The Laub–Petschnikoff Stradivarius is an antique

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

made by the Italian ''

luthier A luthier ( ; ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments. Etymology The word ' is originally French and comes from ''luth'', the French word for "lute". The term was originally used for makers of lutes, but it came to be ...

Antonio Stradivari Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinisation of names, Latinized form of his surname, ''Stradivarius'', a ...

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

(1644–1737), which is variously dated as from 1722 and 1727. It is one of only 700 known surviving

Stradivarius A Stradivarius is one of the string instruments, such as violins, violas, cellos, and guitars, crafted by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari (Latin: Antonius Stradivarius), in Cremona, Italy, during the late 17th ...

instruments.

History

It was once owned and played by Ferdinand Laub (1832–1875) and later by Alexander Petschnikoff (1873–1948), to whom it was given by Princess Ourosoff.Henry C. Lahee.
Famous Violinists of Today and Yesterday
', p. 297 (L.C. Page and Company; 1899, 1916) In the early 1960s, the Laub–Petschnikoff was acquired by Rembert Wurlitzer, a

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

dealer of fine

string instrument In musical instrument classification, string instruments, or chordophones, are musical instruments that produce sound from vibrating strings when a performer strums, plucks, strikes or sounds the strings in varying manners. Musicians play some ...

s. It was then purchased by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

philanthropist J. W. McConnell, who donated the instrument to the

Montreal Symphony Orchestra The Montreal Symphony Orchestra () is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. History Several orchestras were precursor ensembles to the curren ...

in 1961 for use by the concertmaster, then Calvin Sieb.

Eric McLean Eric McLean (25 September 191919 August 2002) was a Canadian pianist, music critic, and historian. From 1979 to 1988 he was the music critic for the ''Montreal Gazette'' in Canada, and retired as their critic emeritus. His overall career spanned ...

(November 22, 1961). Violin With a History. A Stradivarius for Montreal. ''

The Montreal Star ''The Montreal Star'' was an English-language Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It closed in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike. It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950s and remained the dominan ...

'', pp. 1–2 Sieb subsequently purchased the violin, which was estimated to be worth $500,000 in 1984.

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin (22 April 191612 March 1999), was an American-born British violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in Britain. He is widely considered one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century. ...

performed with it at a concert in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

in 1963, after his own violin broke a string.

Description

The back is maple and the front is spruce. Unusually, the maple used is thought to come from Turkey. In Fritz Meyer's ''Famous Violins and their Fates'' (1920), the violin is described as resembling the Sarasate "Lieblingsgeige", with an "ingratiating singing voice" and an "indescribably sweet inner quality" for which according to Meyer, it was globally known. Henry C. Lahee described it in 1899 as "magnificent", commenting that it was then "said to be the most costly instrument in existence". In 1968, Jacob Siskind described the violin as an "ideal" orchestral instrument but considered it to lack a "large enough or sufficiently penetrating sound" when playing the solo part in a concerto, as its sound "blends too easily with that of the orchestra and is often lost completely."Jacob Siskind (January 23, 1968). Mehta Returns in Concert. '' The Gazette'', p. 18

History

Description

References

Further reading