MAGNIFICENT OBSESSION

For decades, top soloists would visit the home of David Fulton to sample the treasures of his legendary collection. Now dispersed, the instruments have been brought together again in book form. The collector shares some of the highlights with Christian Lloyd

David Fulton with the ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri of 1742

Over a period of 40 years, American software engineer David Fulton built up one of the finest collections of old Italian instruments ever seenAt one point numbering 18 violins, 6 violas and 4 cellos, it included works by Stradivari, Guarneri ‘del Gesù’, Carlo Bergonzi, Guadagnini, Montagnana and others.Although some of the instruments arrived in less than perfect working order, Fulton –a passionate amateur player himself – had each of them restored to ideal playing condition.Artists from Nathan Milstein and Ruggiero Ricci to James Ehnes and Augustin Hadelich came to his home near Seattle to perform on the instruments and experiment with different bows, resulting in Ehnes’s 2008 album Homage and a 2014 film of the Miró Quartet performing Schubert among other projects.Then, over a period of twelve years, Fulton sold all but four of the instruments, leaving him with the ‘Baron Knoop’ Stradivari, a Guadagnini viola, a copy of the ‘D’Egville’Guarneri, and his very first rare instrument, a 1698 Pietro Guarneri of Mantua. Now, having published a book about the collection, Fulton looks back at some of his favourite instruments and tells their stories.

1733 ‘SASSOON’ STRADIVARI VIOLIN

Stradivari was 89 years old when he made the ‘Sassoon’ and there are elements that show the hand of an old man. For instance, the purfling is not as perfect as in earlier instruments: it’s a bit wobbly and lacks the machine-like precision of Stradivari’s earlier work. But it’s very moving to see that old Antonio was proud of himself when he finished it. The ‘Sassoon’ is one of the instruments to which he added a small auxiliary label, this one declaring d’anni 89, eighty-nine years old. Clearly he was proud he could still make great instruments even at his advanced age.

The ‘Sassoon’ varnish is original with no retouching

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY DAVID R. FULTON

The ‘Sassoon’ has a wonderful ‘chocolatey’ tone, darker than most earlier Stradivaris. This is typical of many late Strads.

I found the ‘Sassoon’ rather stiff and resistant to play, although James Ehnes, when he came to record the Homage DVD, said it was one of his favourites. Its condition is remarkable: it has had no significant repairs and the varnish is original with no retouching or polishing. For an instrument almost 300 years old that’s quite unusual. I sold the ‘Sassoon’ in 2011 with regret.

I tend to group violinists into Strad players and ‘del Gesù’ players. Natural Strad players have a sweeping bow arm while the del Gesù players utilise a more gluey, slow and intense bow stroke. I’d say Nathan Milstein was an archetypal Strad player while Pinchas Zukerman is very much a ‘del Gesù’ player. I’ve personally heard Milstein say that a ‘del Gesù’ is just ‘a Strad with a cold’. Zukerman is equally dismissive of Strads.

1715 ‘BARON KNOOP’ ANTONIO STRADIVARI VIOLIN

My favourite of all the instruments I’ve owned is the ‘Baron Knoop’ from Stradivari’s golden period. I bought it in 1992, by which time I knew my limitations as a violinist. I may have been good enough to be a section player in a decent orchestra, but nobody would mention me in the same breath as Perlman.

The ‘Knoop’ was also old Baron Knoop’s favourite instrument. I think this is because he, like me, was a passionate amateur rather than a professional, and this violin is very responsive and exceptionally easy to play. Tonally there are no better violins; equally fine perhaps, but none better. Of all the instruments I’ve owned, I’d call this one the most happy-sounding.

When I received the ‘Baron Knoop’ for the first time, though, I was disappointed. It came to me from a dealer in New York as a ‘painted lady’ – that is, some foolish luthier had retouched the varnish to make it look ‘newer’. It had also been given a coat of French polish, which is one of the worst things you can do to an instrument. It was difficult to play, sluggish in response, and it was unpleasantly hard-sounding. So I sent it over to my friend, the master adjuster and restorer John Becker, who discovered that it been poorly maintained for years and needed restoration.

John added a new bridge and fingerboard, replaced the soundpost and bass-bar, and gave it a new set-up. He also found that there was too much tension on the instrument’s top.

At one point there was a fashion among some New York luthiers to put in a very tall soundpost to increase the tension on the top. One commented to me that he tried ‘to make the wood squeal’. To my ear, this results in a very dry-sounding G string, an unnaturally powerful mid-range and a wiry and hard-sounding E string. This type of set-up wasn’t to my taste (or to that of most listeners) so it had to be fixed. Finally, while painstakingly taking off that ill-advised retouching, John discovered lots of original Stradivari varnish underneath, so now the instrument looks as bright and lovely as it should always have been, and the tonal quality is amazing.

The ‘Baron Knoop’, now divested of its French polish and retouched varnish

OF ALL THE INSTRUMENTS I’VE OWNED, THE ‘BA RON KNOOP’ IS THE MOST H A PPY-SOUNDING

1742 ‘LORD WILTON’ GUARNERI ‘DEL GESÙ’ VIOLIN

I fell in love with the ‘Lord Wilton’ at the famous 1994 Guarneri exhibition at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, although I’d never heard it. Many of the violins exhibited there were played at a concert during the event, the ‘Wilton’ was not. This was because its owner, Yehudi Menuhin, had stipulated nobody was to play, or even touch, his jewel. I was transfixed by the ‘Wilton’ and stood there peering into its glass case by the hour. I thought it was possibly the most beautiful object I’d ever seen. I already owned two of the ‘del Gesùs’ in the exhibition, but I had eyes only for the ‘Lord Wilton’. Eventually I bought it in 1999 for $6 million –a record at the time.

I heard and played the ‘Lord Wilton’ for the first time only after I bought it. Of all Guarneris I’ve known, it is the easiest to play. It responds very quickly, and unlike most Guarneris it has no wolf notes. Its power is almost supernatural: violinists have told me it almost feels like another violinist playing in unison with them, while others have called it ‘a nuclear-powered fiddle’. To my ear, it has a wonderful silvery sound, though a bit austere and cool rather than warm. I call it the Apollo of violins.

Like most instruments I’ve bought, it needed initial maintenance. When an instrument is used as much as Menuhin played it, vibration and humidity changes will eventually make the patches deteriorate. I’ve been told that patches seldom last more than around 50 years and must be restored periodically.

So John Becker opened it up and completed the necessary maintenance. He found this to be the most remarkable ‘del Gesù’ violin he’d ever seen. John has expressed to me his view that the ‘Wilton’ is the greatest violin in existence, an opinion that was also expressed by Menuhin.

One reason I’ve never been convinced by blind-testing experiments is that set-up is so important, as is finding the right bow for the instrument. And even then, violinists can require long experience to learn how to get the best out of a violin.

Itzhak Perlman told me it took him months to feel comfortable with the great ‘General Kyd’ Stradivari. Also, when an instrument came back from John Becker after a restoration, I found it might be three months before it had fully settled down and found its true voice. Over that settling-in period, I’ve seen instruments go from being a wallflower to being the belle of the ball time and again.

1709 ‘LA PUCELLE’ ANTONIO STRADIVARI VIOLIN

‘La Pucelle’ came to me in a fascinating condition. Before me, it had been owned since the 1950s by an eccentric millionairess named Huguette Clark, who apparently had hardly touched it. When I acquired it, it still had its set-up from the 1950s, an old Hill bridge, and original gut strings – not even a wound A string.

My first inclination was to add Dominant strings, but Charles Beare dissuaded me, saying, ‘It’s almost unique as it is, with no cracks or patches; why not leave it that way?’ He explained that modern set-ups and modern synthetic strings put more pressure on the table of a violin than the old set-ups with gut strings.

‘La Pucelle’ is a revelation to play, because if a player knows how to reach it, the sound will bury everything else. However, the old-style set-up isn’t something with which most modern playersare comfortable – the response isn’t as quick as with modern set-ups and the sounding point and bow speed are quite different.

A ‘nuclear-powered fiddle’: the ‘Lord Wilton’ Guarneri‘del Gesù’

TO MY EAR, THE ‘LOR D WILTON’ HAS A WONDERFUL SILV ERY SOUND, THOUGH A BIT AUSTERE RATHER THAN WARM

‘La Pucelle’ seemed as if it had come out of a 50-year time capsule

But it’s the set-up that people like Heifetz, Oistrakh and Milstein would have used. In fact, I played on Milstein’s violin after he died, and was amazed how light his set-up was. He’d also used a very light Tourte bow and I had difficulty pulling much sound out of the fiddle; Milstein did just fine.

The benefits of modern set-ups are threefold: they project more, respond very quickly, and you don’t have to re-tune in the middle of a performance. But in my view, with modern set-ups something has been lost, the tonal palette is not as broad, whereas ‘La Pucelle’ with its old-style set-up has a tone like thick satin, a more vocal sound, more like a human voice.

FINAL THOUGHTS

My original motivation to collect violins was curiosity: could the famous instruments I had heard about really be that good?And could they make me a better player? (The answer to the latter question is: sort of.) Then my friendship with other enthusiasts and dealers such as Robert Bein and Charles Beare led me much further down the passionate fiddle-loving path.

I think there are a few of the very greatest Stradivaris and ‘del Gesùs’ that should be preserved and not played continuously.

Violins are not improved by being played every day for years and years. When you play a great instrument, bad things can happen – sweat drips on the varnish, rosin falls onto it and must be wiped off, shoulder pads rub against it, corners can be knocked off, the fiddle is cleaned and sometimes polished. And accidents happen: instruments can be dropped, players fall holding them, bouts are nicked while playing, etc. There’s a horrifying story (true, I believe) of a famous virtuoso playing the Sibelius Concerto on a loaned ‘del Gesù’ who caught a corner of the violin with a particularly enthusiastic up bow and tore a big piece out of the top plate. There are also cases, as with the ’D’Egville’ ‘del Gesù’, where incompetent restorers have themselves done a lot of damage.

Players’ opinions about which violins are best (or most fashionable?) change over time. If you were living in Mozart’s day you might not have wanted a Strad at all, but maybe an Amati or a Stainer. I’m told there’s a letter from Leopold Mozart to his son, saying, ‘If you get one of those screechy Cremonese fiddles, take it to the Mantegazza brothers in Milan and they’ll fix it up for you!’ Obviously, the elder Mozart was not an admirer of Cremona’s fiddles. Nowadays I think the majority of working virtuosos would prefer a ‘del Gesù’. But there is no question Strads would have been the choice in 1900. Could this be, perhaps, because the Strads are getting tired, are being played to death? At the end of the day, these precious violins are long-lived but they’re not immortal.

A thought about modern violins: the Hill book on Guarneri offers their very well-informed view that, tonally, violins don’t come into their own until something like 80 years after they’re made. So in a hundred years, it’s possible the most desirable instruments may not be Strads or del Gesùs but fiddles made by some talented maker who’s alive today. But we’ll never know.