30k and a Guadagnini for Stuttgart winner
OrchestrasThe South Korean violinist Do Gyung (Anna) Im has won first prize of €30,000 and the three-year loan of a 1746 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin at the second Stuttgart International Violin Competition.
Im, 25, trained at Curtis with Shmuel Ashkenasi and Aaron Rosand, and at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Well deserved, I’m sure, but for the full sake of transparency – the fact remains that Shmuel Ashkenazi, her former teacher, was on the jury (and taught several other contestants)
Frankly, it’s ridiculous that competitions still let this happen. You’d hope that a competition this new would be better, but apparently not.
Another Asian violinist, Anne Akiko Meyer, plays the “world’s most expensive” violin, the $16m Vieuxtemps Guarneri
But seriously, I heard her play it several times and could not tell the difference from a $2m Strad.
FWIW, NPR reported a double-blind study where pro musicians could not hear the difference between Strads and $500 violins.
If they were playing the instruments, they would be able to tell, which is the more important criterion.
Nope. There have been many such trials over the years and the results always tend along the lines of… neither players nor listeners can correctly separate the old master violins from the modern master violins.
https://www.thestrad.com/blind-tested-soloists-unable-to-tell-stradivarius-violins-from-modern-instruments/994.article
After each occasion excuses are made to explain why the Strads didn’t triumph, then someone devises a new test to address the complaint and… same result.
I think it would be difficult to tell the difference if the violinist playing is Anne Akiko Meyers.
…that’s not a compliment. She’s one of the Delay kids who hit the career trail many years too soon.
Hand her Guarneri to Zukerman, Shaham, Hilary Hahn, Kerson Leong, Frank Peter Zimmermann, or even Anne-Sophie Mutter (who avoids Guarneri violins) and it will sound like its worthn
Absolutely! When a musician play tests an instrument, they are aware of the most subtle sonic differences and also are influenced by the “feel phenomenon.” But to the ears of listeners at a distance, there is very little difference in sound. Many tests have been performed under controlled conditions in order to verify this. In the end, the player is always the largest variable. However, it is justified for musicians to purchase instruments with better quality mechanisms, which are typically more expensive (but not always), as that will make playing more efficient (i.e. the musician won’t have to fight against the instrument). With a violin, however, there isn’t any mechanism…just four strings over a fingerboard.
I have said this many times: I feel that the whole classical music industry is a scam designed to put money into the pockets of instrument manufacturers and educational institutions. It’s all fueled by hope. Here is what Nietzsche thought about hope, (source: Human, All Too Human):
“HOPE. Pandora brought the box of ills and opened it. It was the gift of the gods to men, outwardly a beautiful and seductive gift, and called the Casket of Happiness. Out of it flew all the evils, living winged creatures, thence they now circulate and do men injury day and night. One single evil had not yet escaped from the box, and by the will of Zeus Pandora closed the lid and it remained within. Now for ever man has the casket of happiness in his house and thinks he holds a great treasure; it is at his disposal, he stretches out his hand for it whenever he desires; for he does not know the box which Pandora brought was the casket of evil, and he believes the ill which remains within to be the greatest blessing,—it is hope. Zeus did not wish man, however much he might be tormented by the other evils, to fling away his life, but to go on letting himself be tormented again and again. Therefore he gives Man hope,—in reality it is the worst of all evils, because it prolongs the torments of Man.”
This is tragic because there really isn’t anything at the end of the tunnel, especially in 2024 (unless you are from a very wealthy family who can use major funds to create the impression that you are an active soloist when in reality they are losing vast sums of money (this practice is prevalent in Asian cultures).
Speaking of scams, we should talk about the Steinway monopoly in the U.S. concert halls.
I can tell difference between a Steinway and a Bosendorfer or Fazioli. But all Steinways sound pretty much the same to my jaded ears.