Ok, so I'm no music aficionado, but I do love good music. For Valentine's Day, Lisa and I went to the symphony. The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra was playing "romantic favorites" (collective aaahhhh, please).
Unbeknownst to us, there was a featured violinist on the program, one Viviane Hagner. Ms. Hagner, it turns out, is quite the virtuoso, in my humble opinion. With no music in front of her, she played non-stop for about 20 minutes. And the music she was playing, Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64, was quite complex. I think the rest of the orchestra was quite challenged to keep up, even with the music in front of them. How could she do this? The practice, the hours, the mental focus--all just incredible to think about. And then--the quality of the sound--it was just exquisite. As I was sitting there, I was thinking to myself what incredible timbre that violin had. I'm not a huge fan of the violin, actually, only because most violinists don't reach the level of mastery that makes it a beautiful-sounding instrument to me. That's just me, I know I'm in the minority here. Anyway, there's no doubt this was the finest sounding violin music I have heard.
As we looked closer at the playbill, we realized this master musician wasn't playing just any old violin. She was playing a real Strativarius! Yes, the real deal, made in 1717! It was on loan to her from the foundation that owns it. Lisa and I tried to guess what something like that would be worth. We really had no idea, but guessed maybe a million dollars. I looked it up on the internet today, and it said that Strativarius' "golden period" was between 1700 and 1720; the few documented violins he crafted during that period can be worth several million dollars. Just incredible! I feel very lucky to have had an opportunity to experience this combination: a master, playing a masterpiece, on a masterpiece!
