Joshua Bell's twice stolen Stradivarius violin is still hot
Vložit
- čas přidán 8. 09. 2024
- For a dozen years renown concert violinist Joshua Bell has owned his pride and joy, a Stradivarius violin which is turning 300 years old this year. Despite it's age, it is hardly babied. Bell plays this $3.6 million instrument exclusively.
Dude just wanted a strad, didn’t steal and sell, just kept a strad for his life and played it. Balls.
He probably couldn’t have sold it. If he tried to sell it, any professional violin appraiser would have recognized it was the stolen strad
Actually the thief never played the violin. He sold it for $100 to a musician called Julian Altman who was the one who secretly played it for all his life. As you can read here on a page writen by Christopher Gotting the restorer of the Huberman Strad. www.gotting-violins.com/goetting-gibson-huberman.php
@@thibaultjaberg4658 What? No. Altman was the thief. Altman gave several explanations, and that particular one is a lie. Altman was a garbage person and very little he said could be taken at face value. Allegedly he hatched a scheme with his mother to bribe the guard, whom he befriended, with a cigar and promised to watch for him while the guard smoked. Source: My family. It was my great aunt he was married to and who returned the violin to the insurance company for the reward.
I love that the thief stole it....not to sell it or store it....but to play it.
he was unworthy of the violin he stole!
He probably couldn’t have sold it, any professional violin appraiser would have recognized it was the stolen strad
@@helenaren sure, but it's romantic to think some starving artist stole something worth millions of dollars just for their art ;)
@ok W lol, im not a progressive, but you DEFINITELY dont play violin.
@ok W and you DEFINITELY are calling the kettle black, lol. Go back to the guitar hero reddit, tab user.
Violins make me cry even when they are not being played ....this one goes straight to my soul. Joshua, your one of my favorites :)
Don't feel all alone. The violin makes me cry to, especially a Stratavaris.
Could you imagine if the art of music was banned tomorrow. Not a single song anywhere on the globe. What a desperately empty existence it would be. Nothing but respect for people like this who show such dedication to bring the world beautiful music.
Some of the stricter Islamic sects ban music of any kind.
The funniest part is that people watchedhim play in a subway and paid no attention.
Beautiful as it was, i bet it annoyed a lot of people. That is a powerful fiddle, and the sound waa booming in there
I think eventually one woman did
Wrong place. Probably the wrong time as well.
Now THIS guy knows what owning a precious musical instrument is all about. They're for *playing*. As a guitarist for over 40 years I've always hated that all the best guitars like 1958 sunburst les pauls are locked away in temperature controlled vaults , often hundreds owned by the same person, and never get played at all.. and the rest of us never get a chance to play anything but new ones or replicas.. With electric guitars, thankfully, often the makers are sio good that these are actually superior, but with things likeacoustic guitars like Gibson hummingbirds, or old Martins, that's less the case...
Yeah, some rich people collect them, but not for playing.
I once owned a Gibson J45 that in the 1960's i lusted after one for years being influenced by Ralph McTell who owns one of the best copies ive ever heard mine was nearly as good and I paid about £1000 for it i played on the folk scene with it for a while but as my tastes changed i played it less and less and it just stayed in its case i eventually sold it to buy gear I would use week in week out i regretted letting it go but i hoped someone bought it who played it more than i did
Dude, I’m the same way. When an old strat or les paul shows up in my shop that’s been played and enjoyed for 50+ years, it just makes me happy. These instruments were built to make music for people. Sure, they’re investments...any expensive thing is. But that doesn’t mean you hoard them away in some vault, away from the eyes of the world.
why do so many violin videos and forums have a guitarist spouting about guitars?
@@thomasromano9321 the valuable violins that play well are mostly on loan by their owners to famous players
You must watch the movie 'The Red Violin", great movie following the history of a violin's travels in history.
My favorite movie !!!
Is this the actual red violin though?
I love that movie!
@@kungpuk5186 I believe the violin parts for the movie were played by Joshua Bell as well. So that's a fun connection.
I’m glad you purchased the Stradivarius to play it. The ones in museums may be objects of beauty but are not worth a dime being relegated to silence. 😊
I think to steal something like this from the owner is a terrible crime
+arrgh garry Ya think?
curiousgeorge555 I think ,sometimes even wonder
+arrgh garry haha, I have to use that.
arrghgarry yup thats why stealing is illegal
All theives and liars go into the lake if fire, no worries, judged according to their deeds
Buying a perfectly suitable instrument at the perfect time is just like finding an invaluable friendship that will last a lifetime!
Violins need to be played regularly so they don't deteriorate, especially old ones. Rare, valuable, or one of a kind pieces like Stradivarius violins are actually purposefully given to master violinists to be played on so that they maintain their condition.
Not technically true - Heifetz made a stipulation in his will that his ex-David del Gesù should not be played for a certain number of years 'to give the instrument a rest'...
@@paulcaswell2813 Interesting. What was the reason he gave?
@@danielristakian2533 That the instrument had been in continuous use by him from the mid 1930s to the 1980s, and therefore needed a 'break'. I have my concerns over the 1734 'ex-Gibson' del Gesù - almost a century of continuous hard use by Huberman, Ricci, and now Midori...
@@paulcaswell2813 Maybe he didn't want anyone to make it sound better than he did.
Joshua Bell does it proud.
Just wonder why he doesn't mention that if a Stradivari will be placed in a collection, in a perfect temperature and clime, the violin will loose the wonderful tone over the time and will sound awful at the end.
A violin must be played time by time, or else it gets broken and worthless.
Yes, agree. That's sad like a lion at the zoo
I've heard the same. I've also heard that they don't develop their unique tone until 30 thousand + hours of playing... But what do I know about such things? I would believe any plausible statement about anything I'm ignorant about. LOL!
My last name isn't Snow, but I know nothing!
@@iko1954 I can't imagine the amount of torture the thief experienced for 50 years, knowing he stole the violin from someone that loved the Strad -- probably -- more than he did, since the man paid a fortune for the instrument... A tortured soul every time he played or even thought about it. (that is, if he had a soul.., or a conscience)
@@johnlshilling1446 Actually Huberman wasn't really too bothered about the fact that his Strad had been stolen since his prefered instrument was a Guarneri and the Strad only his backup instrument. And the Strad was well insured anyways. And by the way the thief never played the violin. He sold it for $100 to a musician called Julian Altman who was the one who secretly played it for all his life. As you can read here on a page writen by Christopher Gotting the restorer of the Huberman Strad. www.gotting-violins.com/goetting-gibson-huberman.php
Yes of course a violin looses some of its acustical qualities when it's not being played for a long time but then if you do play an instrument all the time it gets worn away over the years. Also a violin has to be maintained: fingerboards have to be planed and eventually replaced, pegholes have to be reamed, bridges have to be replaced, varnish has to be retouched, cracks have to be glued which means the instrument is regularely opened up which again means wearing the wood away, all of this wood is then replaced with new wood. This means that if all the old master instruments keep getting played eventually they will all be worn away or restored that much that they don't have anything original left on them! That's why it is imporatant to preserve some of those masterpieces so the future generations can study and apreciate the craftsmanship of the old masters...
Glad that the Strad got to live a normal life for 50 years. The stories it could tell.
The thieves pure passion for music👌👌👌 i envy him
What's absolutely beautiful to think about is they 300 years ago when that violin was made, I'm sure the creator had no idea It would be around today and worth so much money.
This is really an interesting and informative video. Thanks for posting it.
I would give anything to even be in the same room as a Stradivarius. Simply heaven
.....even better if the owner/player were with us (I am coming too!)
The next time a soloist-class violinist tours to your city just go to their concert, they’ll probably have one
There are Strads in use by the leaders (concert-masters) of orchestras in Baltimore, Dallas, Fort Worth, Little Rock, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, the Pacific Symphony, San Diego and San Francisco
I once bought what I was made to believe was a Steinway piano, but it turned out to be a Playschool toy piano.
I like to listen to violins that are featured on CZcams. It's surprising that some sound in the same league as the famous makers of the 17th & 18th Centuries. The French of Mirecourt produced many fine sounding fiddles, and some German & Bohemian violins also sound great - so if you are a violinist, but don't have much money, you can still find that voice out there if you try enough violins in your price range. There are fine sounding reasonably priced American violins as well. Even from the same maker you can have a great range of quality. I sent for 2 from the same maker because I wanted a practice fiddle. One sang on its own and the other was a struggle, like it was fighting back.
Stradivarius are meant to be played by the greatest artists. It's not meant to be in a museum except perhaps the Messiah Strad ... and that's only because it's in perfect condition.
I would like to think that although modern violins sound almost similar to the Stradivarius, it's the fact that they are one-of-a-kind. We can buy a normal violin from anywhere, but these were created special and were unique for their time. My old strings teacher told me the history of the creation of these.
Stradivarius made nearly 1,000 violins, of which around 650 survive - they were not created special, nor were they unique for their time. In numerous listening tests conducted with varying degrees of scientific rigour, neither experts nor lay listeners were able to distinguish reliably between Stradivarius and modern instruments, As part of those tests, listeners were also asked to to choose the instrument with the best sound; they chose the Stradivarius no more frequently than they would have done if they had chosen randomly.
It is undeniably the case that Stradivarius are very fine violins, but the claims that they are something exceptional are little more than hype.
Curious about the term TWICE STOLEN ? No mention made about a second theft?
Josh, you are right and it is great that you play it !!!
This violin is a little expensive, but sounds unique...probably worth of investment.
That is incredible to me, that is so old the people who used to hold it are older then America itself
I was at an air-show in the Seattle area, and a surprise guest flew in: a beautifully restored B-17 bomber.
The crowd was losing their collective minds over this piece of history buzzing the airfield but I was enraged!
How dare they risk losing this airplane! It belongs in a museum, not getting damaged with take-offs and landings! Aluminum that is flexed will fail over time.
I shared my views with my Dad, and he just laughed.
He asked me a simple question: How do you know if a thing is an airplane or not? Airplanes fly; things that look like airplanes but don't fly are not in fact airplanes.
Violins were made to be played; things that look like violins but can't be played aren't really violins.
My opinion is that violins are more like a verb, and less like a noun. You know a verb by what it does!
Thank you for this interesting comment and thought.
A Stradivarius is a musical instrument but so is a Hohner or Yammaha etc. Most people cannot tell the difference yet one is prized much more than the other and the value we place on things is a human phenomenon.
This violin was stolen by a man from Torrington, CT who put shoe polish on it so no one would question him. I live 30 miles from Torrington and have been buying and selling Instruments for 40 years. To bad I didn't stumble into this one.
YOU really deserve that jewel!!! Your hands are blessed!!! to play it!!!.
Time to have it scanned using hi def X-ray tomography to see how that top plate is carved. Stradivari worked on 3 regions of this plate to get his warm and balanced sound that all 650 instruments possess.
It depends who is playing of course.
The end of the great Cremonese line came with spirit varnishes. By the time it was discovered that spirit varnish wasn't a patch on oil varnishes, the secret of making the latter had been lost. And it's there that, IMHO, the 'secret' of the Cremonese makers lay...
@@paulcaswell2813 Even though there is extensive scientific evidence that refutes your claim.
A friend's mother was something of a patron of classical music concerts in a nearby college town. I was told about an occasion when some visiting artists came to her home for a small party after the concert. Two or three high end violins were placed in her bedroom while the guests were there. She was completely shocked to find out even one of the violins exceeded the value of her home. No, I do not know who the artists were or what the violins were, but I beat my friend to the punchline. Even though I do not play, I'm a bit of a violin nerd and know things like this.
As a cellist, a Strad would be nice, but a Montagnana would be the ultimate!
Joshua is great. Bronislaw Huberman will never be forgotten, his recording of the Beethoven concerto with George Szell and VPO (1934) ist unbelievable. Only to compare with the famous Francescatti (Bruno Walter) recording and for sure the best newest ones (Bell, Mutter, Kavakos, Hahn, ...)
With his lightweight tone production you would never know he was playing on a Strad......
the violin is very valuable
very insightful comment
Will it blend? That is the question.
probably, but does he have enough cowbell?
Maybe but definitely won't djent
Yes. The Gibson ex-Huberman.
It has a history worth of a Sherlock Holmes movie.
Very happy for you! The baby analogy is also priceless.
All u guys that are hating on him or his violin then just shut up Joshua is amazing it is 1:24 am where I am at right now I love in Illinois and me and my mom just got back from watching him play he was AMAZING I am a violinist myself but of coarse I need a lot of practice I want one day to play with him on a stage . Feb 12 2014 and I got to meet him in person
Bravoo very nice, great musicals..My grandpa used to own it in Brazil, but they never send to my parents back to Armenia...My MOther was crying...our wealth
I love vintage instruments and the history behind them, but in blind tests even 'experts' couldn't hear the difference between Strads, Del Gesus, Amatis, and new, high quality violins.....
When you buy a strad you don't just buy it for the quality but also for the story behind
it is the feel, only something the musician can feel.
Absolutely, one of the many reasons I love vintage instruments.
@@pierrediab-clashroyalandmo4599 Only if you have a few spare millions available to you.
He played it the day he bought it. That's cool. I wonder how he listened to the violin during that concert.
very nice play. God Bless you always. hope to see you one day. Thank you.
I am so very glad that he loves it and plays it! Stradaveri made them to be played. That is my belief. I believe he was very attentive to the resonence of sound and enjoyed that each one sounded beautiful. He brought forth their voices for the pleasure of the human ear, and heart.
The thief must've been a really passionate man.
There was a blind test done to see if pro violinists could tell the difference between one of these antique violins vs a modern one that's made to look and feel old, and they couldn't reliably tell the difference in the sound or feel.
Everyone has different taste in what's "best" for them. Don't discredit the strad when none of those violinists knew what a strad was supposed to even sound like
still, the modern one doesn't have a story to tell ... at least not yet.
This test is highly innacurate seeing how people's tastes differ greatly and they are all looking for different things. The stradivarius has a bright and beautiful sound and I as a violinist try to look for settled sounds. That's just one example as well. Just saying.
+Alex Rivers Sure, tastes differ, but if top-notch professional violinists can't tell the difference between a Strad and a quality modern violin, then the "difference" is unimportant.
Michael Whitesell you are correct sir. Most world class professionals just made a 50/50 random guess as to which was the antique and which was the reproduction. It's just the vibe, the feeling, the ego associated with the age. Not the sound or playability. In fact, any Strad you can play with a modern symphony has been altered and isn't even the same instrument as it was originally. The neck is lengthened and reattached at a higher angle to the body, the body is reinforced for higher tension strings, the bridge is replaced with a higher more curved one, and the bass bar and post are beefed up to give a bigger sound.
Originally the instruments were played with a lower tension bow on gut strings at A338 or something like that.
Excellent love it!
wonderful piece.
I play'd this violin and Norbert Brainin borrow me it for a hotel room... Nice to remember...
I'll bet they didn't quite have the same tone when they were new. I think their age has something to do with the sound. Wonder what they would sound like in another 300 years?
Even better. Violins get better with age, which is why older violins are much much more expensive (thousands and thousands of dollars more) than new violins
Way better. Duh. Violins get better with age, like wine. Go educate yourself
Maybe I'm sensitive, but he seems a little rough in how he handles his violins - but to get the most depth and exploration of an instrument, I guess a little force of the right dynamic is needed
damn its hard to hate that thief. he stole it so he could play it, not to show it off or profit from it
That's one of the nicest Stella bottom tile's I've ever heard.
Sort of "tottering" on the edge of the thumbnail title being misleading as in click-bait.
The Strad wasn't stolen from him twice as one who hasn't followed Mr. Bell might assume, the way the title may imply.
I thoughtbthe same
No solo virtuoso e impresionante músico pero tan encantador!!!
Maravilloso maestro ❤❤
it's gorgeous!
Tow selfish acts appear in this film, only one of them illegal. First, a man steals a Stradivarius for him self, depriving it from hall audiences. The same results from the instruments ending up as collection items.
agree... you are right tho
mourgoukos couldnt agree more. sickening!
Actually he stole, then continuously played it for the next 50 years and one can surmise from his fears of it being discovered and thus slathered in shoe polish, that it was played to hall audiences. if it had merely been played in private then the likelihood of someone noticing (especially one who would turn him in) would be slim. So with that we know most likely it was heard by the public for its entire departure from the lime light. Perhaps the violin did this on purpose and sorta faked its own death if you will, in order to escape the constant relentless eye cast upon stars like itself. Always being analyzed, lusted for and stalked by groupies whom are obsessed with those of its same bloodline. I think maybe it was more likely that this kind "thief" was sought out by the violin in order to free it from its chains of bondage, if even just for a moment. It was likely a daring escape that which hearkens back to the underground railroad. This moment lasted 50 years. Fifty years where the violin could just be, for the first time in its life, just a violin. Those years where kind to it as was the violins shepherd to freedom and protector. On his deathbed, a last tear dropped from his kind old eyes landing atop the violin." I am sorry my dear friend fore I cannot gather the strength now to help wipe it away, just as I cannot be there to help comfort you in the future" said the man sadly. His eyes looking away from the violin as his heart ached with sorrow. His eyes moved slowly back, his weathered lips parting to speak for perhaps the last time, "I want you to know something, something important, something you should never forget when i'm gone. It was worth it. You were worth it. They both knew what he meant by this and it touched the violin so. Seeing the breath was all but exhausted for old man holding on for a last moment as he could hear the violin speak. "Do not despair fore I will never be alone. I will always have you with me." it said drawing the mans gaze to something he'd never seen. You see that single tear had soaked into the violin leaving a permanent mark. A symbol, not of a Scarlet Letter T as you would all attach to this kind soul but rather one of Believing. Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.
Ein großer Violinist, der mit den Füssen auf der wirklich nicht eingebildet ist!
So cool
For certain music, Heifetz preferred to use his Guarnerius del Gesu of 1741, though he also owned a Stradivarius. Heifetz was a hard act to follow and may remain so as long as there is life on our planet. I enjoy Bell's playing but he's certainly no Heifetz.
It makes absolutely no sense to steal the violin from the man who plays it. I would rather ‘steal’ the heart of the man to that of a violin . Joshua Bell is one of the best known violinist and the same goes out to Leila Josefowicz. Of course who could not forget the greatest cellist who have lived and then tragically died, Jacqueline DuPre? To group them together along with two greatest horn players of late- Dennis Brain and Barry Tuckwell? I am so blessed to be listening and living in both worlds .
It's similar to wanting to own a Stratocaster guitar previously owned by Jimi Hendrix, even though it really sounds no better than a new one bought from Guitar Center. The idea of owning a violin personally crafted by Stradivari causes people to justify the price by claiming that the sound is superior than all other violins, when in reality it's the name Stradivari that gives the violin its worth.
I think so too. It is a bit luke Danny Kaye's story about the emporer with no clothes
I didn't know Tom cruise played violin
😂
Joshua too is still hot and somehow he's even hotter than I remember
thank you, G-d bless you
I remember reading a UK newspaper article when the violin was found (1986?) which stated it was stolen from the dressing room of the Wigmore Hall (not Carnegie Hall) while Huberman was on stage (playing his other great violin, a Guarneri I think..).
Maybe they got their facts wrong?
His connection to The Red Violin, coincidence?
I ask any pictures of inside tuning scratches.
Joshua should play "Warm Leatherette" on his violin. Cheers!
Oh I do know how he feels.
Tom Cuise plays the violin? I did not know it.
BRAVO !!!
How do you tell if one is real? Well to me it is obvious. How to tell a faithful copy, again obvious, but I have held a lot of instruments. When asked by a pawnbroker why I selected a faithful copy of the one in this video, I explained to glazed eyes and uncomprehending grunts.
ah the stratavarius violins, even a violin made out of gold would cost less, my favorite thing about them is that that's no copy of each variant of statavarius
OMG! I LOVE Evah Pirazzi strings!
Hi-I use Evah Pirazzi strings too but is his G something different? I don't recognize that winding is it just a different gauge or something? -M
Txplit PL Hey, Thanks! :c)
What a story!!!
@joe Yeah! That's a good idea for a movie actually!
Man dont play with it like it's worth 100 dollars...give me the shivers!
I wonder which strings he uses on such a special instrument. They look like gut strings.
+Mike M Correct.
+Mike M They stress the instrument less.
+Mike M Note there are no tuners except on the e.
+Mike M The Pirastro Evah Pirazzi line
Looking at the color code, D, A and E are standard Evah Pirazzi , D and A are metal spun synthtic core strings, E Silvery Steel. The G I don't know, but it could be a silver spun gut string from Pirastro.
The NLT Select is a nice Bible from Tyndale. It's no longer being made. Made by Youngblood; made in Holland. High-priced Bible if one is able to find one online. July 31, 2022. USA North America.
Cool story, bro.
That's so damn cool
Please use Oliv strings harsh strings develop aggressive tones.
Unfortunately people occasionally drop babies so id probably have packing peanuts as a carpet in your house.
billl gates can buy 400233402 of those
lol, best comment of all!
He would get back all that money in a couple weeks
+PainlessStone68
Well, that's not good enough.
+PainlessStone68 lol 'only'
No he can't there aren't that many in existence.
Um so the other day, I was going to a instrument store to get my violin looked at, and the owner of the store was named Michael Florek. He had told me that he had the same violin teacher as Joshua Bell. Is this cool or what? ^-^
Name dropping, and you fell for it.
Bell didn't merely buy this instrument -- he invested in it. He will end up selling it for a higher price later on in his life. Regardless, I really do think it's ridiculous to use old instruments such as this while habitually making big noise about it. Bell's fondness for that old violin stems more from concerns of brand management and exclusivity than it does from anything art related. It brings to classical music the suffocating pretension of the visual art world, for the value of that old violin lies not in the sound it makes but from its age and historical value, factors which have nothing to do with music. Bell does not convince that he can make better music with it then he can with a modern instrument, but I'm certain his ownership of it is the sort of point of interest that makes some rubes more likely to attend his concerts.
Ibrahim Nur,
As an instrumentalist, if anyone has earned the credentials and the appreciation to play a violin of that stature then who should sit in judgement whether that's appropriate.
Also, he is one of the most accomplished along with others of his stature to let us share in the experience of hearing it played. Otherwise, what's the point of it's exsistance. I also have heard that playing it is good for it's health.
Mr. Bell is honoring the purpose, glory, and audience with the hearing this instrument.
@@lorik.6669 Beauty (aural visual etc) is in the ear eye etc of the beholder
its like 12 left of his violins in the world few without strings and they where made in 1600s
why are you not getting why it's worth so much? it doesn't have to be all about how it sounds. it's the history that goes along with it. why are ugly paintings worth so much? it's not only an istrument, it's a piece of musical (artistic) history. it's priceless to own anything that has to do with a different centuries culture.
You can't just leave a stradivarius rotting away in a private collection or museum. Play the damn thing!!!
Can anyone tell me who is the author of the video and how to contact him?
Thanks
let me know if anyone knows the original violin stradivarius own label?
Tell me lies tell me Sweet Little Lies , wood does not last that long after it's cut , plus playing it every day I'm pretty sure will wear out the instrument tell me lies tell me Sweet Little Lies !
He just don't need such a nice instrument. He did not stole it but he took it from other better players.
what is the name of that music in the beginning?
JB. Know anyone wanting to sell a strat?
How can he bo so unaware of his most important possession
I don't understand why a number of comments here praise the thief for not selling it. He stole a professional violinist's most important tool and didn't even take good care of it for 50 years
Wow