The Homecoming to Cremona of the  violin “Messie”

From the Ashmolean Museum of Oxford the most precious violin in the world

Exhibit September 15th – December 18th            –            Study Day: October 9th

Unlike many violins built by Antonio Stradivari, famous for their extraordinary timbre features, the Messiah violin has hardly ever been played. Its celebrity arises from its exceptional state of preservation, with its nearly untouched varnish, as if it had just come out of Stradivari’s workshop. For this reason it is a symbol and a stylistic reference point for violin makers worldwide.
This violin is believed to have been purchased by the collector Cozio da Salabue directly from Paolo Stradivari, son of Antonio, in 1775.
It was then sold to the trader Luigi Tarisio in 1827: sale details were written inside the top plate by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume, who bought the violin in 1855.
Tarisio often boasted about owning this outstanding instrument, so much so that the soloist Delphin Alard is supposed to have exclaimed: “Your violin is like a Messiah. Always awaited, never appearing”.
It was later acquired by the London firm “W. E. Hill and Sons” and finally, in 1939, entrusted to the Ashmolean Museum, with the restriction of not being moved nor played, in order to be preserved as a model for future violin makers.
Today it is displayed in Oxford, at the Ashmolean Museum, next to the prestigious University. Since 1939 it has hardly been moved but in 2016, on the occasion of its 300th anniversary, it is returning exceptionally to Cremona, on exhibition from September 15th to December 18th at the Museo del Violino.

Thursday, September 15
Auditorium Giovanni Arvedi , 21 hours

GALA CONCERT
on the occasion of the Messiah Stradivarius exhibit

Stradivari Quartett