Great Instruments 3

This third volume in The Strad’s Great Instruments series brings together the finest scholarship, research and analysis by some of the world’s leading experts on stringed instruments. Among the highlights are a detailed look at the 1741 ‘Vieuxtemps’ violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, including an acoustic analysis by Joseph Curtin and an interview with its player, Anne Akiko Meyers. There’s also a rare examination of the ‘Boissier, Sarasate’, one of two Stradivari violins formerly owned by Pablo Sarasate, which rarely leaves its current home, the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid. And we examine some of the most extraordinary restoration jobs on fine instruments in history: the ‘Mara’ Stradivari cello, almost consigned to a watery grave, and the ‘Paravicini’ Stradivari, which took more than a year to restore to its former glory.

Full list of featured instruments

1. Girolamo Amati II violin, 1671
2. Antonio Stradivari ‘Harrison’ violin, 1693
3. Antonio Stradivari ‘King Carlos IV’ violin, 1709
4. Antonio Stradivari ‘Mara’ cello, 1711
5. Antonio Stradivari ‘Boissier, Sarasate’ violin, 1713
6. Antonio Stradivari ‘Cecil’ violin, 1724
7. Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ ‘Armingaud, Fernández Blanco’
   violin, 1732
8. Antonio Stradivari ‘Willemotte’ violin, 1734
9. Carlo Bergonzi ‘Salabue, Martzy’ violin, 1733
10. Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ ‘Vieuxtemps’ violin, 1741
11. Giuseppe Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ ‘Paravicini’ violin, 1734
12. Giovanni Battista Guadagnini ‘Cozio’ viola, 1773
13. Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume ‘Evangelists’ quartet, 1863