Compare violins on Radio 4's PM

[ardcarp]

Towards the end of today's PM programme two violins were played, an early one (of Strad vintage) and a late 19th century one...but we were not told which was which. We were asked to guess. Not very scientific given the limitations of mikes and speakers, but we'll be told tomorrow.

[Osborn]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/jan/02/how-many-notes-violinist-stradivarius?INTCMP=SRCH

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2012/jan/03/stradivarius-v-modern-violins-study?INTCMP=SRCH

[Flay]

...Not very scientific....

Not at all scientific. I listened and thought they were just trying to fill in time. How do we know if the performer was not putting in a deliberate bias? It was just a load of nonsense.

But the second instrument sounded much better

[Flosshilde]

I didn't hear the radio spot, & no doubt it wasn't very scientific, but the articles linked to above show that the tests that (presumably) prompted it were (a bit) more so, and that violinists who played modern instruments & old Italian instruments (Stradivarius & Guarini) 'blind' preferred the former. No doubt the researcher's report goes into more detail & has the neccessary caveats.

[teamsaint]

if no one else wants to do it, can I be the one to tell Sean Rafferty.............please?

[Flosshilde]

if no one else wants to do it, can I be the one to tell Sean Rafferty.............please?

If you mean that Sean expresses undue reverence for 18th century instruments, he's not the only one - we are often told that so-and-so violinist plays a Stradivarius worth £x million, the implicit assumption being a) their playing is so good that they deserve to play on a valuable instrument, and b) their performance wouldn't sound nearly as good if they played on a modern instrument.

[teamsaint]

but he is REALLY good at undue reverance !!

[Flosshilde]

So you do admit that he is good at something?

[teamsaint]

to be fair to raffers (and thats a bit like being fair to dave cam, or alex ferguson,) he does tend to play a reasonable selection of music on the show.

But I could do that, and at probably a fair saving on wages !!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

This isn't something I know much about, but I'm an oboist, so new ones are generally the ones to go for.

[Pabmusic]

This is (vaguely) related:

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2012/01/02/violinists-can’t-tell-the-difference-between-stradivarius-violins-and-new-ones/

[Old Grumpy]

I read the original Guardian article with interest. The comments on the second (blog) article are also worth reading. At the risk of rustication from these boards, I would respectfully suggest that it is entirely appropriate for "Raffers" to include a light-hearted article such as this in the context of In Tune.

[Flosshilde]

to be fair to raffers (and thats a bit like being fair to dave cam, or alex ferguson,) he does tend to play a reasonable selection of music on the show

& quite a bit of it is live.