Posted on 01/28/2014 2:37:27 PM PST by afraidfortherepublic
A rare Stradivarius violin on loan to Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Frank Almond was stolen during an armed robbery Monday night.
The instrument, known in musical circles as the Lipinski violin, was taken around 10:20 p.m. Monday in a parking lot in the rear of Wisconsin Lutheran College on W. Wisconsin Ave., police said. Almond had played a concert at Wisconsin Lutheran Monday evening as part of his Frankly Music series.
In a 2008 feature on the violin, Chicago violin dealer Stefan Hersh said the Lipinski violin was comparable in value to another Strad that sold for more than $3.5 million in a 2006 auction.
The instrument was on indefinite loan to Almond from its anonymous owners. Almond has characterized them as people with "strong ties to Milwaukee." It's a common practice in the music world for the owners of such exquisite instruments to loan them to virtuosi such as Almond.
The violin's early owners included the virtuoso Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770), known to listeners for his "Devil's Trill" Sonata. The instrument has also belonged to Polish violinist Karol Lipinski (1790-1861), whose name has stayed attached to it.
Local music writer Elaine Schmidt, who held the instrument during a 2013 interview with Almond, described it as "light, far lighter than one would expect, and an absolutely gorgeous example of craftsmanship."
During that 2013 interview, Almond explained that the Lipinski, is "finicky" about temperature and humidity, responding differently some days than others.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
Wow, they will always remember that moment. Live music has a special aura about it when played in a small private setting. I sincerely hope that the violin will somehow be found and saved.
The “entrance while playing” is a great dramatic effect. I saw Dexter Gordon do it once at Blues Alley in Georgetown. He started playing solo, just out of view at the top of the stairs and then continued playing the sax as he came down into the club.
I went to the Rose Parade in 1988, and the first thing leading the parade in those days was a large marching band. As I stood there at the edge of the street it sounded distant at first, then slowly got louder and louder until the band was right there marching by, surrounding me with a glorious sound.
But the World Saxophone Quartet did this a lot.
Rick will give you 50 bucks for it...
“wonder if that sound can be synthesized.....?”
-—that’s an intriguing question I have been thinking about for years,initially starting with,say, an entire catallog of great performances by jazz piano masters digitized from records,or simply programmed into a type of high quality player piano. With a violin,the instrument that you’d of necessity be playing *yourself* would have to be programmed,I suppose, string by string,to produce the unmistakable tonalities of the Strad.The physical body of the instrument itself would almost be irrelevant., but would obviously have to be of “good quality” ,so that it wouldn’t undercut the production of synthesized sound.The whole idea of a “player violin” of course, is absurd.Might as well just listen to a CD.
Clearly they planned the whole getaway, and that involved not carrying anything that would resemble a violin. If they were concerned (which isn’t perhaps all that likely) about the temperature, it could have left in a backpack; if concerned, perhaps one of those insulated pizza delivery pouches.
The Devil done took it and went to Georgia with it, sumpin about gittin’ even wit some guy named Johnny.
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