Original subtitles

The baby on my back, this is my baby.

The Schumsky Strad,

from 1715, this is the instrument I travel with everywhere.

It's always close to me.

It's my way of expressing. It's my voice.

It's so important to have an instrument

that has an enormous variety of colours

and finding those colours and knowing how to bring them out.

The Mendelsohn Concerto has such life in it, I find.

The sounds and the colours that you try to find,

are also something very sparkly and Iively and which has energy.

Of course one needs an instrument that has this shine,

a core in the sound that wiII always, kind of, sing through.

And of course, I think this instrument very much has it.

Different instruments, maybe highlight different aspects,

it invites to find a different colour or to Iinger a little

bit longer on certain notes.

And whether that is the soul of the instrument,

the possibility in colouring,

sometimes its also even,

maybe the soul of the old players that were playing it.

I feel, I'm thinking if this instrument had great players

like Oscar Shumsky, but also Rhode and Bauer.

If I think about Shumsky for instance, I mean,

if you're thinking about his wonderful glissand¡ and portament¡

I kind of get inspired sometimes, you know,

I feel or hear that sound.

One definitely gets influenced in that sense.

During this project, and during the recording,

to spend time with aII these different instruments wiII be,

weII this is inspiration I cannot even begin to imagine.

Because, they're so different aII the instruments,

so, to find each and every quality

and the pieces that work best with that.

I wiII take that in my life.

You know I love this instrument;

and being with this for aII the upcoming concerts

after that I wiII take something very special from that.

We want to bring twelve of the greatest Stradivari from around the world,

put them together with one of the greatest artists,

and record them

so we can actually hear the wonderful differences

between the sound of one violin and another.

I tried to use a combination of violins,

so we do have some which are in extraordinary condition

and others which may not be in such pristine condition,

but still very fine.

But they have a wonderful history with the players

and we know the players choose them for the sound.

This is Ida Haendel's violin, a 1699 Stradivarius.

Ida Haendel passed away very recently.

The violin was with Ida in her house,

for some years, without really being played and touched.

It had somehow come apart at the seams.

When it came in, the top was off,

the ribs were separated the neck was apart.

So we put it aII back together

and made a restoration on the violin and it sounded beautiful again.

This is a 1699,

well, it was Ida Haendel's.

I met her once, years ago and she was such an amazing violinist.

I played Tchaikovsky at Fort Lauderdale in Florida.

She was at the concert and Suddenly afterwards she came up to me.

She was tiny, on high heels,

and she was so sweet and I was just so

extremely in shock that she had come to listen and

actually it's very special too...

You know there's so much history in this instrument.

Even just the feeling of holding and playing an instrument of somebody

who you admire so much, its very, I mean...

Oh wow, it's very.. piercing

It's very briIIiant right,

Ida Haendel is a complete legend, that everybody loved and admired,

and I felt emotional also to play the instrument.

You feel close to her.

I think, in fact, and the, important thing is that each

instrument you need to play differently in a way.

Of course you have your way of playing but you need to mouId differently.

I'm not moving at aII almost. - But it still...

You don't have to make it vibrate.

It wiII vibrate. Even with the difference in speed...

Yeah.

Now find the float...

Because it invites the feel to do this kind of thing..

but in some places you need to find the...

Yeah... Oh nice!

Beautiful, I think you like it.

I want this...

I think with these great Violins,

often you just have to not get in the way of it

and just let it do its thing.

Especially with this one, we just need to get out of its way

and let it fly in a way.

Hey great to see you agam, thank you. - Thank you.

- You know its - Come through.

So fantastic you were able to make this trip

from Tokyo, especially at this time.

Happy to be here

We had to have this fiddle,

Let's go on up.

Some of these instruments are in the hands of players,

and they had to be free from their concerts.

And then you have the Iogistics of sorting out the technical

side with the insurance and keeping

Iawyers happy and keeping foundations happy.

It wiII not be something that can be repeated easily.

Oh, it's like seeing an old friend again.

It's been a long time right?

And you, of course I'm so excited to see this violin.

I haven't seen it for quite a few years now.

Wow, there it is, amazing.

What an extraordinary violin.

Well you know the history, but it's a great grand pattern.

It's built on the biggest Stradivari form. It's just a great concert instrument.

Stradivari should connect people like this,

these circumstances are so important.

And Janine Jansen, she is one of the most popular musicians in the world.

Even I, in Japan, I know her very well.

And I would be proud that the San Lorenzo

could be one of the twelve.

When I first met this violin in 2016,

immediately I thought this was the one I was looking for a long long time.

It sounds great, and it's so powerful.

Yep, yep, so I was very impressed.

It's in the best hands now.

The foundation Iends it to musicians.

You know, it's important to pick the right musician and right violin together.

So, that is my importantjob.

So you do the exactly same things as me.

That's why we do it together.

I've seen 70 or 80 Stradivari in my life.

And compared to that the San Lorenzo is a top, top instrument.

Because it's a Golden Period 1718,

and its a grande pattern, which means it is "grande", it's big.

And it's so unique isn't it,

with the inscription actually on both Sides.

It's less visible on this side, but we basically know the Latin

word means glory, wealth and justice.

We believe it was bought as a wedding present

from Stradivari and given to a violinist of the day called Moro Dela.

He worked in the court of the Queen of Spain and for King Philip V.

I think this violin is among the top 20 greatest violins in the world,

because so many have been worn and used more than ideal.

Because everybody loves a golden period instrument.

Of course there were some great ones from the early period and the Iate period too.

Antonio Stradivari as a young man would have been possibly a woodcarver

or involved with instruments in some form, not necessarily Violins.

He was probably wandering through Cremona and at some point wandered into

a violin shop and was fascinated

and decided it is something he really wanted to follow.

Looking at his early instruments,

we can do that in detail now because we're writing a huge work on Stradivarius

for this six volume book, and I have been studying

the early Stradivarius very much

so and trying to work out, if and at what point,

he began to study with Nicolo Amati.

There are a few early ones, where you do think wow that does

look like an Amati pattern.

But having embarked upon a career of violin making,

he progresses, you know through the sixties,

which is very rare,

through the seventies,

and when you get to the eighties he has clearly

branched out on his own, away from any other influences.

And he is making his own designs and he is changing the format,

changing the outline and the shape, he is experimenting with wood.

And I think the great thing about Stradivari is that he was very dextrous

and skiIIed as a craftsman, but also that he was constantly

experimenting trying to create the perfect sound and get the perfect shape.

And then you go towards the 17003, where he starts to make what

is known as the perfect form, through the golden period.

I mean this bow, I loved always playing Sibelius on it.

But I don't know, does it kiII the overtones?

I don't know, it's very warm and it doesn't crack.

It still makes the sound very warm and round.

I didn't know what to expect before I tried it,

so it hasn't been played a Iot.

Maybe it's not so easy to respond and I didn't feel that at aII.

One can dig in, but one can also let it,

you know, loose and it has a beautiful dulce character as well.

Really, it's a great instrument.

John, we're lucky enough to have the Tyrell from 1717 here in our hands.

I mean do you say this is one of the top handful of best preserved strads?

Yes, yes. Beautiful thing.

So much varnish left on there which is aII too rare these days.

The Tyrell, l think it's an extraordinary instrument,

of special interest, even within the golden period,

Strad's productive and

most refined period of work.

Partly because it is so well preserved, you can see in it,

what he was trying to do, what his goals were.

It's not been over polished or

spoilt though over-restoration.

That's the light Sheen that it should have.

The amount of wear on this fiddle looks like 20 or 30 years.

Beyond that

it's pretty much almost at the beginning of its life

and it remained in that state since.

You've also got this perfection in the concept of it,

and this slightly unusual model

compared to some of the other instruments of the time

and yet absolute Symmetry and

perfection of execution.

And this distinctive stripe down,

I think its the difference between the sapwood

and the bark and the hard wood from the centre

of the tree, and it leaves this differentiated stripe,

that you see really quite frequently on this instrument.

There are aII these Iegends that to make a good instrument

you have to use really aged wood and that's the secret of the tone.

And you don't stand a chance of making a good instrument unless

your wood is a hundred years old.

But he was using wood that just a year or so ago had

been growing in the alpine forests.

It's remarkable that Stradivari

are so suited to big concert haIIs and big public performance.

The situation didn't actually exist then.

So you get aII these mystical people saying,

"Oh wow he was this great prophet", somehow he was inspired to do this."

But it was simply that the development he made,

he saw and he could do and he carried it out.

And we're aII sort of wallowing in the wake, since then.

Got this magnificent front on this half,

again you were talking earlier about

how in the early years of playing with the chin on this side,

it gives you that mirror effect doesn't it, of the wear.

Through his Iife he never gave up

searching for perfection.

So if he had Iived for another hundred years he wouldn't have been making

his Golden Period Strads, he would not have been making his Iate Strads.

He would have developed and experimented with other things, because he was

always searching out for whatever he could find.

I mean this is a wonderful thing, doing this research,

and you see the development year, by year by year

and he never stopped.

He was always thinking about it,

and what he could do to improve, and I think

that is a really striking thing.

He was an artist in those terms.

He wasn't just churning them out at any point,

he was refreshing his ideas from year to year to year.

This one is from his Iate period and it's big you know.

It's muscular and strong.

It's absolutely incredible to understand that this

was made by an eighteen year old.

Honestly, I don't really know

what to expect and maybe I don't know what I got myself into.

But I like a challenge,

and I mean it's an amazing opportunity

to be able to play, to get to know these instruments,

even in limited time.

But it's a challenge, in this limited time, to find the voice.

So it's not going to be now I pick up this instrument and now it's going to..

I need to really dive into it

and that I have to do in a few hours, or not even that.

Not even in a few hours, one instrument to another.

So that's a challenge, but I'm up for it.

Steven Oh my goodness, Janine.

- Nice to see you. - Good to see you, how are you?

Good, I'm excited!

I cannot believe we made it, and the Violins made it.

It's just wonderful

I have to start with one violin,

which for me is possibly the most beautiful

and extraordinary violin, perhaps in the whole world.

If I had to choose one violin, to have it and own,

this one would probably the one.

It begins with A its the...

It's just incredible, because if you look at it,

it looks like a brand new violin.

Absolutely quite remarkable.

And the history is beautiful, because it belonged to Jean Baptiste VuiIIaume,

he was one of the most prolific makers and dealers in France.

In fact, you could almost say,

in the 19th Century he defined the violin business in Europe,

like Stradivari did in the Iate 17th century.

But this violin was bought over by a gentleman called Luigi Tarisio,

who was a dealer, he used to come over from Italy

to France regularly, bringing him great Violins

and this one was amongst them.

Vuillaume bought it and gifted it to his son-in-Iaw

who was Jean Delphine Alard,

which is where it takes its name from,

and I think the reason its so incredibly pristine is

that it's always been in the hands of Collectors.

So it's not played at the moment, or is it?

It's not even been touched for ten years, hasn't been played for ten years.

I would think in the last forty or fifty years only for private Chamber music.

I don't think it's been played professionally,

as far as I'm aware, for a long long long time...

So the AIIard!

Thank you, so this I have never held in my hands.

Can I play it? I mean, I mean, I need to!

I don't want to stretch it any longer

because I have been waiting such a long time!

No, really.

We may need to make slight adjustments, because I spoke with the owners and

they said because it hasn't been played for so long

we may want to make slight adjustments.

Which they've given us permission to do.

I can't think what to play on this one.

Amazing power

Looking at this whilst you're playing,

it is like you're playing a modern instrument.

It's ridiculous. - Incredible.

Imean

Look at the back!

I mean, it's really sick!

FiIIs up the whole room! It's like buzzing.

The Alard, 1715, I mean this is an extraordinary instrument.

And I was really looking forward to meeting this instrument.

It's great for the start, but you also feel like every

note you play you start feeling the potential.

It's not an instrument that I immediately felt like,

maybe I felt with my own, the Shumsky

where just everything works, it melts, it just blends...

Anything you do it's so... it reacts.

So that's very interesting. But it is one of the top.

They're both great. Very different.

Easier to play Easier to play, more straight forward but

that one feels like it has this....

Under powerhouse.

I mean that's how it sounds to my ear here.

I don't know how it is in the hall

but it feels like it has a Iot of body...

Yeah underbelly.

Another instrument that played very easily was the Vieuxtemps. ..

And then you know comparing again,

it really is fascinating.

One builds up to this moment of having

twelve of the most exceptional instruments

in one room and getting to know them and try them aII.

And Suddenly it starts happening and I have to get my head around to it

and remember aII the amazing instruments

that passed through my hands.

This is a really fabulous example of one from 1680-83 period

and what's amazing about this is that it's so robust.

It's really a fuII patterned Strad,

but made much much earlier.

I mean the wood is plain but it's very beautiful

and his work is absolutely, spectacularly refined already.

But it has a different sound quality I'd say,

to the others, but still very beautiful.

Perhaps not as much richness and depth, but still really great.

I think it belonged to a Sergeant in the Rifle Brigade in 1902.

So Captain Savile from 1680.

It's a very early Strad and somehow one always

gets a IittIe, "oh it's an early Strad it could never compete to Golden period",

it's a little bit talked about

Iike this, even though we're talking about Stradivarius.

It looks different, even the quality of the wood is different,

but it's a great sounding instrument.

It's very nice to have this in the mix as well.

The Captain Savile is an instrument from 1680,

I've had a close relationship with this instrument

over the past few years and had the opportunity

to explore some of the voices it would have had historically,

by changing the set up of it.

Setting it up with gut strings,

making a different tailpiece and bridge for it

and I felt it was an instrument that suited

itself very well to that kind of exploration.

Because it was one of his earlier works.

I mean from a maker's perspective, what's really thriIIing is the very unique

twists of materials,

it's not some of the more dramatic highly flamed wood,

but acoustically very exciting perhaps more flexible,

perhaps with a certain IeveI of resistance and spring in it.

This is what I amount by looking at it.

And then you look at the ribs and it's a place where he thought ok,

let's actually make this a little more alive and a little exciting.

And the ribs have this incredibly dramatic figure,

which in some way contrast and enhances

some of the simplicity elements in the back itself.

This is a young Stradivari

and you imagine him emerging from the shadow

of his teacher and sort of setting out and defining himself in many ways.

But the wood he chose is very simple

and my question is: was that a necessity at the time?

Was that what was available?

Was it also an acoustic exploration?

I personally imagine it's a combination of aII of those things.

So the top is also very exciting to me

because it's a one piece top,

and you see this incredibly wide grain on the base side,

which you imagine to be more fIexibIe

and a much tighter grain on the treble side.

Which you imagine to be stiffer,

potentially a little more brighter.

So there's a Iot of variation in the fIexibiIity of the top,

just because of the material.

Purely from workmanship,

I find it a great moment in his career.

And there's an element where you do have this

subtlety and refinement that Iends itself

to a kind of acoustic refinement

that we got to hear when Janine was playing the instrument

and was particularly drawn to it.

For me it relates to, what is the secret of Stradivarius?

What is the secret of Vermeer? What is the secret of Beethoven?

The secret of Beethoven was Beethoven, the secret of Vermeer was Vermeer.

And I think there's something very similar in Stradivarius.

The secret is actually the artist themselves,

what does he bring that's ineffable, that's inimitable,

that's unique not only to him but to the culture in which he was creating it.

It was a culture of genius, there's no question about it.

Having access to something in a great state of preservation,

you get a Iot closer to the original sense of the instrument.

Seeing the Alard for the first time when it was handed over to me,

I nearly passed out from excitement, I mean it was so thriIIing,

the energy within the instrument I felt,

because of the incredible state of preservation

and there are very subtle elements that you see on the instrument

that are traces of the process.

That are left behind artefacts of Stradivari's gestures,

you know the way that you see the beading around the f-holes

which is worn on many instruments.

You know and over many years of playing has become soft

and you know there's a kind of crispness and electricity

in the particularly well-preserved instrument that's totally thrilling.

What's exciting about the Alard is it also corresponds to a sound

that is like that one,

and it's Iike nothing I've ever heard or experienced.

Phenomenal.

It could be a little bit,

build up or is it too much?

I've now spent a little bit more time with Alard,

I mean the first few notes that I played on it

when Steven first showed me the instrument I was Iike beauty!

This is crazy and then one plays and it was like...

yeah it's great but I don't really know how to find...

I touch the string and it just kind of pops out because

it's such a strong instrument.

You know being with it, and the instrument is not played much.

So it needs a bit of time to start feeling, you know.

That happened I feel,

and it's coming, it's coming you know the more I play it.

That was too much.

My question with the instrument is either Brahms or Schuman Phantasiestücke.

So we could

Let's try the Schumann now.

Or you want to try the Brahms on the other instrument and you teII me what is...

Oh yeah... yeah.

- Maybe, not the whole thing but Iike - Yes, let's go! Whatever you want to do

What Janine needs to do to make this project work,

is to find the right instrument for a given piece.

So we try, she has an idea, and then we try.

Of course I have an opinion and she'II look at me,

and if l know immediately, I'll say, that's it.

The onus is on Janine to be Iike a Chameleon with aII these instruments.

She has to be.

Such a wilder sound, it has a wilder sound.

I think Brahms wiII be better, right?

Of course there's a very good argument for certain instruments

to be kept in their pristine condition,

so future generations get to see them

and know what they looked Iike in the day, nearer to the day they were made,

but it's also important that from time to time they're played

and I think that's what's happening with the Alard

and I'm not sure that there's any public recording of it at aII.

In aII senses, it is one of the greatest Violins on earth.

Ok I'll try to put hairspray in my hair so l can actually...

This instrument is a monster,

and it's very unusual for me

to hear Janine play like this with that instrument,

because I know her to be a different player,

but what a fantastic experience for her

to be able to be out of her comfort zone sometimes

and to reinvent herself.

What is we don't actually...

Can I try one time? So you mean...

It's heroic, you wanna....

I have to be fully concentrated, to take into account her musicality,

her sense of fIexibiIity and colour.

But also prompting her to help her,

say no, "Be proud of this instrument... Or stay with it".

Sometimes the instrument just needs to reign if you Iike.

Ahhh it aII the time keeps going the wrong way!

Can we do that again?

Obviously Milstein, being such a phenomenal talent

and he had this extraordinary way...

I know that before he went on stage he would try different fingerings

and different bowings and the violin is very fluid

and it takes that very easily, he could make changes IiteraIIy

within seconds of him being on stage.

The Milstein's a violin you could sell on a phone call,

when someone does obtain it, they're searching for that quality

and that sound and they're trying to be Milstein with some individuality

because they need to have their own individuality.

But it's a hugely important part of the whole picture I would say.

Now do it the other way, now do it the normal way.

What's the normal way?

Well, without changing the string.

Just do it once.

How many times can I do this? - How many times can I do it?

I prefer it, because you're the protagonist.

You go into it, you swaIIow the sound.

That's the sound. - It is such a Shame.

No it's not

I've got something here

That instrument, it's beautiful.

It's so fIexibIe and it is so Iuscious in sound.

Also it carries the sound.

It is perfect I think, for the Rachmaninoff

slow movement from the Cello Sonata, but...

which I mean I am so happy to do that because I love that piece.

You don't want to give aII that sound away you see.

I agree Really, trust me on that one.

There is no question that there are ghosts in the room with us.

Janine was playing on Nathan Milstein's violin

and my goodness, the warmth of tone,

the depth of tone...

But these guys are in the room,

I felt it especially when Janine was playing Liebesleid.

That Kreisler violin.

I just thought "ohh this is strange".

And maybe because the light had gone down outside

and the mood in the room changed,

but I believe in those kind of ghosts.

Hmmm sorry.

It's actually a bit intimidating to play.

The 1733 for Liebesleid that was clear from the first moment

I touched that instrument.

One cannot imagine any other sound.

It touches the soul.

And then, somehow I had in my head

that maybe aII the small Kreisler pieces should be on this instrument.

It's just so great and fun to play it.

Sorry I didn't hear it.

But you know what would be interesting, just before,

also to have the other Kreisler here so I can swap.

I love it right?

But I wonder if maybe...

We have the HiII Diaries, so we get an insight

ot how that came about wtth Kramer.

They found the 1733 for him, in around 1917.

He obviously loved it, and it was a great sounding Stradivari

and he obviously kept it until 1936.

But interestingly Kreisler bought another one, just one year later.

If anything it even has a darker, more sonorous,

blooming depth and a sound that is very much Kreisler.

We went to the Spanish Dance of de Fal/a, in a Kreisler arrangement

and the other Kreisler had a bite and a sort of,

you know, how do you say, 'Devil may care' sound about it.

Which is just right!

It's a little bit of, I don't know,

I cannot say it better than you know attitude and a IittIe bit of edge to it!

And I think that's probably the right way to go.

It's a learning Curve to hear so many different fiddles,

but I'm very happy to say I can hear the difference.

And that's the point I think.

No.. it's fun, it's challenging,

it's a Iot of focus, and I feel completely finished.

It's been a little bit crazy for the time here,

being out of the project for the weeks of the quarantine.

But I have wonderful people around me that bring soups and teas and take care.

The other very important thing, which is also a dangerous thing

which is that when one plays music one forgets in a way.

And when one stops playing, one feels like, ok

I'm a bit tired.

But that's just music, it makes one forget.

There were doubts that we were going to actually make this recording,

but you got stronger and I happened to be free.

As everyone else happens to be free, at the moment in this business,

and we just happened to keep postponing and postponing and we're here!

We're doing it.

And we're going to do it the way we need to do it,

but not to force it.

Am I pushing this?

No it's nice.

Is it nice or is it actually nicer if we..?

No it's nice.

Lookthatyes, but I'm making a crescendo into it,

and I'm wondering if I shouldn't do that?

You gotta Iean into it a little bit.

But what if I don't, can I try it?

The crescendo comes from before, look!

The San Lorenzo for me feels like a very warm

and a bit almost dark quality also.

Intuitively I feel like it fits well to the Clara Schumann Romance.

Well, it's a love story! It's a romance.

That's what it is, and that's a very good description of what love is you know?

The light and the dark. The turbulence and the serenity.

What an opportunity it is,

to make a recording with such an extraordinary range of instruments.

Every instrument is teIIing us something different,

and therefore we are recording it in a different sort of way.

We see things come into focus and out of focus,

depending on the instrument itself.

The attraction is, to understand for the first time,

what string players teII us aII the time, which is that every instrument

has its own story, every instrument has got its own life

and they make you play music in a different way.

I'm not sure if change is necessary. It needs to...

Yeah, it needs to have...

what happens is one sounds a little bit forsaken and then you get to the real one.

I understand.

That to me sounds...

I agree... Ok we have to do the whole thing again!

Because I do it every time.

Well no with the big... Don't worry.

No, no, no but I agree. Yeah I like it, let's do it one more time.

We aII know Kreisler's music, it's played by every violinist.

It's beautiful music which is played for encores and so on.

But to actually hear it on the violin

on which Kreisler had under his chin at the time,

you start to understand why he wrote what he did.

But the beginning was better, there was some...

But those little things we have elsewhere.

- Very nice! - It was better yeah?

Thank you

I wiII call you for aII my fingerings now.

It's a phenomenologically unique experience for a musician

to play something they know Kreisler recorded on.

That Kreisler walked out on stage onto Carnegie Hall with.

So it's obvious to me that there's something imbued in

an instrument by the person who played it before.

And when that person is someone who for me is, again,

a truly noble soul and has given their life to expressing music,

interpreting composers and shared that with us...

I can't help but think there's some of that in the object itself.

I believe that these old instruments are imbued with the character

and the sound of previous players.

I choose to believe it.

Possibly not the case, but the fact is, in the minds of the players

it's a psychological effect and its a real effect.

And any one, modern player, addressing that instrument,

and they have in mind its history...

It's going to come out in their playing.

It's going to effect how they play it and what they deride from it,

which is aII good.

Whether it's scientifically proven or anything, I'm not that interested.

There's a romance to it.

When you start playing, it takes

time to find the sounds, to find the character of the instrument.

And it's so fun to finally find that

and when you listen back you think hmmmm

I killed the instrument, or it's not really resonating properly.

And then while you go on, Suddenly it's there, you start finding it.

So it's really exciting.

And there's of course some instruments

like the Alard and the Tyrell which don't get played a lot.

And then it's not only a matter of me

finding the instrument, but it's also the instrument coming alive.

I'm so sorry to stop.

I'm so unhappy with what I did.

Why?

I make the opposite of what it actually says.

I should make a crescendo, right?

Well, I said the time before,

you know if you're going to do an echo do a little bit.

But the last one you did was fantastic.

Okok

What we're finding is, the music itself is developing

as Janine gets used to the instrument,

we hear the instrument sometimes open up.

The best example is the Alard, when it began we thought

'Well this is the famous violin, it sounds a little duII at the moment'

And as we did another take and another take and played more and more music,

this instrument started teIIing Janine how to play.

Janine started tell it how to play.

And from our point of view the sound opened out, in a way that normaIIy we'd be

moving microphones, or changing settings to get different sounds like this.

It was the instrument that was changing.

Yeah, here I think we should hear it.

What if we do the opposite?

That is so yearning.

So this should be held...

That should be held.

That I feel the opposite.

You can come back quite a long way dynamically though. - Yes.

Janine, and I know why, because what's coming up

- I just don't want to do aII the time.. like DADADA.

I understand,

- I don't know how it feels over there. - Play like a man.

Ok maybe I was exaggerating

What if we a little bit, there give in dynamic?

So we have space to kind of go to this...

Ijust feel like I am on the top of my...

I am feeling, not great, if I can be honest.

I think it's time to say, we did fantastic work on this

one and on the other meses, so thank you Very much.

Great, thank you.

- We got the big ones out the way. - This was good, yeah.

Thank you Tony.

The extraordinary thing for us is how the violin changes.

Let's do this again tomorrow, aII day..

and Brahms... and Brahms again!

I'll kill you, I'll make it my mission to kill you.

The Alard is just like, I mean ithas

extreme power, but it has amazing support.

Whenever you touch the strings you feel this,

I don't know... this body Underneath and not in a kind of you know...

concrete way but like in any way.

It flies, the sound. It's briIIiant,

not only on the E string but like overall, it's amazing.

And now it's here, and it's being played for the first time at a concert hall.

For the first time in a recording, and I'm super

Iucky and grateful to be able to do that,

experience this time together with Alard...

Me and Alard

There's a saying from his time, as rich as Stradivari.

In Cremona, he had effectively established a name and a brand for himself

and a sense of excellence during his Iifetime.

Many of the instruments that he made

went directly into private collections.

The church being the most notable.

So you have, at the very outset at the sense

of value and prestige associated with the object.

It's very significant.

Well I often think of Violins, they're sort of like...

little rubber ducks, floating on the streams of history.

Economic and colonial and industrial history,

these little Violins are just bobbing along on this stream.

Going from a little town in Northern Italy,

Cremona, and then they go to Spam ñrst,

because Cremona was a possessjxon of Spam at that peñod. ....

And then Spain goes into decline and they start moving into

France, and then England is the great dominant power.

And then it's Wherever the money resides.

Wherever there is a great class of people, the aristocrats,

but then in the 19th century these become business owners, industrialists.

You had these instruments available in your country house,

so you had hired a musician,

who may have an inferior instrument and then say,

"Now you're in my home, you play my Stradivari."

And it impressas your guests, and

basically you'd have them hanging in wardrobes around your country estate.

I think using instruments as

a study in geopolitical and economic power is completely fascinating.

I mean, where were a Iot of great Stradivaris going,

in the '80s in the '90s. Many of them went to Japan.

There's a moment were many of these instruments are appearing

in private collections in Korea.

The Iandscape right now in Asia, with the profound

artistic excellence and great economic power

being developed in China,

there's a possibility for custodianship

in that part of the world that's very unique.

I need to be very loose, I think with the vibrato for it to go... Iike this.

Let's try

- Ok guys. - Yeah we're aII ready

Th is is Désespoir.

There are some instruments of course,

that couple so extremely weII and have to be...

Vieuxtemps with this wonderful Désespoir piece by Vieuxtemps himself.

Desperation. I mean, this violin is special.

It's really great to play it

because it feels kind of Iike a Ferrari, it always gives a IittIe bit more,

just that one extra gear and kind of flies.

And this piece, I mean I cannot imagine another instrument,

that would fit better.

Sorry, sorry I missed that. - I didn't hear you,

I'm sorry.

Any faster and then I can't.

Let's play it one time through, we wiII listen if we are..

Yeah Ok.

Ok guys, don't push me anymore. - No.

It is sometimes thought that Violins should be played aII the time.

There are a few exceptional examples that would benefit future generations

by being preserved.

Which doesn't mean that they would never be played,

but it does mean that they would be

rested for a while and the instruments like the Tyrell,

which we can see now in such extraordinary condition

are only Iike that because they have been shut away for maybe 200 years.

I think the Elgar with the Tyrell is beautiful,

it's such a pure sounding instrument.

So extremely human in its voice, I mean I find, I get this...

And the Sospiri, I mean it's this...

this extremely cantabile. ..

almost like a human voice that fits it so beautifully.

There are people who own instruments, and you don't see them care.

I don't know how many instruments you hear, ten to eleven or tweIve,

but some of the greatest instruments, they can stiII be played.

And played hard and played well, and played,

you know in big concert haIIs and sound spectacular.

So me, when I look at it, when I've got something that can be played

and can be Ient to a top performer,

or somebody who has got real talent, then let's make it happen.

Patronage has always been a part, because Stradivari in his day

was charging a Iot of money for his Violins.

Certainly that tradition of great patrons

has always been important, because they've always been expensive

and they've become even more expensive.

Anything from five to twenty five or more million dollars, which is extraordinary.

But players reIy on patronage.

In terms of investment, instruments that were made three hundred years ago,

they're making no more of these.

So there's a finite supply.

There are some spectacular modern instruments but my personal view is

they can project weII but they don't have the cuII and the nuance

that some of these really, tremendously great instruments,

dating back to two or three hundred years have.

And so, you know, for me to be part of that,

and to hear these instruments,

and I don't want to sound too clichéd, but we're the keepers for the next generation.

So much more warmth.

If you're going to want to re-record everything I'm going to kiII you.

I'm going to kiII you so many times.

No but this violin is very easy to work, and it's speaking.

It's soft.

But it is, it reacts to kind of delicate touch.

Ok, here we go kids.

Now it wiII be undelicate.

I think that the future is related to the past,

where there wiII be more of these instruments

put into private collections.

I a way that is problematic, because they become silenced in that process.

Is there a way to do that where

the instruments become available to be heard?

And is there a combination between conservation and performance practice

where both of those things can be honoured?

I would Iike to see the future described by those things.

Not to forget Ida Haendel's Strad, it's special.

And that E string it kind of, goes straight to the heart.

Then, of course, knowing this was her instrument,

it makes it even more knowing and beautiful.

The history of violin playing has been in this room for four days,

and it carries on through Janine, and she's demonstrated her prowess

and her Curiosity and soul

and perseverance and Courage to take these Violins in her hands,

because I can imagine, just the idea is daunting.

I mean, it's a great opportunity yes, but it's frightening.

But she just...

Maybe in a way, during the recording

I tried not to realise aII the time which amazing

musicians have played these instruments because it is of course...

you know that is quite impressive and that can be intimidating as well.

But I let the instrument inspire me.

Wich violin is this?

It's mine...

Mine...

My Shumsky!

That project, of course it is once in a Iifetime.

I wasn't, at aII points, completely sure about making it to the end.

But actually, there comes again this thing about

music inspiration, music itself,

the instruments and a wonderful partner on stage and we're here.

Shall we listen once?

No, great stuff, that's fine.

Just leave it,

Please, trust me, just leave it.

- One more. - No.

Guys, fantastic playing. It's been a real pleasure.

Thank you so much.

Thank you...

Can we...? Tony?

Tony, do you have any energy to play Syncopation just one time through?

To see how it sounds on this?

That's it... just for fun.

You have it...right

Coming back completely at the end of the recording, we did the 'Syncopation'.

We had done it on the '33, so then we tried it on the '34

and 'xt ?eh great.