Beyond priceless

Violins by Stradivari and Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ both came up for auction at the beginning of June. Records were expected to be broken – but what is the true value of these instruments?

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The sale of this 1736 Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ violin was expected to smash records at the start of June

COURTESY AGUTTES

The auctions in June of a golden-period Stradivari violin and a violin by Guarneri ‘del Gesù’ have put the spotlight once again on classical Cremonese instruments and their value. Bidding for the c.1714 ‘da Vinci, ex-Seidel’ Stradivari at Tarisio was set to start at $8m (£6.3m), with expectations that the violin could sell for upwards of $15m, possibly beating the $15.9m auction record held by the ‘Lady Blunt’ Stradivari. The 1736 ‘del Gesù’ being auctioned by French house Aguttes carried an estimate of €4m–€4.5m, with the firm suggesting €10m as a realistic outcome. But what does talk of auction records being broken mean in a world where these old instruments are so far beyond the buying power of players?

It’s rare, in the first place, for such instruments to be put up for auction and not sold privately. Sellers and the public get transparency, but for some observers, the attention on multimillion-dollar Cremonese violins is just an extreme example of a hyping of old instruments that is holding back the evolution of the violin. ‘As long as old instruments are hyped in such a way, it will continue to have a very stifling effect on modern making,’ says Dirk Jacob Hamoen, founder and head of the Dutch Violin Making School. ‘Most modern makers do not dare to experiment. We could easily have lived in the second golden age of violin making were it not for the problem that so many people say, “Of course we’re not going to play a new violin if we can afford an old one.” But I have met many old violins whose sound is nothing special.’

Judgements on tonal quality can be subjective, and the price tag of classical Cremonese violins is linked to so much more than their sound, but is it an anachronism for so many star soloists still to be using Stradivaris that were never intended for today’s playing demands and concert halls, in an era when modern makers can build violins with the kind of sound that young players want and have grown up hearing? Violin expert, author and appraiser Philip Kass says: ‘The driving force in playing over the past hundred years has been “bigger, louder, harder”. And so players are asking things of old instruments that simply weren’t designed for that kind of treatment. With a lot of 18th-century instruments, you cannot push them that hard because you lose exactly what it is that makes them beautiful – that colour of sound that requires a lighter bow stroke, a softer string, with more sound achieved by velocity than through pressure. Except in the early music world, modern playing is all designed around pressure, and modern instruments have been built in a way that will try to generate exactly the sound that young players are growing up with in conservatoires.’

‘Players are asking things of old instruments that weren’t designed for that kind of treatment.’

Violin maker and restorer Barbara Meyer, who is curator of the instruments collection at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, adds: ‘An interesting question that should be asked, and one that maybe musicians should be asking too, is: how much of the sound of a classical Cremonese instrument is down to its maker? And how much is it down to the highly proficient and experienced restorers who have worked on that instrument?’

Aflip side to the astronomical prices of some old violins could be that more performers move to contemporary instruments. Kass thinks it’s inevitable that more musicians will start playing on modern instruments for this reason, but Hamoen isn’t convinced. ‘That might be the case if there were a lower limit on what we call “old”,’ he says. ‘But for the past 15 years I’ve seen everything remotely connected to Cremona being hyped as well, including makers of entirely secondary interest from pre- and post-war Italy. Players who can’t afford the classical violins have bought these other Italian instruments because they are hyped and the prices will increase. So I’m not optimistic that players are not going to buy old instruments.’

In her role as curator at the RAM, Meyer oversees a large range of instruments, including some historical examples that are almost never played, such as the ‘Viotti, ex-Bruce’ 1709 Stradivari violin and the ‘Archinto’ 1696 Stradivari viola, one of only about ten known extant violas by the maker. But among the instruments that are loaned out to students are ones from the RAM’s Calleva Collection of contemporary instruments, all of them specifically commissioned with no antiquing. ‘It’s an essential feature that they look modern,’ she says. In contrast to Hamoen, she adds: ‘There are strong and different personalities in contemporary making, and students need to be guided and introduced to this in order for them to grasp the differences. We see our role as educating young players and giving them the opportunity to explore both contemporary and old instruments, and find their own voice and opinion. We’re not generating an income by needing to sell them an instrument. And this is a good position to be in.’

The c.1714 ‘da Vinci, ex-Seidel’ Stradivari violin

KANNEH-MASON PHOTO JAKE TURNEY. ‘DA VINCI’ PHOTO COURTESY TARISIO

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