Stradivarius

The English II (1687-1689), he participated in a war in France which lost 44% of his audition Stradivarius Palatinos del Palacio Real, Madrid, Spain.

A Stradivarius violin is one of the stringed instruments built by members of the Italian Stradivari family, particularly by Antonio Stradivari. Stradivarius instruments are highly valued by the world's leading players and antique collectors. The sonic and individual characteristics of these works of art are considered unique, and often the instruments are identified by someone's name, usually a famous musician who owned it or simply used it for performances at some point. Serious modern studies guarantee that they are the best known in the entire history of violins. The explanations considered for its sound quality include the use of a special lacquer, a chemical treatment of the wood, different ways of drying it, or the use of very old wood. A joint study of the universities from Columbia and Tennessee, from 2009, suggests that wood was used from trees that had slower-than-normal growth —due to a solar cycle that produced long winters and cooler-than-usual summers during the so-called Little Ice Age—, so the wood was denser at that time.

Hypothesis about its sound quality

There have been many attempts to imitate the sound quality of these instruments; there are many hypotheses about how they were built. Many believed that the varnish used by Stradivari was made with a secret formula that was lost when its creator died, but X-ray examinations and spectrum analysis of the violins' surfaces revealed that they all underwent structural changes (especially the neck, tailpiece and strings), and often all that remains of the original work is the body itself, which was periodically re-varnished.

Antonio Stradivari, pictorial work by Edgar Bundy, 1893: image idealized by the Romanticism of a hero-artesano.

Another hypothesis says that the key point was the drying time of the maple and fir wood with which they are built; this was also disproved by studying the grain of the wood. The lines were compared with models of trees that lived at that time and the drying time could be determined simply by taking the difference between the date of construction (which was left by Stradivari on a label inside the instrument) and the calculation of when the tree had been cut down. This revealed that the wood had dried for no more than 25 years, and not 60 or 70, as previously believed.^{[citation needed]}

Another hypothesis points out that the period of extreme cold that Europe suffered in the years in which Stradivari lived, a little ice age, could have caused the trees that grew during that time to develop a more compact fiber and with better mechanical quality sound. However, there are instruments built at the same time, with wood from the same trees, which did not achieve the magnificence of a Stradivarius.^{[citation required]}

It is also worth mentioning the popular belief about a supposed tree that Stradivari found inside a river and from whose enormous trunk he created some of his most renowned instruments. Some people without basic knowledge of physics and chemistry say that the wood itself "acquired the vibration of the river", which would give it a unique and unrepeatable sound. It is clear that this absurd explanation, without any scientific basis to support it, may be based on an attempt to give a more poetic aspect to the history of the manufacture of the instruments.

Finally, the hypothesis that seems most accurate so far is one that was the result of the same spectrum analysis on the surface and partly of the residual shavings obtained from the interior of a Stradivarius with an endoscopic system. These tests revealed the presence of metallic particles very attached to the wood, which could suggest that the great master finely treated the wood he used with solutions of metallic salts, which would have given his instruments the strength and richness of sound that are appreciated so much.

In January 2009, in the journal Public Library of Science, the results of an investigation carried out over three decades with very small samples (very thin layers) taken from a Stradivarius in repair: one of the study's authors, Dr. Joseph Nagyvary, a specialist in biochemistry and professor of chemistry at Texas A&M University, claimed to have found evidence that in Italy, in the "golden period" After the construction of this type of instrument, between 1700 and 1720, a plague of insects affected the trees in the area and was the key to Stradivari's success. The violin maker "used borax (a mineral component currently used in the manufacture of detergents and cosmetics, and also as a fire retardant, as an insecticide and as a fungicidal agent) to preserve the instruments against insects", without knowing that this would also have effects on loudness. Used as an insecticide and wood preservative since the time of the ancient Egyptian civilization, where it was also used to mummify human remains, borax was used as a protection on the first layer of the wood of the instruments.

Approximate price

The price of the Stradivarius varies depending on the instrument, its state of conservation and the quality of the sound, among other aspects, from thousands of dollars to the record sums of millions of dollars. Some, when used by great soloists such as Yehudi Menuhin or Jascha Heifetz, acquire incalculable value. In 2011, one of these, the so-called 'Lady Blunt', was auctioned for 17 million dollars. Despite the high price of this violin, which is the record in a known transaction for a musical instrument, it was not It is the most valuable of those built by Antonio Stradivari. This honor is held by a viola from the so-called "National Quartet", Spanish heritage, which, if sold, is estimated to acquire a price of between 100 and 140 million euros at auction.

This record could have been surpassed in June 2014, since the Sotheby's auction house put up for sale the 'McDonald' viola, one of the only two Stradivarius still in hands private, with a starting price of 45 million dollars (about 33 million euros). No bids were submitted.

Original and non-original instruments

Of the more than 1000 instruments that Stradivari made, only a little more than 800 remain in circulation (This does not mean that these instruments no longer exist, but that they are part of private collections) Many later luthiers signed Stradivari inside their instruments, so it is not uncommon to find the text "made in Germany" under the signature. An authentic Stradivarius is distinguished by its very fine finishes, extremely beautiful iridescent wood and the label that cites the year and place where it was built.

Collections and renowned specimens

The best group of string quartet instruments in the world, the Stradivarius Palatinos collection, is located in Madrid. However, the Nippon Music Foundation owns 15 violins, 1 viola and 3 cellos, the Stradivari Society owns a similar number to the previous one of instruments of great importance stradivarius and bowed string instruments of a private nature, the most extensive and important in the world.

Violins

During his lifetime Antonio Stradivari built around 2,300 violins. Now only about 601 are preserved.

• Aranyi 1667
• ex Captain Saville 1667
• Take it easy. 1668
• Oistrakh 1671 - David Oistrakh. Property of the Olivares López family.
• Spanish 1677 or 1723.
• Paganini-Desaint (Cuarteto Paganini) 1680 - preserved at the Nippon Music Foundation, usually rendered to Kikuei Ikeda of the Tokyo String Quartet
• Fleming 1681 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Cecily Ward [3]
• Bucher 1683
• Cipriani Potter 1683
• Cobbett ex Holloway 1683
• ex Arma Senkrah 1685 - Aksel property (source) Krauffman
• ex Castelbarco 1685
• Auer 1689 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Vadim Gluzman [4]
• Arditi 1689
• Baumgartner 1689
• Bingham 1690
• Bennet 1692
• Falmouth 1692 - usually played by Leonidas Kavakos
• Baillot-Pommerau 1694
• Fetzer 1694 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Ruggero Allifranchini [5]
• Decorated 1696 (two) - preserved at the Royal Palace of Madrid, usually played by the National Fifth.
• Stradivarius molitor"1697 owned by Anne Akiko Meyers.
• ex Baron Knoop 1698 - property of Berenice Christin Terwey
• The Lady Tennant 1699 [6]
• Longuet 1699
• Countess Polignac 1699, currently executed by Gil Shaham
• Castelbarco 1699
• Cristiani 1700
• Taft ex Emil Heermann 1700
• Dushkin 1701 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Frank Almond [7]
• The Irish 1702 - preserved in the Stradivari Society Finnish OKO Bank, usually borrowed from Réka Szilvay.
• Conte di Fontana 1702
• King Maximilian Joseph c. 1702 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Berent Korfker. [8]
• Lyall 1702 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Stefan Milenkovich [9]
• La Rouse Boughton 1703 – preserved at the National Bank of Austria, loaned to Boris Kuschnir of the Kopelman Quarter
• Allegretti 1703
• Alsager 1703
• Emiliani 1703 - property of Anne-Sophie Mutter
• Betts 1704
• ex Brüstlein 1707 – preserved at the National Bank of Austria [10]
• The Cathédrale 1707 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Tamaki Kawakubo [11]
• Hammer 1707 - currently owned by Kyoko Takezawa
• Burstein, Bagshawe 1708 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Janice Martin. [12]
• Duque de Camposelice 1708
• Ruby 1708 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, occasionally used by Leila Josefowicz; usually played by Vadim Repin [13]
• Berlin Hochschule 1709
• Ernst 1709
• Viotti 1709
• Lord Dunn-Raven 1710 - usually borrowed from Anne-Sophie Mutter
• ex Roeder 1710 - usually played by David Grimal
• ex Vieuxtemps 1710
• Liegnitz 1711
• Lady Inchiquin 1711 - usually played by Frank Peter Zimmermann. The owner is the WestLB AG company that bought it for the violinist.
• Boissier 1713 - is used in the final concert of the Sarasate Prize and is preserved in the Royal Superior Conservatory of Music of Madrid
• Gibson ex Huberman 1713 - Joshua Bell property, which bought it at a price in the USD 4,000.000 environment.
• Daniel 1713 - property of Juan Pablo Reynoso
• Former Joachim 1714 - preserved at the Royal Academy of Music
• Soil 1714 - usually borrowed from Itzhak Perlman
• ex Berou ex Thibaud 1714
• Le Maurien 1714 - Stolen in 2002, currently lost. [14]
• Leonora Jackson 1714
• Joseph Joachim 1715 - Conserved at the Nippon Music Foundation and played by Ray Chen
• Lipinski 1715 - (ex Tartini) was played by Frank Almond until his robbery in 2014. [15]
• Titian 1715
• Alard 1715
• ex Bazzini 1715
• Cessole 1715
• ex Marsick 1715 - usually played James Ehnes
• Berthier 1716
• Booth 1716 - usually played Julia Fischer
• Colossus 1716 - Stolen in 1998, currently lost. [16]
• Monastery 1716
• Provigny 1716
• The Messiah 1716
• Gariel 1717 - played by Nicola Benedetti, property of Jaime Laredo.
• ex Wieniawski 1717
• Windsor-Weinstein 1716 - preserved at the Canadian Arts Council Musical Instruments Bank (Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank).
• Firebird ex Saint-Exupéry 1718 - property of Salvatore Accardo
• Cremonesi of 1719 used by the Russian violinist and Argentine nationalized Alejandro Scholz during the presentations he gave in the city of Punta Arenas (Magallanes) in January 1953.
• Madrileño 1720
• Count of Villares 1720 Property of the Masaveu Group
• ex Beckerath 1720
• Lady Blunt 1721 - Sold by 15.9 Million US Dollars in 2011 at a charity auction for the survivors of the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami
• Artot 1722
• Jupiter 1722 - preserved in the Nippon Music Foundation, usually rendered to Midori Goto
• Laub-Petschnikoff 1722
• Jules Falk 1723 - property of Viktoria Mullova
• Kiesewetter 1723 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Stefan Jackiw [17]
• The Sarasate 1724 - preserved at the Museum of Instruments of the Superior National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris.
• Brancaccio 1725
• Barrere 1727 - preserved in the Stradivari Society, usually rendered to Janine Jansen. [18]
• Davidov-Morrini 1727 - stolen in 1995, currently lost. [19]
• Former General Dupont 1727
• Stradivarius Eugenio di Barbaro 1727 - property of -Alexandre Da Costa
• Holroyd 1727
• Kreutzer 1727 - property of Maxim Vengerov

• Hart ex Francescatti 1727 – property of Salvatore Accardo
• Paganini-Comte Cozio di Salabue (Cuarteto Paganini) 1727 - preserved at the Nippon Music Foundation, usually rendered to Martin Beaver of Tokyo String Quartet
• Recamier 1729 owned by Ryuzo Ueno, Honorary Chairman, Ueno Fine Chemicals Industry, Ltd., usually rendered to Sayaka Shoji.
• Benny 1729 - Legacy by Jack Benny to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra
• Lavalle 1731 - preserved in the Musée Tlapacoyense, in Veracruz, Mexico, usually rendered to Benjamin Schmid [20]
• Hercules 1732 - belonged to Eugène Ysaÿe. Stolen in 1908, currently lost. [21]
• Des Rosiers 1733 - property of Angèle Dubeau
• Rode 1733
• Ames 1734 - Stolen and lost since 1980 [22], reappeared in 2015. [23]
• Former Baron von Feilitzsch 1734
• Habeneck 1734 - preserved at the Royal Academy of Music
• Lamoureux 1735 - Stolen and currently lost. [24]
• Muntz 1736
• Count of Armaille 1737
• Lord Norton 1737
• "Swan song" 1737. His most famous owner was the great Cuban violinist and composer José White.

Violas

Eighteen violas by Antonio Stradivari are preserved.

• Casaux 1696 - Belonging to the Quinteto Palatino, preserved at the Royal Palace of Madrid.
• Archive 1696 - preserved at the Royal Academy of Music.
• Paganini-Mendelssohn (Cuarteto Paganini) 1731 - preserved at the Nippon Music Foundation, usually rendered to Kazuhide Isomura of the Tokyo String Quartet

Cellos

Antonio Stradivari built between 70 and 80 cellos in his lifetime [25] Archived 2002-12-24 at the Wayback Machine, surviving 63 of them.

• General Kyd ex Leo Stern 1684- Stolen on 27 April 2004 from Peter Stumpf's house, a soloist cello from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and recovered by a family from a Los Angeles landfill, three weeks later. [26]
• Barjansky 1690 - usually played by Julian Lloyd Webber
• Bonjour 1696 - currently on loan at the Canadian Arts Council Musical Instruments Bank (Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank).
• Lord Aylesford 1696 - owned by the Nippon Music Foundation. Played by János Starker between 1950 and 1965.
• Castelbarco 1697
• Decorated 1696 - Perteneciente al Quinteto Palatino - is the chelo of the original quartet-, preserved in the Royal Palace of Madrid.
• Under Palatine 1700 - Perteneciente al Quinteto Palatino Conservacion en el Palacio Real de Madrid.
• Servais 1701 - preserved at the Smithsonian Institute.
• Paganini-Condessa de Stanlein 1707 - owned by Bernard Greenhouse. Do not confuse with the Paganini-Ladenburg of the Paganini Quartet.
• Gore-Booth 1710- Rocco Filippini property
• Leonardo 1709- owned by Juan Pablo Reynoso
• Duport 1711 - property of Mstislav Rostropóvich
• Davidov 1712 - it was owned by Karl Davidov, the "Zar of the cellists" (as was nicknamed by Chaikovski). It was then owned by Jacqueline du Pré until his death in 1987, who lent it to Yo-Yo Ma.
• Batta 1714 - property of Gregor Piatigorsky
• Becker 1719
• Piatti 1720 - used by Carlos Prieto, who changed the name to "Cello Prieto"
• Baudiot 1725 - property of Gregor Piatigorsky
• De Munck ex Feuermann 1730 - preserved at the Nippon Music Foundation, usually rendered to Steven Isserlis.
• Braga 1731
• Paganini-Ladenburg (Cuarteto Paganini) 1736 - preserved at the Nippon Music Foundation, usually loaned to Clive Greensmith from Tokyo String Quartet

Guitars

Four complete Stradivarius mandolins and numerous fragments of guitars have been preserved.

• Hill 1680 or 1688
• Rawlins 1700

Harps

Antonio Stradivari made only one harp during his lifetime.

Double Basses

Fewer than 15 Stradivarius double basses are known to exist, though they are not as valued as his violins.

Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

• 

  "Gould" violin (1693)

• 

  "Francesca" violin (1694)

• 

  "Antonius" violin (1711)