona, Italy.
One of the stories appeared on NPR (National Public Radio) , specifically on Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Here is a link:
The other was a great segment on CBS’ “60 Minutes.” It has great visuals and interviews. Here is a link:
http://www.cbs.com/shows/60_minutes/video/FWotANRzsjL84Aj5ziBSdezDN88_Hp3M/the-city-of-music/
And at bottom in a YouTube video, is a comparison test of old and new violin sounds. Listen to it, take it and see how you do.
What do you think of the comparison results?
The Ear wants to hear.
Tags: 60 Minutes, Alps, Amati, Antonio Stradivari, Arts, Baroque, CBS, Cello, Chamber music, Classical music, Cremona, dolomite, Early music, Guarneri, Italy, Jacob Stockinger, Lipinski Stradivarius, Luthier, Madison, Music, NPR, Stradivarius, strings, Television, TV, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Viola, Violin, YouTube
Classical music: The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra will perform music by Rossini, Wieniawski and Tchaikovsky this Tuesday night in Edgerton.
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By Jacob Stockinger
It has been a few years since the acclaimed and impressive Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO, below) –- still in the news (a link to a story on NPR, or National Public Radio, is below) because of the attempted theft of concertmaster Frank Almond’s $3-million Stradivarius violin — played an annual concert at the Wisconsin Union Theater. The Ear always looked forward to the top-flight playing and fine programs that the Milwaukee group brought to Madison.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/deceptivecadence/2014/10/12/355623871/the-case-of-the-stolen-stradivarius
But this week, the MSO, playing under an assistant conductor, will perform in nearby Edgerton at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center.
The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra – without its music director Edo de Waart — will perform at the Edgerton Performing Arts Center on this coming Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door.
Here is some information from a press release: “The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, under the dynamic leadership of Music Director Edo de Waart, has embarked upon a new era of artistic excellence and critical acclaim. Now in his fifth season with the MSO, Maestro de Waart has led sold-out concerts, elicited rave reviews, and conducted an acclaimed performance at Carnegie Hall. The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra has four purposes: to comfort, educate, entertain and exhilarate the human soul.” For more information, visit www.mso.org
The concert will feature conductor Francesco Lecce-Chong and violin soloist Jeanyi Kim.
The program will include the Overture to the opera “Semiramide” by the Italian composer Gioachino Rossini (below top); the Concerto for Violin No. 2 in D Minor, Op. 22, by the well-traveled Polish violin virtuoso and composer Henryk Wieniawski (below middle); and the popular Symphony No. 5 in E minor, Opus 64, by the Russian composer Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (below bottom). You can hear the tuneful and melancholy Tchaikovsky symphony, played by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Leonard Bernstein, in a popular YouTube video at the bottom.
Jeanyi Kim (below) is the associate concertmaster (third chair) of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the concertmaster of the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra. In 2007, she served as a guest assistant concertmaster of the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis and Valery Gergiev.
As an orchestral musician, the Toronto native has performed in illustrious venues around the world, including Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Salle Pleyel, and the Concertgebouw. In addition to maintaining a private studio, she has served on the faculties at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, University of New Haven, and Neighborhood Music School, to name a few.
She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University, from which she also earned her BA, MM, and MMA degrees.
Francesco Lecce-Chong (below), currently associate conductor of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, has worked with the Atlanta, Indianapolis, and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and the Hong Kong, Pitesti (Romania), and Ruse (Bulgaria) philharmonic orchestras. Equally at ease in the opera house, Maestro Lecce-Chong has served as principal conductor for the Brooklyn Repertory Opera and as staff conductor for the Santa Fe Opera.
He has earned national distinction, including the Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award and The Presser Foundation Music Award. In summer 2014, he served as the associate conductor at the Grand Tetons Music Festival and had guest appearances with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Las Vegas Philharmonic and the Breckenridge Music Festival.
He is a graduate of the Mannes College of Music, where he received his Bachelor of Music degree with honors in piano and orchestral conducting. Lecce-Chong also holds a diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music.
Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 at the door. They are available at the Edgerton Pharmacy and Edgerton Piggly Wiggly; and in Janesville at Knapton Musik Knotes and Voigt Music Center, and by calling (608) 561-6093. Online, go to at iTickets.com
All performances funded by the William and Joyce Wartmann Endowment for the Performing Arts. An additional sponsor is the Edgerton Piggly Wiggly.
Tags: Amsterdam, Antonio Stradivari, Arts, Associated Press, Atlanta, Carnegie Hall, Classical music, Colin Davis, Concertgebouw, concertmaster, concerto, conductor, Edgerton Performing Arts Center, Edo de Waart, Frank Almond, Henryk Wienawski, Hong Kong, Jacob Stockinger, Las Vegas, Leonard Bernstein, Mannes College of Music, Milwaukee, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Music, Musician, opera, Orchestra, Rossini, Saint Paul, St. Louis, Stradivarius, symphony orchestra, Tchaikovsky, Theft, Toronto, Valery Gergiev, Violin, Violin concerto, Wisconsin Union Theater, Yale University, YouTube
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