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Scan 107
The Story of the Violin, 1914
26 lines. Read by computer on 18 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1would come in, look around, and immediately head for the cabinet in which reposed a Guarneri del Gesù violin named the "ex-d'Egville." It had been brought to America by Walter Hamma of Stuttgart, and was being shown here for the first time.
3"Gorgeous!" gasped Joseph Fuchs. "The most beautiful of all! It stands out like a light!" His fingers curled and uncurled. He was playing it.
5"A masterpiece," agreed Isaac Stern. He looked at the crowd and grinned. "This," he said, "is the happiest in-group I've seen in years."
7A few mornings later we had a visit with Mrs. Lee Wurlitzer Roth, the lady who conceived the violin festival. She is a lively, voluble, youngish-looking woman who lives violins, and she was exhausted.
9Cable From Russia
11"We expected perhaps 50 people at the preview," she said. "Over 300 showed up. Then when the festival opened to the public we've been having 2,000 and more a day. The whole thing has been tremendous. We've even had a telegram from Rostropovich in Russia. It's incredible! Heifetz was up here yesterday and I thanked him for coming. 'Mrs. Roth,' he said, 'I should thank you.'"
13There were several reasons why Mrs. Roth undertook the festival. For one thing, there had never been anything like it before. For another, she wanted to show the younger generation of violinists what the great instruments looked like in perfect condition. She is convinced that very few violinists know how to take care of, and maintain, violins. She had been married to the late Rembert Wurlitzer, the and Mr. Wurlitzer would go cluck-cluck when they examined fine instruments sent in for repair.
15Getting together violin ing up as the supply becomes exhausted. So many instruments, for instance, are going into museums, which means that they are out of circulation for good. This year eight Cremonese violins were purchased by museums. About 10 years back, the highest price ever paid for a Cremonese was about $60,000. Today, offers for $100,000 have been made for top instruments."
17Not only do museums put great violins out of circulation. Dealers themselves sometimes do. They fall in love with their instruments. One dealer in Switzerland, Mrs. Roth said, has been offered absolutely fabulous sums for a Strad in his possession. But he will not sell until he finds a replacement. "Why do I want the money when I have this?" he says.
19In a way Mrs. Roth can understand his point of view. Any dealer of importance needs to have several great instruments always on hand. And violin bows, too.
21"Just as nobody has ever been able to duplicate a Strad," Mrs. Roth said, "it is also impossible to duplicate a Tourte bow. The wood itself is very rare. Pernambuco. It comes from Brazil. About 10 years ago a good Tourte bow would bring between $1,000 and $1,500. Today the prices are out of sight. We have in our vault a Tourte bow for which we have been offered $11,000. We won't sell. A great house like Wurlitzer has to have permanently one great example, if only for modern bow-makers to copy."
23Touch of the Past
25Mrs. Roth led the visitor downstairs to the Wurlitzer workshop, a long room facing West 42d Street. It was a touch of a previous century. Workmen, all specialists, were slowly, unerringly, taking violins apart and lovingly putting them together. At one bench Simone Fernando Sacconi was discussing an Amati violin with some of the visit-
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