What the priciest Stradivarius sounds like (clue: catgut)
mainA violinist called Matteo Fedeli is touring the 1715 ex-Bazzini – De Vito, with a price estimate of $16 million.
He plays it on CBC television.
Judge for yourselves.
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*grabs the popcorn and front row seat.
Sadly, the performance and the mic-ing do nothing to display the quality of a good violin. His answers were superficial (language barriers aside) and he seems ignorant of violin scholarship and science. Who is this guy? Another trading off of the outrageous investment value of a mythical violin.
It’s simple. There a musical instruments and there are investment objects. There might be some overlap in certain cases, but the perceived monetary value is disconnected from musical value.
This violin would sound great to 99% of people even without any sound. Because they believe so…
Laughable at best
A violin transcription of Hindemith Op. 25. 1…. WHYYYYYY?!….and for his next trick a violin transcription of Berio’s sequenza for Viola……
Intonation? Just who is this amateur buffoon??
Shame on anyone for engaging this person to play a concert. Horrible judgment on the part the presenters and horrible musical judgment by this person playing. It is complicated for sure: sad, laughable, hurtful to our art, and mediocre in every way. Sorry if I sound mean but this kind of performance on a big stage hurts our efforts as hard-working performers with high standards, who try to build audiences and appreciation.
The mics were clearly overloading, which lead to some of the sound being pretty bad. And yes, there was plenty of out-of-tune playing, but in his defense, playing under those hot lights will through any stringed instrument out of tune very quickly. Still, neither the instrument nor the musician sounded very good today.
And this is why no one can sell an antique instrument based on its sound, only its heritage.
Wouldn’t the violin be more marketable if lent out to a prominent violinist for a couple years, where it could be heard to best advantage all over the place? In any case, it’s not the violin in the player’s hands, it’s the player’s hands on the violin.
We attended one of the concerts. The sound was terrible and the program was poor.
I pity the violin and the “people” that have to listen to this mediocre playing.
This is a joke isnt’it? Unfortunately a very bad one! At least Jack Benny was extremely funny! This is not! It is revolting that such an idiot is allowed to play the Bazzini Strad, if indeed it is genuine! Please do not post anymore such rubbish!
This violin is not even Italian. It’s fake.