The Violins of Yehudi Menuhin

The prodigy Menuhin had a taste for the best violins in the world, and his virtuosity made him deserving thereof. For all he was given he also gave in kind.

What is the connection between virtuoso violinist Yehudi Menuhin (1916-1999) and Fallout video games, devised in the early 2000s? The former is among the foremost violinists of the 20th century, and the latter provides virtual roleplaying in a fictional post-apocalyptic universe set in the 22nd and 23rd centuries.

What they share in common is the Soil Stradivarius, built in 1714 by the legendary Cremonese luthier and one of seven famous violins owned and played by Menuhin during his illustrious career. In the fictional Fallout story, the Soil Stradivarius is thought to be the only Strad that survived a nuclear war, and it is therefore hidden in a vault to preserve it.

Back to real life, Menuhin played the Soil Stradivarius (so named for an 18th century Belgian industrialist) from when he purchased it in 1950 until some time before he sold to its current owner, violinist Itzhak Perlman. French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume once owned the instrument, distinguished by its red varnish and two-piece maple back. Like Stradivari, Vuillaume provided musicians at the time with fine stringed instruments for sale, crafted in his fine violin shop and by his gifted hands.

It was not Menuhin’s only Stradivarius-crafted instrument. He used the Prince Khevenhüller 1733 Stradivari, in addition to three by the house of Guarneri (Lord Wilton Guarnerius 1742, Guarneri filius Andrea 1703, and Guarneri del Gesu 1739). Menuhin also played a Milanese violin from Giovanni Grancino (1695), and another from Giovanni Bussetto (1680), a luthier in Cremona, whose violins are very rare because he was active for only ten years (1670-1680).

Recognized at a young age for his talent, Menuhin’s first public appearance was at the age of seven as a solo violinist with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. His career trajectory set, he was soon in demand around the world. Born in New York City, his parents moved with him to Paris where he studied under George Enescu and Adolf Busch in Basel.

But Menuhin and his violins were not confined to the great concert halls filled with the European aristocracy. He played for Allied soldiers during World War II and for liberated survivors of concentration camps in Germany in 1945. Himself born to a family of religious Jewish immigrants from Lithuania, he nonetheless played with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1947 as a gesture toward reconciliation, a mere two years after liberation and the close of the Holocaust.

Itzhak Perlman remains forever grateful for having received the Soil Stradivarius. He told Strings Magazine in 2015, “When Menuhin agreed to let me try it, I felt it was the greatest sound that I had ever experienced. It was my dream to own it, and one day that dream came true.”

Which suggests the developers of the Fallout video games understand well what should be preserved, come what may in a nuclear future.

The Violinmaking School of Brescia

Political of the Renaissance ordered northern Italian cities in violinmaking. But bubonic plague hit Brescia a little harder as most of its luthiers perished.

The distance between Brescia and Cremona, Italy, two bastions of fine stringed instrument making in the 16th century forward, is only 29 miles (46 kilometers). But relative to the world of violins, violas, and cellos from that period, they are considered by some to be at the opposite ends of the earth – back then and even today.

The violin making school of Brescia, which traces its roots to the crafting of liras, violettas and violas as early as the late 14th century, is known for distinct aesthetics and methods of construction. And due to the geopolitics of the time, Brescia was actually best known for its violas, cellos and double basses/violones, while Cremonese luthiers (Stradivarius, Guaneri, et al.) get more credit for their violins.

Why is that? It’s because Brescia was under Venetian rule, and in Venice the music was largely written for groups and ensembles. Therefore, in demand was the full complement of instruments, in particular violas, cellos and double basses. In contrast, Cremona oriented to Spain, under which it was ruled (1535-1707). There, the soloists who performed for Spanish royalty and the aristocracy favored the upper-register instruments, violins in particular. Consider the work of composers Grandos, De Falla, Sarasate and Rodrigos, as well as the showy “Spanish Rhapsody” composed by the Hungarian Jaroslav Vanecek in memory of Sarasate.

The Venetian demand for instruments from the Brescia school included a taste for secular music, involving commentary and satire on events of the time. But sacred music was very much a part of the city-state as well, largely based out of the Basillica of Saint Mark, with motets defining the Venetian polychoral style (e.g., Giovanni Gabrieli).

A sad factor of the earliest Brescian instruments is that few instruments exist today from the first luthiers: Jacobo Dalla Corna and Micheli Zanetto and his son, Peregrino Zanetto. Following them were Battista Doneda, Francesco Inverardi, Palanzino Palancini, Guglimo Frigiadi and Giovita Rodiani. Evidence of what they did is found in such places as tax records, where one’s occupation would be included. Related tax records include where components were purchased and instruments were sold – Gaspar ‘da Salo, a famous violin maker from 16th century Brescia, sold many of his instruments to musicians in France, and those records also indicate his wood was acquired in Venice and strings were from Rome. From 1568 to 1581 his fortunes increased, indicating his success as a sought-after luthier.

Characteristics of fine violins, violas, cellos, citterns (popular in the day), double basses and viola da braccia (also popular) from Brescia include rich ornamentation on pegheads, pegboxes, on the back, and sometimes f-holes with large eyes and pointed wings. In Gaspar’s case, it’s unclear if he himself was the woodcarver or if that was outsourced, perhaps to a contemporary known as Girolamo Virchi, who with family members was known for carvings found in organ lofts of Brescian churches.

Despite the geopolitical distinctions of Brescia and Cremona, both cities lost most of their violinmakers in the 1629-1631 Italian Plague, which eliminated about 25 percent of the population of northern and central Italy (about half of Milan’s population died). A handful of luthiers in Cremona survived (including Nicolo Amati), allowing that city to take a definitive lead in violin making.

But high-end violins and other fine stringed instruments are made in both cities today. One contemporary luthier who illustrates how lines are more easily crossed is Ioannis Apostolou, born in Greece, educated in Cremona, and moved in 2010 to Brescia where he today has his own violinmaking workshop in the center of the city.