What's the point?

November 10, 2025, 9:16 AM · Fast forward 200 years. Every other Strad in the world is still available for use and study, but they have been restored so often that nobody is sure what rolled off the bench in Cremona. Keeping a few specimens out of combat is a prudent measure.

November 10, 2025, 10:16 AM · Stephen, I have to agree. If the human race lasts that long (it’s looking like it won’t) people won’t know the names Stradivarius or Guarneri. They may revert to being so primitive like that none of them will play modern music anyway.

November 10, 2025, 11:09 AM · Jake, might the instrument be lent out, to competition winners for example, or used in some other ways at least occasionally?

November 10, 2025, 11:20 AM · Richard I would like to think so, but it strikes me as similar to the one that is currently in the Ashmolean in Oxford. Not been touched for x amount of years.

Edited: November 10, 2025, 11:39 AM · How often are medieval and ancient manuscripts brought out for qualified scholars to read? In our age of excellent facsimile production, such work is safely democratized while conservation is maximized. I suppose Jake and Richard are probing whether exceptions should be made, which might still be considered in these early centuries of preservation, but my being more hopeful than Nickie regarding the human future, I expect these exceptions will over the material ravages of time become less justifiable --unless, like most of my history with cars, the violin owners decide to drive them into the ground.

November 10, 2025, 12:21 PM · Maybe it doesn't play very well?

November 10, 2025, 12:24 PM · The early instruments on display at the US Smithsonian are taken out and performed with on a regular basis.

November 10, 2025, 12:49 PM · Mary Ellen, it's good to know that some institutions do do that

November 10, 2025, 1:13 PM · Displaying beautiful violins can extend the interest in the instruments to people who are more open to visual arts than to music. It further elevates the culture as a whole.

There was recently an exhibit of strads at an american museum. It was wonderful.

Edited: November 10, 2025, 2:09 PM · Interesting discussion! I agree that the Strad in the Ashmolean is a bit sad. Mary Ellen: it's good to hear that the Smithsonian instruments are kept actively in playing condition. Here in the great capital of Spain, the Strads in the Royal Palace are played, usually but not always in situ in the palace itself. The Quiroga and Casals Quartets seem to be invited to play them pretty regularly. I've heard these matching Strads twice myself.

November 10, 2025, 2:07 PM · A link that gives a brief insight into these instruments, in Spanish. One observation, when the luthier comments on the 'alma' of the instrument he is not being poetic: he's referring to the soundpost.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=m5NfTfcWu_I&pp=ygUhU3RyYWRpY2FyaXVzIHBhbGFjaW8gcmVhbCBNYWRyaWQg

November 10, 2025, 3:34 PM · It's similar to that very rare edition comic book that is still sealed in its box, for display. If you open it to read it, it loses its value.

November 10, 2025, 4:09 PM · Richard, the Messiah Strad in the Ashmolean Museum is the the most pristine remaining example we have a Stradivari's work, and without that, we would know much less about his original artistic intent, since most others are worn and repaired to an extent that much of the original intent and execution are no longer evident.

Back when I was the maintenance person for the Strads in the Henry Ford museum, they asked me whether they should lend them out or not. I told them that I could not decide that for them, because it depended on their priorities. If they wanted to best preserve them, they should not lend them out, since this will inevitably result in wear, and occasional accidental damage beyond wear.

November 10, 2025, 5:16 PM · Wow, wouldn’t it be a blast to be the person waking those violins up periodically?
Woohoo!
If I could just do one of those violins just once, I’d brag about it the rest of my days!

Edited: November 10, 2025, 5:29 PM · David D - I've never thought of a classic violin as comparable with a rare comic book. It depends on what we mean by "value" - aesthetic merit or just how much some obsessive is prepared to pay?