Instrumental Incremental
Gig magazine - March 2007
At the end of last year my company, Beare’s, sold a violin for over UK£3m (€4.42m). It was purchased by a benefactor to be lent to the leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Richard Tognetti. Even measured against the stratospheric prices that violinists and cellists have to pay for the tools of their trade these days, this is certainly in the top league. Any 18th-century Italian violin of quality may well cost £50,000. So how do string players afford to play them? The answer is that the vast majority cannot.
Whereas a successful violinist’s salary in the 1960s enabled him or her to own a fine Italian instrument, the combination of today’s higher instrument prices and the musician’s comparatively lower earnings makes this almost impossible. For many who did buy a fine violin in the 1960s and are now retiring, the purchase has turned out to be an excellent investment. A fine Stradivari that sold for around US$260,000 (€197,000) in the late 1970s, for example, resold in 2000 for $5m. Unlike the rest of the art market, which is driven by a desire for the object, the violin market is driven by both desire and need.
So why do players need these violins? Italian instruments from the 18th century have always been the most sought-after and still are today. It is their ability to produce a range of colours as well as being able to project every nuance to the back of a hall that sets them apart from ordinary instruments. Every now and then a contemporary manufacturer is championed or a physicist comes up with a theory that a plastic violin can produce the same sound wave on an oscilloscope as a Stradivari. But decade after decade the greatest violinists in the world have sought the fine old Italians. Ever since Stradivari made his first violin, it has been almost impossible to name any great violinist that did not play a violin either by Stradivari or his celebrated contemporary Guarneri del Gesù.
Many players seek help from a benefactor to purchase an instrument and then lend it to them. I have handled such arrangements many times and have found it to be a very rewarding relationship for both parties. Artist and benefactor often become good friends and it is common for the musician to play house concerts for their patron as a token of appreciation. But for any violinist out there reading this I must add that these arrangements invariably come about because of personal contact the musician has with the benefactor - sadly there is not a list of patrons to choose from!
I believe that the greatest sponsors of music in the UK are musicians themselves. The poor pay, long hours and dedicated study since childhood cannot be compared with any other profession. And it is only this self-sacrifice and dedication to the art that allows music to exist in such quantity and such a high level. To ask musicians to mortgage their lives to buy an instrument just adds insult to sacrifice.
There are more high-net-worth individuals in this country and around the world than there have ever been. I wish that more and more enlightened individuals could be persuaded to help our most talented young violinists. In Japan, Germany and Holland (for example) there are foundations that have been created with the sole purpose of acquiring fine instruments and lending them to deserving musicians.
From a moral perspective some may cry, ‘How can you justify spending £1m on a violin for the benefit of one player?’ The answer is that first, the money has not been ‘spent’. The capital value is retained in the instrument itself and will hopefully increase over the years as has always happened in the past – and over the years one instrument can benefit many players. Secondly, any funds coming into the music business for this purpose would be in addition to the support that is there already. I have always found this to be the case. In fact it is the excitement and interest in owning and lending a fine instrument that often stimulates a benefactor to become involved in music and supporting it in other ways.
So anyone out there who is thinking of buying a picture for a few million, please consider a violin and the talented young players out there who need to play on one. After all, a violin can be appreciated in so many dimensions by so many people, A picture, however beautiful, can only be hung on a wall and looked at.
J & A Beare Ltd
