Stradivari violin

rcprince: your post is wonderfully informative, well-written and perfectly on target. BRAVO! i'm sure pleased you take the time to share your wisdom with us. i hope you'll continue to teach us. -cfb

sugarbrie: in the early '70's, the smithsonian did loan out a portion of its collection of strads to the university of iowa string quartet (which, temporarily, changed its name to the stradivarius string quartet in recognition of the great honor). the cellist at the time, charles wendt, was a friend i valued dearly. i remember how charles always had the biggest travel budget in the quartet, since he had to buy an extra ticket (1st class, of course) so his cello would have its own seat. it was always listed on the passenger manifest as "ms. strad cello." the smithsonian, for reasons i've lost in my ever-degrading memory banks, reneged on their "permanent loan" agreement and sent the strads to another group. i've lost track of these strads now, tho i hope, as you, that they're not hanging up as a static display. -cfb