Comments

WOW, Bram! Congratulations on playing a Strad!!!!! :) Sounds exciting! Lucky! My violin teacher was lucky enough to give a presentation of a Strad in Perth some time ago (about 15 years ago), when the partner of my then violin teacher (as i was just starting) found a violin at an auction and bought it for $500, and upon getting it valued, found that it was actually a genuine Strad. That's a good buy.

My teacher didn't really like the tone of the strad however. In his standard (romantic) repertoire, the violin didn't really sound all that great, but in one piece he had learnt for the occassion (written around the time the violin was made), the violin seemed to come to life. Now it may have had something to do with the room (thick carpeted, a shocking baby grand piano), but it goes to show that just because you have an expensive violin it won't neccessarily sound great.

One of my friends has two violins - one approx $15k, the other approx $20k. He plays on the $20k one because it's worth more, however many of his friends feel that the $15k violin sounds a lot better.

All the same - it's great to play on a strad :>

I'd be like Stradivarius, smatavarius - I'm hangin' with Bithe Blom! Bram, you and Colleen had such exciting weekends. I'll bet the reel and jig you played on the Strad sounded fantastic. Yay, Bram!