The Indy this morning has the news that an anonymous bidder has just paid the second-highest price ever for a Stradivarius: £1.38m. And he thinks he got a bargain.
How do you buy one of these beauts if you're a musician? Mostly you don't. Otherwise, you beg, you borrow, you court wealthy people who collect the ruddy things, and if you are lucky enough to have one, you make sure you've got every piece of documentation under the sun to prove that what you have really is what you think you have, in case it isn't. It's a fiddly business, if you'll pardon the awful pun.
How expensive is a good fiddle? How long is a piece of string? How good is the performer? These are all infinitely variable. The violin used to be my 'second instrument' and once I had a friend who worked with a violin dealer in the West End. When I visited, he took down a violin from the wall and said 'have a go'. I played a couple of scales and adored it. It was the right size for me (smallish), had a beautiful sweet tone, had been made in Spain sometime in the late 18th century and cost £30,000. (We're talking 1989 here.) Then he took down another violin and said 'now try this one'. I didn't like it at all. It was loud, harsh, too big, I don't know what it was but it cost £60,000. I couldn't get my head around that.
The online auction house Tarisio held several days of viewing before its latest auction a few weeks back. They were selling a Nicolo Amati, and a fiddle-fanatic friend from the orchestra reported that it was absolutely gorgeous. For elaborate reasons I particularly wanted to see and hear a Nicolo Amati close to, so I grabbed my resident fiddler and took him off to Great Marlborough Street, where he began to play the Korngold concerto on the violin, which had a label inside saying Guarneri. The sound that came out was nothing short of heavenly: even, resonant, responsive, focused... Poor Tom turned green with longing.
This fiddle had an interesting history. It had been considered a Guarneri for most of its lifetime, but had been reassessed by Beare's and reidentified as an Amati; Guarneri having been apprenticed to Amati in Cremona, some confusion seemed not impossible. Moreover, it had belonged to the author of Le petit prince, Antoine de St Exupery. Romantique, n'est-ce pas?
It sold in the end for a figure in the region of £110,000. Compared to £1.38m, it doesn't sound much. But still way out of reach for most normal musicians.
3 comments:
This has been going on for years in the US, certainly, that the price of Cremonese instruments has gotten so high that only rich collectors or consortia of investors or extremely successful musicians can buy them. It's reflective of the limited number of instruments available, but seems so wrong.
Not unrelated, I'm reminded that most of the time Christian Tetzlaff plays a modern violin that he paid US$30,000 for, and prefers it to an older instruments (Strad?) that he also owns.
Yes, exactly. It's nothing especially new, but has been in my mind because that was the first time I'd been to view the instruments at close quarters. Tom has a lovely fiddle - Italian 19th-century but by a maker who isn't a big name among collectors, having made very few instruments to collect.
Tetzlaff does have one of the most beautiful tones on earth. How much is the instrument? And how much is simply him? Suspect 97% the latter.
I don't know about violins but the principle is probably the same as the guitar.
It's very difficult for musicians to get the quality instruments as the prices soar. Collectors do very well.
Also, each instrument is so individual. We have tried guitars by the same maker, some we've liked and some not.
It's down to how the player feels. A tiny difference in dimensions/wood can alter the sound and projection, all of which has to be taken into account.
But when you find the right one, there's nothing quite like it!
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