I had the immense pleasure of playing these instruments as a grad student at UMD. Prof. Slowik was one of our most beloved teachers, and he invited our Beethoven quartet seminar class to come to the Smithsonian after hours to play these priceless Strads. It was one of the most memorable and inspiring nights of my life, I'm so glad he is still the curator and offering this experience to players!
Omggg Ken Slowik! He is THE MAN - such an awesome incredible dude. One night we rehearsed in his studio, and I walked out with him from the museum with my quartet and he insisted on giving us step by step verb directions to get to highway. We all got in the car laughing about how detailed and long winded his directions were and used Google maps. 10 mins later we are waiting at a busy intersection, and Ken pops out literally from out of nowhere all the way down the road, beating us out of the city even though he left several minutes after us. Shoulda taken his advice
We handled the Estate of Charlotte Bergen, who bequeathed the Servais Strad to the Smithsonian. I recall it sitting, for some days, in our locked storage room, before being sent. Miss Bergen was a fine musician and would rent out Carnegie Hall and the American Symphony Orchestra and put on free concerts, at which she would also play her cello.
I am an absolute nerd about beautiful instruments, PLEASE do not stop what you’re doing. I watch and rewatch every single last one of them while I watch breakfast. It has become a ritual at this point
At 14:41 a great testament to the expressiveness of gut strings in comparison, thanks so much! This does fully confirm my experiences in playing and listening as well. Isn't it that French Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique that uses all instruments and strings? I had heard them and loved them and then I was very pleased that they were playing on that wonderful British bio pic of Beethoven's first performance of the Eroica; "Eroica....The day that changed music forever'."
Very fun and spontaneous! IT seemed in retrospect to blend with TAKE me out to the old ball park, which I started out with this morning after a long winter hiatus. Not that I am anything like the caliber of musicians at the Smithsonian. Still it all seemed to homogenized into a flowing whole. Please make more of these specials I thoroughly enjoy them.😅
Imagine how good the gut string masters of the 17th century were, The process was done with extreme care and complexity. The secrets were kept by family members to ensure a lasting livelihood.
14:12 was very happy to hear them bring it up in this discussion there, I prefer gut strings in general, so much more expressive like the difference between most Steinways and Bösendorfer pianos, some say that the Steinway's have "too much teeth", I agree in general unless they are very specially voiced.
@@masumirostad such an amazing collection. I hope one day Smithsonian can open a museum dedicated to musical instruments. I believe they have a large collection of historical keyboard instruments as well in storage.
The Smithsonian loaned the 4 matched Strads for approx 10 years to the Cleveland Quartet. Their farewell concert was in 1995 and of course, was played on the Smithsonian Strads, you can see several documentaries I made about the Cleveland Quarter on my channel: th-cam.com/channels/ofPgbF9p1cDGoqB4lMn2bg.html
14:12 I was hoping there was going to be discussion of the gut strings! I find them to be more expressive on almost all if not every instrument. You can go from a warm place to a bright place if you want to it's not always bright like steel or plastic strings tend to be. I have a gut string snare drum that has a lot more expression than steel, the snare crescendo's not only in volume but in tone as well, with the steel it seems just as bright from the lower volumes to the higher volumes.
14:41 a great testament to the expressiveness of gut strings in comparison, thanks so much! This does fully confirm my experiences in playing and listening as well. Isn't it that French Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique that uses all instruments and strings? I had heard them and loved them and then I was very pleased that they were playing on that wonderful British bio pic of Beethoven's first performance of the Eroica; "Eroica....The day that changed music forever'."
Thanks for watching! We have a discussion about gut strings in this video if you’re interested - Can a cello ABSORB your SOUL?? The past lives of Gary Hoffman’s regal 1662 Nicolò Amati... th-cam.com/video/BkYcAYuZH0I/w-d-xo.html
I played violin and viola, quite poorly, in the late 80s (ie high school). I have always been fascinated by the myths and legends surrounding Strads. I felt a personal sense of “vindication” witnessing professional musicians struggling to tune the violins with the pegs. I have hand arthritis and my hand strength is laughable. While I was able to play notes and vibrato, etc, I would waste so much time desperately trying to tune the violin pegs. I would finally get it tuned and push the peg back in and it would snap back while rewinding my hard work. Getting fine tuners added at the base of the violin strings helped, somewhat, but the difficulty in tuning the violins was the biggest reason I quit playing string instruments. I am now 52. About three years before COvID I restarted private lessons, in my home, and I added a few lessons on cello. I had always wanted to experiment with the rich sounds made by the cello. I have an electric violin that is the right size for me, vs my high school violin that was sized for a teenager. I had the benefit of having my teacher tune my instruments before practice and there was a tremendous sense of relief in paying for lessons for no other purpose than wanting to try to learn because I just wanted to while shifting the painful and stressful part of tuning the instruments to my teacher. Worth every penny! Sadly, she moved to another city, right before COVID, so all of my lessons stopped. I am thinking of restarting. Lindsey Stirling has created a new line of violins designed to be much easier to tune the violin pegs, on demand. Her interviews expressed the same frustration I had experienced since childhood, with the pegs not staying where intended. I have been looking for an opportunity to try her violin peg system and I am curious if any professional orchestral players have converted to her peg design system. Are you aware of her system?
I’m sorry to hear about your struggles. I have 4 fine tuners on my tailpiece and rarely use my pegs. I have several students who have the internal gears within their pegs. They love the system. Stirling might have her own brand but, these are available under multiple brands at most violin shops.
Those violins all sound the same to me. As I harpsichord and fortepiano biulder let's hear those keyboard instruments in the back ground. Let the hate texts begin !
Haha! Well, even though I’m a “Juilliard trained pianist” (2 years of required piano) I can’t even really play a scale now so…I’m certain you wouldn’t want to hear me defile those beautiful keyboards in the background!
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
I had the immense pleasure of playing these instruments as a grad student at UMD. Prof. Slowik was one of our most beloved teachers, and he invited our Beethoven quartet seminar class to come to the Smithsonian after hours to play these priceless Strads. It was one of the most memorable and inspiring nights of my life, I'm so glad he is still the curator and offering this experience to players!
These instruments are all so responsive, so pretty, with such dynamic voices. What a joy it must be to play them. Thanks for this video.
Yes, that's right, they are!
Omggg Ken Slowik! He is THE MAN - such an awesome incredible dude. One night we rehearsed in his studio, and I walked out with him from the museum with my quartet and he insisted on giving us step by step verb directions to get to highway. We all got in the car laughing about how detailed and long winded his directions were and used Google maps. 10 mins later we are waiting at a busy intersection, and Ken pops out literally from out of nowhere all the way down the road, beating us out of the city even though he left several minutes after us. Shoulda taken his advice
We handled the Estate of Charlotte Bergen, who bequeathed the Servais Strad to the Smithsonian. I recall it sitting, for some days, in our locked storage room, before being sent.
Miss Bergen was a fine musician and would rent out Carnegie Hall and the American Symphony Orchestra and put on free concerts, at which she would also play her cello.
What a wonderful opportunity to sample the hyper amazing collection
They were a treat to play!!!
I am an absolute nerd about beautiful instruments, PLEASE do not stop what you’re doing. I watch and rewatch every single last one of them while I watch breakfast. It has become a ritual at this point
I’m an instrument nerd too. I’ve owned three violins and over three dozen ukuleles.
Love this! Thanks for watching!
No viola??
At 14:41 a great testament to the expressiveness of gut strings in comparison, thanks so much! This does fully confirm my experiences in playing and listening as well. Isn't it that French Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique that uses all instruments and strings? I had heard them and loved them and then I was very pleased that they were playing on that wonderful British bio pic of Beethoven's first performance of the Eroica; "Eroica....The day that changed music forever'."
Very fun and spontaneous! IT seemed in retrospect to blend with TAKE me out to the old ball park, which I started out with this morning after a long winter hiatus. Not that I am anything like the caliber of musicians at the Smithsonian. Still it all seemed to homogenized into a flowing whole. Please make more of these specials I thoroughly enjoy them.😅
Unique and incredible!
Imagine how good the gut string masters of the 17th century were, The process was done with extreme care and complexity.
The secrets were kept by family members to ensure a lasting livelihood.
14:12 was very happy to hear them bring it up in this discussion there, I prefer gut strings in general, so much more expressive like the difference between most Steinways and Bösendorfer pianos, some say that the Steinway's have "too much teeth", I agree in general unless they are very specially voiced.
Quite the musical treasures there so this is a gift!
Man! instruments and cute instrumentalist. Nice day !
Great Video
at 7:10 the violinist is nailing that scale!
Don't make fun of Violas! They are just as imporatant as every other instrument.
Such a cool video. Thanks for posting it.
Outstanding!!!❤❤❤❤❤
5:39 - as a violist, my ears perked up upon hearing "...Primrose Guarneri.." in the background.
These instruments need to be played not locked away !!
They’re regularly performed on by the Smithsonian Chamber Players!
@@masumirostad Nice ..thanks ..:)
I really enjoyed this
Thanks for watching!
What a nice surprise to see Steve playing the King Louis Amati 🤩
Yeah! What a tone!
@@masumirostad such an amazing collection. I hope one day Smithsonian can open a museum dedicated to musical instruments. I believe they have a large collection of historical keyboard instruments as well in storage.
The Smithsonian loaned the 4 matched Strads for approx 10 years to the Cleveland Quartet. Their farewell concert was in 1995 and of course, was played on the Smithsonian Strads,
you can see several documentaries I made about the Cleveland Quarter on my channel: th-cam.com/channels/ofPgbF9p1cDGoqB4lMn2bg.html
Wow. I was a student at Juilliard when I was lucky enough to attend their final performance at Lincoln Center. It was wonderful!
If you want to see some of the most renown violins and violas you should head to the Chimei Museum and see their collection of stringed instruments
That would be such a great experience! Unfortunately, I haven’t been to Taiwan yet…
Nice video. Next time, I would keep the interviews in color.
Yeah…that was my poor solution to the zebra striping due to poor lighting backstage at Dumbarton Oaks…
wow... The VIOLAASSSS
Sarah's 6 million dollar Guarneri del Gesù violin goes clank against her microphone
14:12 I was hoping there was going to be discussion of the gut strings! I find them to be more expressive on almost all if not every instrument. You can go from a warm place to a bright place if you want to it's not always bright like steel or plastic strings tend to be. I have a gut string snare drum that has a lot more expression than steel, the snare crescendo's not only in volume but in tone as well, with the steel it seems just as bright from the lower volumes to the higher volumes.
14:41 a great testament to the expressiveness of gut strings in comparison, thanks so much! This does fully confirm my experiences in playing and listening as well. Isn't it that French Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique that uses all instruments and strings? I had heard them and loved them and then I was very pleased that they were playing on that wonderful British bio pic of Beethoven's first performance of the Eroica; "Eroica....The day that changed music forever'."
Thanks for watching! We have a discussion about gut strings in this video if you’re interested - Can a cello ABSORB your SOUL?? The past lives of Gary Hoffman’s regal 1662 Nicolò Amati...
th-cam.com/video/BkYcAYuZH0I/w-d-xo.html
10:46 OH MY....
I played violin and viola, quite poorly, in the late 80s (ie high school). I have always been fascinated by the myths and legends surrounding Strads. I felt a personal sense of “vindication” witnessing professional musicians struggling to tune the violins with the pegs. I have hand arthritis and my hand strength is laughable. While I was able to play notes and vibrato, etc, I would waste so much time desperately trying to tune the violin pegs. I would finally get it tuned and push the peg back in and it would snap back while rewinding my hard work. Getting fine tuners added at the base of the violin strings helped, somewhat, but the difficulty in tuning the violins was the biggest reason I quit playing string instruments.
I am now 52. About three years before COvID I restarted private lessons, in my home, and I added a few lessons on cello. I had always wanted to experiment with the rich sounds made by the cello. I have an electric violin that is the right size for me, vs my high school violin that was sized for a teenager. I had the benefit of having my teacher tune my instruments before practice and there was a tremendous sense of relief in paying for lessons for no other purpose than wanting to try to learn because I just wanted to while shifting the painful and stressful part of tuning the instruments to my teacher. Worth every penny! Sadly, she moved to another city, right before COVID, so all of my lessons stopped. I am thinking of restarting.
Lindsey Stirling has created a new line of violins designed to be much easier to tune the violin pegs, on demand. Her interviews expressed the same frustration I had experienced since childhood, with the pegs not staying where intended. I have been looking for an opportunity to try her violin peg system and I am curious if any professional orchestral players have converted to her peg design system. Are you aware of her system?
I’m sorry to hear about your struggles. I have 4 fine tuners on my tailpiece and rarely use my pegs. I have several students who have the internal gears within their pegs. They love the system. Stirling might have her own brand but, these are available under multiple brands at most violin shops.
wow, those are some expensive fiddles
Dor-AHN? I'm amused because if he means Michael Doran I know that guy and its usually said very American-like, door-an.
Would be nice to actually hear these instruments played, but it’s a racket with musicians playing over each other!
Too much enthusiasm!
Those violins all sound the same to me. As I harpsichord and fortepiano biulder let's hear those keyboard instruments in the back ground. Let the hate texts begin !
Haha! Well, even though I’m a “Juilliard trained pianist” (2 years of required piano) I can’t even really play a scale now so…I’m certain you wouldn’t want to hear me defile those beautiful keyboards in the background!
If you drop it…
5:11
😅
No, a Rolls Royce.
Brahms is the best, you could choose ...
candy shop
candy shop indeed
Nada de strad..!!! Se llaman STRADIVARIUS, Ok? Aunque les cueste más trabajo decirlo.
strad
hi masumi, you need to update your instagram link with the new one.
Ah, thank you! I think I’ve fixed it now?
@@masumirostad almost hehe the one under "Connect with Masumi Rostad on Social Media" is still wrong 😁
$200,000,000? Did someone pay that much money for a violin?
BMW!?! No, more like a Rolls Royce, Bentley or Koenigsegg!
…or Blue Origin!
I would rather just have a modern good sounding / playing instrument then these .
Beautiful women
It would be funny to see someone accidentally sit on one.
Mono sound might show their better qualities?