Janine Jansen gets to play 12 Stradivari
mainIn an eat-your-heart-out opportunity envied by every violinist, the Dutch virtuoso has landed the central role in a film about great violins.
Falling for Stradivari is the brainchild of Steven Smith, head of London violin dealers, J&A Beare, who wanted to record as many of the outstanding violins as he could lay hands on. Jansen chose Sir Antonio Pappano, director of the Royal Opera House, as her accompanist. Sky Arts will broadcast the film on September 23 and Decca will release an accompanying album.
The trailer is being shown first on slippedisc.com, below.
The trailer has been out for weeks. Not sure why you think it is being shown first on slippedisc.
Something to watch for. The touch of every violin is so different, even if by the same maker, that it would take considerable concentration for an artist to be at her (or his) best when engaged in a project of this sort.
The classic example of such a recording of course is Ruggiero Ricci’s “Glory of Cremona” album for (American) Decca in 1963; it was not confined to Strads, but 15 great examples of Cremona-made instruments, Strads of course but also Amati, Bergonzi, Guarneri and so on. It included a bonus disc where Ricci plays the opening measures of the solo part to the Bruch Concerto No. 1 just so each violin could be compared more directly to the others, from G string to E string, without one’s being influenced by the choice of music. Ricci’s position on the floor was carefully marked and the recording controls were not touched once proper balances were arrived at.
That album inspired magazine articles by violinist Joseph Wechsberg in Esquire magazine (with a wonderful color photo presumably taken at the recording sessions) and The New Yorker, and in turn those articles were expanded into the book The Glory of the Violin published by the Viking Press in 1973.
So one could make the case that Ricci’s album is the most influential violin recording ever made in terms of the written word count at least.
Less remarked but also quite interesting was another Ricci recording for American Decca: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons where Ricci played four Strads ( from, figuratively, the Spring to the Winter of Stradivari’s creative life) and the entire chamber orchestra played Strads! Unforgivably, Decca did not name the freelance chamber orchestra members. Perhaps Ricci’s brother played cello? Imagine showing up for THAT gig and being handed the Strad assigned to you.
For today’s most avid violin buffs, probably the recording they’d think of first as a similar musical excursion through the world of great instruments is the set of CDs Elmar Oliviera made playing Strad and Guarneri del Gesù fiddles to accompany the lavish book published by Chicago violin dealers Bein & Fushi, “The Miracle Makers.” If you have seen the Bein & Fushi color calendars or their sales bulletins you know the quality of color photographs they utilize.
Not intended as a musical exploration of great violins, but effectively serving as such since he played on and owned so many great ones over his long career, is the 30-CD “The Staryk Anthology 1952-2003” privately created and issued by the violinist. The variety of sources and the variable quality of the sound does not however invite or allow the sort of direct comparisons between instruments that the Ricci, Oliviera and (presumably) Janine Jansen releases do.
Lastly, another CD that should be mentioned is the exploration of the sound of seven fine old violins, Franco Gulli’s “Lo Splendore del Violino” CD on the Dynamic/IL CANALE label (DC-U01). The violins are a Serafino, Montagnana, Gagliano, Guadagnini, Bergonzi, Strad (1702), and Pietro Guarneri.
You have forgotten the wonderful CD/DVD called Homage recorded by the great Canadian violinist James Ehnes playing 9 violins (6 Strads and 3 Guarneris) and 3 violas, using 7 bows (Tourtes and Peccattes), all from what was then the David Fulton collection. In addition to playing different pieces, Ehnes plays the same piece on all the violins for comparison purposes. It’s a fabulous CD/DVD that every violinist should listen to and watch.
Right, Steve – my bad, since Ehnes is one of my favorite violinists.
Ursula Bagdasarjanz told me she made a taped program for Swiss television of her playing select violins from the Rolf Habisreutinger Collection back in the 1960s. I have yet to track it down although You Tube has many of her recorded performances on it.
And there are others as well. James Ehnes did a fine set of videos playing many of the violins (and violas) in David Fulton’s great collection. And a former BPO concertmaster by the name of Rainer Kussmaul did a single comparison disk, unless I’ve confused him with another ex-BPO player.
Ah, it wasn’t Kussmaul, but Saschko Gawriloff, yet another former BPO concertmaster. The album is titled “What about this, Mr. Paganini?” and is currently available on youtube.
I hope the film becomes available via streaming after its broadcast, and I look forward to the Decca release.
Many thanks to David Nelson for his summary of previous comparative recordings; the 1963 Ricci is the only one I’d previously known.
I can’t wait to see it!
Anyone have a violin appraiser you would like to pass along? I’m excited to view the film. I’m in Florida and wanted to redo my father’s violin and my luthier wants it appraised because of the labels inside.
Appraisals by the best and most capable are NOT cheap, but do a bit of google searching and you will find sites that claim to find violin appraisers based on your location. Try here for example:
https://www.afvbm.org/appraisals/
There are some appraisers who will give some sort of opinion based on photographs by the way, but they have particular requirements for those photographs that you have to follow. You might find yourself going to Georgia or elsewhere in the Southeast. But I’d have to think there is someone in Florida.
Most luthiers/repairmen
/dealers at least claim to also be appraisers and I am surprised that your luthier wants an outside opinion, yet did not suggest a name or do the appraisal himself. On the other hand the sales/
appraisal combo can be a snake-pit.
Is he worried about liability should he damage the instrument?
This may sound off-base but I wonder who an instrument insurer would recommend in your area.