A concert at Texas A & M University next month will let audience members compare the sound of a 300-year-old Stradivarius violin with a brand-new instrument created by biochemist and violinmaker Joseph Nagyvary, the university web site says.
Nagyvary, a university professor who is set to retire later this year, has researched the chemical properties of Stradivarius violins and incorporated the results into his own instruments for 20 years.
At the concert on 15 September, a Nagyvary violin, built in six weeks earlier this year, and the $4 million Rochester Stradivarius, built in 1720 by Antonio Stradivari, will each be played behind a screen by violinist Dalibor Karvay. Audience members will attempt to distinguish between the two, and at intermission their guesses will be tallied up.
The demonstration will be filmed by a German film crew making a documentary about Stradivari.
Nagyvary acknowledges that his instrument doesn't measure up to the Stradivarius, but says the difference isn't worth $4 million. He also claims that Stradivari wasn't particularly skilled.
"Stradivary was a good salesman," he said. "He sold to kings and those instruments were well kept. His neighbors made good violins too, but they sold to musicians and were used up. But everyone in Cremona made good violins because they used the same process of smoking or boiling the wood to kill wood worm."
— Ben Mattison
"AUDIENCE
PICK: OLDER VIOLIN, SWEETER MUSIC?"
Kathleen Phillips - AgNews
[Texas A & M University] - 25 August 2003
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