Interesting bilind testing of Stradivarius Violin

It is interesting and significant that this study involves players and not just listeners. I had always read "well, the players can tell the difference and prefer the work of the old Italian masters."

What needs to be stressed is that these instruments are the cream of the crop. They all sound great. The makers and examples, old and new, are carefully chosen for their ability to compete (unless I missed something). There are no clunkers here.

Schubert,

I'll wager that there wasn't a great deal of choice of syrup in the USSR during David's lifetime.

There are Strads that, history aside, have less value because they are lesser instruments.

Playing in an orchestra is not likely to make you deaf--unless you're sitting BEHIND the horns, which no one does.

Joseph Curtin (name was misspelled in the article) is quite well-known and no doubt has a long waitng list. He likely needs no advertising.

The fact that the players were fooled is huge. I don't think that some people are getting this. That is the difference between this and previous tests which relied on the listeners and not the players to judge the instruments.

It's far more about the fingers and the ears than the instrument. However, if two players are more or less equal then the one with the superior instrument should prevail.

Not all Strads are created equal. Some sound far better than others. Also, instruments made by Guarneri del Gesu are preferred over Strads by many top players. And Hilary Hahn uses a much more recently made instrument from the shop of a French builder (Vuillaume, 1864). She could have a Strad if she wanted, no doubt!

As for Joseph Curtin, I don't know how well he plays and didn't think he was part of the performing end of the show in question. But I'm sure he has spoken with countless top players about desirable and undesirable qualities (some of which are subjective) found in instruments. He otherwise could not have risen to the top of his field.

I don't think this has been mentioned yet: we are living in a golden age of instrument building. There are more top-shelf violins, guitars, etc. being produced now than ever before. Heifetz and Elman did not have a lot of choices when it comes to fine, newer instruments. Many players in modern quartets are opting for new violins, violas and cellos.

BTW, Perlman says Oistrakh's strad was a good, not great, instrument FWIW.

Schubert: "musicians are not from mars..."

Aren't you forgetting Jimi Hendrix?

Schubert, that's good. I had heard he was from Venus. That must have been a very interesting lunch.

One of his trumpet players (Martin Banks) moved here to live out his "golden years." Nice guy, good player.