Just wanted to share this cos I'm very excited. Mr Blackbird took me to a concert on Friday involving a violin concerto which was played on a Stradivarius. I was sitting in the front row so I had a fantastic view of the violin. Now I know why they are worth so much money - it is the most beautiful instrument I have ever heard and I was nearly moved to tears. The sound was so sweet and melodic, I could happily have listened to it all night and it totally wiped the floor with all the other violins there. At point, the player was playing a duet with the principal violin and the Stradivarius totally outclassed it. Wow - it is probably the first (and last) time I will ever get that close to a Stradivarius but it's definitely one of those moments I will never forget.

Oooh - who was playing and what? How fab!

(Probably also partly the player wiping the floor with the others and not just the fiddle though )

I'm well envious!!

The player's name is Baiba Skride and she was playing Stravinsky's violin concerto in D - she did outclass all the other players but I was too transfixed on the Stradivarius - apparently it was a Wilhelmj 1725. I had to do everything not to jump on stage to try and touch it

Touching one is the next step,

1725 is quite a late Strad, by this time Antonio had worked out what to do, and was turning out some fantastic pieces of work.

I think that us novice players should get given the Strads as we need all the help we can get to make a good sound. Those extremely fine and talented violinists can probaby get a really decent sound out a frying pan strung with elastic bands and don't really need a Strad as much as I do.

That's my argument, unfortunately the Stradivari society do not seem to agree with me (yet!!)

That's an interesting take on it!!

I saw Nicola Benedetti play the Bruch on her Strad last month. I was only sitting about 10 feet away from her (it was a small hall and I was in the balcony) but I thought it could have used more oomph!

It wasn't that big an orchestra and she certainly wasn't drowned out - I think I just wanted to have her violin next to my ear while she was playing it

I'll try and find out which strad she plays...

Incidently I was in a violin shop last week and a scruffy guy came in (although he had a lovely smile ) with an even scruffier and bashed old case with a non-descript fiddle in it. Unfortunately he didn't play it. When he left the shop owner told me it was a 'Testore' worth tens of thousands of pounds!!!!! I'd love to have heard that!

(You should scan in THAT pic, jane - much envy would be displayed all round I'm sure...)

I agree with you!



I saw Nicola at the Royal Albert Hall only a week or so ago, unfortunately I was sitting at the other side of the Hall on the upper circle and I had strain tremendously to hear anything! either am getting deaf (after all the hard rock music I listened to as a young one!) or it was not loud enough

Maxim Vengerov also plays on a Strad, I have heard many things played by him but have not seen him live yet, that is a goal I want to achieve by 2 years at the most (will wait for him to come to England and if he doesn't will travel to see him!).

Well, if Jane is going to put her picture up, then I should display mine as well.....

I knew someone who made perfectly tuned 'flutes' out of drainpipes and once made the most beautiful xylophone out of scrap metal bars. Reckon he was bored at work....

I saw Joshua Bell on telly on the last night of the Proms... he plays a Strad that cost £4million!!!

I'd like to sniff a violin like that

I saw him on TV as well, that violin costs £4 million!!! I'm shocked! I want a sniff of it too.

I think what would be really fun is to try out lots of violins without knowing how much they costs and then chosing the one I like best...I probably can't tell the different cos I'm not good enough!

i'm aware of this, as he let my friend have a go on it!! she 'bumped into' him at the academy.

i heard he had a lot of trouble getting her to give it back... hehe

I was there! I wanted to sniff Joshua Bell, but Husband wouldn't let me

He's very generous like that



Hehe!!!



Check out my sig for concert dates...He's at the Wigmore in December.

Well I hope he is!! He is currently getting treatment for a bow arm injury and has had to cancel a lot of concerts this year (including the Proms!). He's hopeful he will be fit soon now.

Oh, please do!!!


I really hope he does a concert vaguely not-too-far away from me sometime soon. I'd really love to see him play live!

thanks for that tip, will check it out NOW!

I saw NIcola not long ago and also thought she was too quiet. I think the slight lack of oomph in her playing is down to the fact she's left-handed, so using her weaker arm for bowing....

I'm going to see Rachel Barton Pine play the Tchaikovsky concerto in December - any idea if she plays a Strad?

Nicola Benedetti is playing here again next April so I'm going to book tickets as soon as I can to get the same seats; I think if you sat anywhere further back you'd have difficulty hearing her.

Hilary Hahn is playing in Dundee in February and I'd love to go because I have a fabulous CD of her playing Bach. Dundee might just be awkward to arrange because it's a 2hour drive which I don't fancy in the dark.

Chloe Hanslip is also playing Mozart 3rd up here but it's quite short and I don't like the rest of the orchestral program... also tickets are getting really expensive. I just think it would be nice to support all the violin concerts if I could but I'll probably miss this one too

Don't know if any of them play a Strad but it would be heavenly to go backstage and ask to see it if they do - should I? I'm really too shy

mmmmmm Maxim Vengerov.... I'd love to put my head on his shoulder - do you think I'd absorb any of his talent????

I think 'round here the appropriate response is "join the queue" - I think Jane for one would fight you for him!

I just phoned the booking office and the decent seats for Nicola Benedetti's concert are already booked..... and the concert isn't until MAY 2008!!!!!!!!!

I've managed to book the last three seats in the 'good' quarter of the balcony thankfully but we're further away than I would have liked - all the best seats are taken by season-ticket holders .

The interesting thing is that the booking office clerk said that some of the tickets in that block were no use for hearing impaired and yet they're right at the front

Why would a seat at the front be no use for "hearing impaired"???

I remember telling John about meeting Maxim the first time and shaking him warmly by the hand and wondering if anything had rubbed off.

Later I was upstairs practising and John came in smiling saying he thought it had... I was really pleased until he clarified by saying he'd just heard Maxim in the radio and it was all scratchy...so it had obviously rubbed off in the wrong direction!!

I think I once caught a bit of vibrato from Josh Bell, but unfortunately never caught anything (musical !) from Maxim

tsk tsk!


Begs the question what DID you catch, young lady??!

I've uploaded one of the pics to my profile card... A very cherished moment is captured in that picture.

Wow!

Can't see much of the violin, Amanda, but the grin says it all!

Fab pic, Amanda!

I think alot of us would give anything in this world just to have a go with a Strad no matter what our standard is. I once tried a SGD$30,000 violin in a shop last year when I was around Grade 2-3ish. It was made in 1920 and you could tell loads of people have played it because the strings were whitish in the bowing area. I played the G major scale (3 octave one) and a couple of other stuff and I was just floored by the sound. I didn't want to touch my violin for like the next week or two.

Can't imagine what a Strad is like to play...

I played an £8000 cello a couple of months back, and even though that's relatively small beer, it was amazing!

The grandmother of a friend of mine was a violinist, and had a Guarneri (sorry, don't know which member of the Guarneri family made her instrument). Sigh, if only I'd met the family twenty-five years earlier...

Amanda's or Maxim's

It was rather a nice bow too!!!

Come on, Jane, upload yours - you know you want to!!

A Pierre Simon bow I believe, probably costing just £20,000 or thereabouts

Naw... My hair's a mess on that photo!! AND I am wearing a silly T-shirt (which is another story)



Yup...that's the one. Pity he had to give Heifetz's back, we could have done two in one go!!

I can't say I noticed the hair or the t shirt, all I could see were the two huge grins!!!