DATE: January 02, 2008
CONTACT:
Lillian Harder, (864) 656-3043
harderl@clemson.edu
CONTACT:
Stacie Adams, (214) 871-4082
WRITER:
Glenn Hare, (864) 656-1478
ghare@clemson.edu
Concert to feature once-missing Stradivarius violin
CLEMSON — A Jan. 28 concert at Clemson University's Brooks Center for the Performing Arts will feature a performance on a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin that once had been missing for two decades.
Gary Levinson will play the (circa) 1725 violin when he performs with Trio Virtuosi, an internationally acclaimed chamber ensemble that also features flutist Eugenia Zukerman and pianist Adam Neiman.
The free performance, which begins at 8 p.m., is part of Clemson University’s Utsey Chamber Music Series.
The violin is one of about 600 surviving instruments made by Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737) who lived and worked in Cremona, Italy. As the senior associate concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, which owns the violin, Levinson is allowed to play the rare instrument.
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra bought the violin in 1978 for then-concertmaster Eliot Chapo to play. When Emanuel Borok took over the job in 1985, he was awarded the use of the violin. But three months later, while Borok was in Europe, the instrument was stolen from his apartment.
“There was no news of the instrument for two decades,” said Stacie Adams, the orchestra’s director of communications. Then in 2006, a retired Dallas Symphony Orchestra violinist saw a suspiciously similar violin pictured in an advertisement in the strings magazine, “The Strad.”
“The ad announced an upcoming auction by a London instrument dealer,” Adams said. “We contacted the dealer and began negotiations between the dealer and our insurance company.”
The orchestra eventually reclaimed the violin, reimbursing the insurance company for its original $250,000 payout after the violin first was stolen.
“Surprisingly, the instrument needed minimal restoration and only cost a few thousand dollars to get back into playing condition,” Adams said. “Whereever it was for 20 years, it wasn’t abused.”
The Brooks Center concert will feature Levinson, Zukerman and Neiman performing chamber music selections as well as compositions for solo performance. Compositions by Gabriel Fauré, Frederic Chopin, Bela Bartok and C.P.E. Bach are among the works planned for the evening.
Stradivarius violins have a warm, sweet sound that has attracted the greatest violinists since the age of Bach. Today Stradivarius instruments are some of the most valued on earth, drawing seven-figure prices. They’ve been extensively studied, down to their distinctive varnish, by contemporary violin-makers trying to re-create the Stradivarius sound.