Another Stradivarius theft

[mrmando]

This one happened in Milwaukee. Somebody zapped the Milwaukee Symphony concertmaster with a stun gun and took his Strad.

We had quite the lively discussion the last time a Strad was lifted, regarding targeted theft vs. crime of opportunity. To me, this one smells more like a targeted job, or at least one with a little planning behind it.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/crime/s...242463151.html

Wisconsin was also the scene of a Loar theft last year. What is it with cheeseheads?

[Clef]

What a shame and a sad story.
This was obviously a targeted theft considering the idiot went to the show with a stun gun.

[John Flynn]

I got an insomnia-induced bug for reading up on this. According to Wikipedia, in the last 100 years, out of 243 documented existing Strad violins, 8 have been stolen and recovered, although not all were recovered in the owner's lifetime. Another 7 have been stolen and are still missing.

The "Gibson ex-Huberman" Strad was stolen twice from the same owner, by the same guy, a fellow musician. The thief returned it the first time. The second time he stole it, he secretly kept it until his death. Josuha Bell recently bought it for $4M. He had to sell the Strad he had for $2M to help finance the sale.

According to Cozio.com, a site that tracks high-end instrument prices, the most expensive Strad is the "Lady Blunt," considered to be the best preserved Strad example. It recently sold for $15.9M, making it the most valuable violin of all time. I found it interesting the 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th most valuable violins are not Strads, but Guarneris, running in the $6M - $10M range.

[mrmando]

Julian Altman stole Huberman's Strad in 1936 from a dressing room in Carnegie Hall. Altman died in 1985 at the age of 69, which means he was born in 1916: http://www.people.com/people/article...096414,00.html

The previous theft of the Strad occurred in 1911 in Vienna, five years before Altman was born. It was indeed stolen twice, but not by the same person.

Bronislaw Huberman was, by the way, a remarkable human being. There's a documentary about him, Orchestra of Exiles, which is well worth your time.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1906443/?ref_=nv_sr_1

Watch it on Netflix:
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Or...xiles/70253365

[mrmando]

(duplicate)

[mrmando]

This was obviously a targeted theft considering the idiot went to the show with a stun gun.

This is an interesting question: Is it likely that the thieves attended the concert before helping themselves to the violin?

If they were smart, they didn't, because that would increase the possibility of someone seeing them in the concert hall, or of their being caught on security video. But who knows, maybe they weren't so smart. I wouldn't be surprised if people who bought tickets for the show start getting calls from investigators.

[Bertram Henze]

A stun gun? Robbery? Paganini turning into Indiana Jones?
Maybe it is time to stop playing archaeological artefacts and fall back on instruments that just sound good (or even better).
Shouldn't the perceived value of the music be greater than the imagined value of the instrument? Then why aren't the concert halls full of thieves with little recording devices?

[vkioulaphides]

Good heavens! Frank and I were classmates, and have stayed (somewhat) in touch; his brother and my brother-in-law perform together fairly regularly. Terrible...

I just can't imagine how liquid a stolen good such an instrument can ever be. Stealing a car and cannibalizing it for spare parts is no less criminal, but at least you can see a viable "business model" behind the crime. This is both awful and stupid, IMO.

Best wishes for a speedy retrieval...

Victor

[Tavy]

Minivan as a getaway vehicle? Don't these guys watch the movies?

Seriously, lets hope for a speedy recovery!

[mrmando]

Then why aren't the concert halls full of thieves with little recording devices?

Aren't they?

[Bertram Henze]

Aren't they?

Not this grainy low-fidelity mono stuff. I mean portable multichannel mixers and matching radio condenser mics distributed among accomplices all over the hall - a studio crew dressed up as audience.

[Tom Coletti]

Not this grainy low-fidelity mono stuff. I mean portable multichannel mixers and matching radio condenser mics distributed among accomplices all over the hall - a studio crew dressed up as audience.

No need. Laziness on the demand end means that there's no incentive for quality in the supply. People are content listening to garbage content in garbage quality, so even illegal downloads of lousy static like a live performance from a belt sander quartet are more popular than decent recordings.

--Tom

[mikeyes]

I suspect that the thieves will try and ransom the Strad to the insurance company and hope that the insurance company will keep the whole affair quiet. This may not work as the robbery has made national news and it was an armed robbery. It sounds like a very professional job.

[mandolino maximus]

No need. Laziness on the demand end means that there's no incentive for quality in the supply. People are content listening to garbage content in garbage quality, so even illegal downloads of lousy static like a live performance from a belt sander quartet are more popular than decent recordings.

--Tom

I'm not vouching for any commercial value, but I am astonished at how much many people enjoy live concert video with horrible sound with crowd noise louder than the music and with wobbling, out of focus video. Reminiscent of Cheech and Chong: It might be crap, but it's really authentic crap, Man?

[James Rankine]

Interesting clip (from 3.30 onwards) where Nicola Benedetti meets up with Ali Bain. Seems if you where in the same room as Nicola's Strad it would sound a lot harsher than Ali Bain's more humble fiddle but it projects well and sounds better at a distance. Sounds a lot like a few bluegrass f hole mandolins I know!

[mrmando]

The previous theft of the Strad occurred in 1911 in Vienna, five years before Altman was born.

Hm. There seems to be some disagreement over the date of that first theft. Some sources say 1916 and others say 1919. Still, even at the latest date Julian Altman would have been three years old, and unlikely to be boosting fiddles in a Vienna hotel.

[Bertram Henze]

Interesting clip (from 3.30 onwards) where Nicola Benedetti meets up with Ali Bain.

Even more interesting than the difference in sound is the difference in personal attitudes towards the instrument. Ali is really married to his instrument, while for Ms Benedetti it seems to be just like a fashionable pair of shoes out of her collection of 200 - I may be totally wrong here (women can be good at hiding feelings) but that's how it comes across.

[peterk]

Interesting clip (from 3.30 onwards) where Nicola Benedetti meets up with Ali Bain. Seems if you where in the same room as Nicola's Strad it would sound a lot harsher than Ali Bain's more humble fiddle but it projects well and sounds better at a distance. Sounds a lot like a few bluegrass f hole mandolins I know!

My feeling is that there are tens of thousands of fine violins out there, both new and old, that sound better than many a Stradivarius. Besides, what does a typical Strad sound like ? Moreover, after four centuries of aging in different environments, playing, modifying and repairing, the surviving Strads are probably all over the map tonally, and they hardly look and sound like the instruments master Antonio made. An extreme example is a violin which has nothing else but the back attributed to Stradivari. How on earth can one expect a Stradivari type sound, assuming that there is a consensus on what constitutes that distinctive sound quality, from such a fiddle ?

[furuta]

Even more interesting than the difference in sound is the difference in personal attitudes towards the instrument. Ali is really married to his instrument, while for Ms Benedetti it seems to be just like a fashionable pair of shoes out of her collection of 200 - I may be totally wrong here (women can be good at hiding feelings) but that's how it comes across.

I didn't get that feeling at all. I saw two players who projected their love for their music, with an understanding of the personality, strengths, and weaknesses of their tools. Refreshingly, they also projected a respect for the others' accomplishments and contributions. Ms. Benedetti is 26 years old. I doubt that she owns the Strad she is playing but has it on loan (as did Mr. Almond) perhaps only for a fixed term, so her relationship with her instrument is likely both to be newer but also likely to be shaded by the potential for loss.

I liked the clip enough that I followed the links and watched the other parts.

[James Rankine]

I didn't get that feeling at all. I saw two players who projected their love for their music, with an understanding of the personality, strengths, and weaknesses of their tools. Refreshingly, they also projected a respect for the others' accomplishments and contributions. Ms. Benedetti is 26 years old. I doubt that she owns the Strad she is playing but has it on loan (as did Mr. Almond) perhaps only for a fixed term, so her relationship with her instrument is likely both to be newer but also likely to be shaded by the potential for loss.



I liked the clip enough that I followed the links and watched the other parts.

I agree with all this. I also think that we Scots are a modest bunch and it wouldn't be the done thing for Nicola to slap a multi million pound violin down on the kitchen table of a national treasure and start bigging it up. There's almost an embarrassment in her justification for owning (or at least using) something whose value is quite simply preposterous.
I've yet to hear Nicola's violin in concert but I'll get to hear Aly's on Friday in a transatlantic session concert, but this of course will be amplified and not necessarily reflect the true acoustic sound. That's the beauty of a classical concert where you get to hear the true tone of the instruments. Maybe the strad is worth it after all- I always suspected that the orchestra was the ultimate acoustic group.

[Tom Wright]

My feeling is that there are tens of thousands of fine violins out there, both new and old, that sound better than many a Stradivarius. Besides, what does a typical Strad sound like ? Moreover, after four centuries of aging in different environments, playing, modifying and repairing, the surviving Strads are probably all over the map tonally, and they hardly look and sound like the instruments master Antonio made. An extreme example is a violin which has nothing else but the back attributed to Stradivari. How on earth can one expect a Stradivari type sound, assuming that there is a consensus on what constitutes that distinctive sound quality, from such a fiddle ?

In a general sense, yes there are lots of good violins out there, but after one has heard enough fine instruments played by great players one hears the differences. This is not a case of being told something is good---in the viola section we tend to just show up and play and only ask about the fiddle if it seemed particularly fine in tone. My two favorite Strads were Maxim Vengerov's for big sound and Leonidas Kavakos' for beautiful silky tone and clarity.

Stradivari's design was altered by Guarneri and later, and most modern makers use the later design, as far as I know. Even a novice will notice the difference between the earlier design of Amati (dark and sweet, listen to recordings of Grappelli with Django), then Strad (more open, bright and rich) and then Guarneri (deeper bass, good projection at any angle, favored by Paganini). But this would only be true if played one after the other by a good player familiar with all three. Without having the comparison handy, few would be able to guess which was being played if only one was offered. Still, the value of the great instruments is not imagined, since there is a few hundred years of combined players' and listeners' experience to confirm the truth of their worth.

Consider that a serious player that can acquire a great instrument shows that someone (either that player or a backer, usually the latter) is pretty confident in the quality of their musicianship and skill, and commercial prospects, too. This is important to career opportunities, and it helps for the player to know he or she will not face any handicap in reaching the audience, beyond their own skill. Since there is not that much room for a lot of solo violinists to make a living playing concert halls, it is not such a bad thing for there to be a smallish number of these great instruments. But believe it, these are great violins, and not because they are old. It is the skill of the maker, which was known at the time.

Addendum: I heard Grappelli at close range in a small club in the 70s, when he was playing his Amati. I heard him a few years later and he was using a Montagnana, which had a big, open sound. I learned this because I asked him after the show---the tonal difference was obvious but I only was pretty sure it was not his Amati, I couldn't guess the maker of his new instrument.

[Bertram Henze]

Ms. Benedetti is 26 years old. I doubt that she owns the Strad she is playing but has it on loan (as did Mr. Almond) perhaps only for a fixed term, so her relationship with her instrument is likely both to be newer but also likely to be shaded by the potential for loss

There's almost an embarrassment in her justification for owning (or at least using) something whose value is quite simply preposterous.

Yes to both. I was not making assumptions about the cause of the apparent detached relationship with the Strad, just noticing it and, frankly, finding it kind of sad. When I see an artist playing his instrument, I like to see a love story happening.

[mrmando]

The story behind the theft of the Lipinski Strad from Frank Almond is pretty bizarre ... I'm sure you can Google it if you want details.

Just noting that Almond has since appeared in two documentary films about violin theft: PLUCKED (2019) is 80 minutes long and discusses the Lipinski theft. I haven't found it online yet. But there's another film, STOLEN, which is mostly about the 1995 theft of the Davidov Stradivarius from Erica Morini — which remains unsolved. Almond is interviewed and talks a little about having the Lipinski stolen from him. You can watch that film here: https://abc7ny.com/feature/stolen-st...tary/11484220/

[Mandobar]

I was watching an episode of Midsomer Murders on BritBox the other day where the local music shop guy pinched the Strad of the murder victim, from someone who took it out of his dressing room after the murder was discovered in the graveyard next door (hey, it was a murder mystery). The music store guy then tinted over the Strad's original finish, covering up its very lovely red hue...so even the BBC has their take on Strad thefts.

The amazing thing about these instruments is that the plates talk to each other as the instrument is played. Instead of working independently, somehow, they work together to make some of the most amazing sounds. How many makers have actually mastered that in a build? and in the eighteenth century no less.

[mrmando]

I have a bad habit of watching CBS cop shows while I'm doing something else, partly because most of them are so dumb that they don't require my full attention. One sign of lazy writing on a cop show: if an arcane subject comes up in the investigation of a crime, just have one of your cops announce that they're an expert in that subject even though it's never been mentioned before: baseball cards, old cars, vintage blue jeans, bottle caps, you name it — invariably one of the detectives will say, "I used to be really into collecting bottle caps."

All of which is to mention a story line on NCIS: Los Angeles that involved a violin. The detective takes one look at the violin from across the room and says, "That's an Erik Benning," and suddenly we're supposed to believe that this detective took violin lessons when he was a kid. Of course the violin being used in the episode was only a prop, a cheap-looking Chinese fiddle that probably cost a hundred and fifty bucks or less. Erik Benning is a real violin maker in L.A.; he did a little repair work for me years ago. I have played the violin for 28 years and the viola even longer, but I couldn't look at a violin across the room and tell you if it was a Benning. I could, however, tell you that the violin in question was not one.

We'd all be well advised to take anything a TV show says about violins (or mandolins) with a pillar of salt.