A viola crafted by famed luthier Antonio Stradivari in 1690 will travel to Cincinnati for a pair of concerts May 8 and 9. Violist Roberto Díaz will play the instrument valued at $30 million during a weekend of master classes celebrating his contributions to the music world.
The University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music is hosting the two-day event featuring Díaz and the 300-year-old viola. It's on loan from the Library of Congress.
Antonio Stradivari — who signed his instruments using the Latin form of his name, Stradivarius — was an Italian luthier (a maker of stringed musical instruments) known for perfecting the art of making violins. From his workshop in Cremora, Italy, he crafted hundreds of violins, violas, cellos and other stringed instruments considered to be of the finest, unmatched quality.
"A Stradivari instrument has power; it has clarity; but it also has a rich complexity to the sound," says Christopher Reuning, a violin maker, restorer and expert, as well as president of Reuning and Son Violins in Boston. "It's hard to explain, but it's capable of all sorts of different colors in the sound, and it can show different emotions in the music in subtle ways."
Today, just a handful of Stradivari violas are known to remain in existence.
"We have six Strads: there's three violins, a cello and two violas," explains Nicholas Brown-Cáceres, acting chief of the Library of Congress (LOC) Music Division. "There's only 10 complete Stradivari violas in the world, and we have two of them now, which is pretty great, and [there's] another one at the Smithsonian."
1690 Tuscan-Medici Viola
One of the LOC's two violas will travel to Cincinnati for the concerts.
The instrument's full name is: Antonio Stradivari, Cremona, 1690, viola, Fulton, ex Baird, Tuscan-Medici.
The contralto viola was commissioned from Stradivari in his Cremona workshop in 1690 by Ferdinando de’ Medici, the grand prince of Tuscany. By the late 1700s, it had made its way to England, and then passed through the hands of many collectors before eventually being purchased in 1957 by Cameron Baird, a violist, philanthropist and chairman of the music department at the State University of New York, Buffalo.
Upon his death, the viola passed to his wife, Jane Baird, who in 1977, placed it on loan to the LOC. Almost a year ago, the Library took ownership of viola as a gift to the nation from David and Amy Fulton and The Tuscan Corporation (of the Cameron Baird family).
"First of all, it is quite a masterpiece from the best period of time when the maker was working," says Reuning. "It also happens to be in extremely fine condition. In my experience, I've only heard a few of [the remaining Stradivari violas] played, I think it's the best sounding of them, at least, that I've heard."
Meant to be played
The LOC's Stradivari collection was created through the donation of five of the six instruments by Gertrude Clarke Whittall in 1935. She did so with the mandate to make the instruments accessible through performance and research, "and to ensure that they are living objects that facilitate creating new works and interpretations of classics."
Brown-Cáceres compares the instrument to high-end sports cars that must be driven from time to time to remain in peak condition.
"For string instruments, for them to remain healthy as objects, they need to be performed on," he explains. "Because that resonance is a big piece of the the way that all of the parts fit together and keep it healthy for the long term."
Violist Roberto Díaz knows the instrument well and has performed with it on multiple occasions. That includes premiering a piece the Library of Congress commissioned specifically for the 1690 Tuscan-Medici viola.
The concerto by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, and performed by Díaz, won two Grammy Awards in 2018 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and Best Classical Compendium.
"That's like a triple whammy," Brown-Cáceres exclaims. "It was a Library of Congress commission. Our instrument was featured, and then it went on to have legs with this recording to get recognized as one of the top recordings of the year in two categories."
He says the recognition shows the roll of the Library in supporting new works, while connecting to an instrument's history.
"[It shows] that amazing, new, impactful things will continue to happen as long as we're creating opportunities to bring living creators together with these items from our cultural heritage to share with new people, and this will hopefully continue on for generations to come."
Roberto Díaz and CCM
On its website, CCM dubs Díaz "a monumental figure in the world of music." He is president and CEO of the Curtis Institute of Music, a private, co-ed conservatory in Philadelphia offering bachelors and masters degrees across the music spectrum. He's also the former principal viola of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Along with the performances by Díaz, the two-day event will include guest musicians who studied under Díaz, master classes, discussions and instrument exhibitions.
The first Concerto Gala Concert on Friday night is at 8 p.m., featuring Ayane Kozasa, Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt and Roberto Díaz. The Saturday concert at 7:30 p.m. will feature Chamber Music. Details are available online.
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