Word: guarnerius
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...Philadelphia Orchestra in Jean Sibelius' surging Finlandia. Much moved, Finn Heimo Haitto (pronounced hay-moe high-toe) sat down and wrote his good friend Sibelius all about it. Last week the boy had more to tell the old composer. Again bare-kneed, and sailorcollared, Heimo Haitto tucked a Guarnerius fiddle under his beardless chin, made his bigtime U. S. debut with Ormandy and the orchestra in the plushy Academy of Music. Critics liked his easy, self-assured playing, could well believe that Sibelius had said of him: "This youngster will carry on the tradition of Finnish music...
Every violinist knows what a Stradivarius or a Guarnerius is, knows that these famed fiddles made in Cremona more than 200 years ago are considered the best in the world. Supposedly unrecapturable is the secret of the Cremona makers-whether it was construction, shape, wood or varnish. Professor Frederick Albert Saunders, Harvard physicist, has long been making a scientific analysis of the tone quality and playing performance of Stradivarius and Guarnerius violins in comparison with the best modern instruments. Last week, in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, he published his findings...
With a harmonic analyzer Dr. Saunders dissected the tones of old and new violins, plotted their ups & downs on a graph. These indicated that there was practically no difference between the tone quality of a Strad or Guarnerius and of a fine new instrument. The scientist then had a violinist play a Strad and two new violins behind a screen, asking an audience-many of whom were musically erudite-to tell which was which. Only about a third guessed right, and this number would be expected to guess correctly oft the basis of pure chance...
Rare chords of an ancient 1700 Stradivarius and a Guarnerius met an electric test of science yesterday in the laboratory of Frederick A. Saunders, professor of Physics, in an attempt to discover whether modern technique can surpass the art of the famous Italian masters...
When a railroad official asked passengers on a train passing through Aberdeen, Scotland if one of them had lost a couple of violins, up jumped Violinist Jascha Heifetz, sputteringly recalled that he had left his Stradivarius and Joseph Guarnerius worth $150,000 in the Dundee station lunchroom. "And did I have the jitters until they arrived by the next train!" cried he afterward...