| Contents |
Introduction -- Five violins and one cello. The Messiah, the Viotti, the Khevenhuller, the Paganini, the Lipinski, and the Davidov -- "The incomparably better violins of Cremona". The Amati dynasty -- "He was a genius already". The origins and development of Antonio Stradivari -- "His costume scarcely ever varied". Stradivari's golden period, decline, and death -- "So singular and so beautiful". The violins of Giuseppe Tartini and Paolo Stradivari -- "My violin should realize a large sum". Viotti and his Strad -- "To the virtuosos of violins". Prince Khevenhuller, Count Cozio, Joseph Bohm, and Tarisio -- "The turning-point in the history of virtuosity". Paganini, showman and dealer -- "I have 80,000 francs on me". Vuillaume and the hotel of delights -- "Unveiled in all its intact glory". The Messiah makes its mark -- "Find his majesty's soloist". Charles Davidov and his cello -- "An immense reserve of strength". Marie Hall, the Hills, and the Edwardian era -- "No matter what the price". Four Strads go to America -- "What can we sell this as?" Violin dealers and the postwar world -- "The sound kept on coming and coming". The Davidov, the Paganini, the Khevenhuller, the Viotti, and the Marie Hall -- "A run-of-the-mill Strad". Interpreting the Messiah -- Afterword -- Appendix one. Chronology of classical Luthiers ; Appendix two. Glossary ; Appendix three. Price conversions. |
| Abstract |
The first book to focus on the unsurpassed achievement of the famed Italian violin maker, it combines a description of Stradivari's life and work with an anecdotal history of some of his instruments and the virtuosos who played them, that continues to the present day. Antonio Stradivari (1644?-1737) was a perfectionist whose single-minded pursuit of excellence changed the world of music. In the course of his long career in the northern Italian city of Cremona, he created more than a thousand stringed instruments; approximately six hundred survive, their quality unequalled by any subsequent violin-maker. This book traces the rich, multilayered stories of six of these peerless creations--five violins and a cello--and the one towering artist who brought them into being. Blending history, biography, meticulous detective work, and an abiding passion for music, the author takes us from the salons of Vienna to the concert halls of New York, and from the breakthroughs of Beethoven's last quartets to the first phonographic recordings. This magnificent narrative invites us to share the life, the intrigue, and the incomparable beauty of the world's most marvelous stringed instruments. |
