Ron MacDonald

The neck was lengthened and remounted by Vuillaume but he did not replace it. It is original!

Congratulations, Fox!

As you say, 12 could be Joachim but 9 is certainly not Elman. Ron

I know it sounds implausible but the bridge was carefully maintained even as it warped. I always am careful with m;y bridges. I am still surprised at its behaviour since the water treatment--I had originally planned it as a stop gap measure until I had a chance to have a new bridge fitted. Now I guess I'll keep it indefinitely.

A year ago, the bridge on one of my violins warped so badly that it looked as if the top were peering at the feet. It had been fitted at a distinguished shop only a year earlier and I had always maintained it carefully. I planned to have a new bridge done, but as a lark, I soaked the old one overnight in water, wrapped it in wax paper and put it under the foot of a heavy sofa for a couple of days. When I took it out it was straight again and I decided to try it on the fiddle. To my surprise, it has never warped again and it is still on the instrument, perfectly straight. Is there a lesson here?

I remember the Dragonetti Strad well when it was owned by my teacher, Alfredo Campoli. I've often wondered where it went. Alfredo's favorite bows were by Voirin but in his last years of concertizing he used a new Hill (with the artificial tortoiseshell) which he especially loved.

FWIW, I have a Hill viola bow by Bultitude which is certainly not stiff and heavy--it's my favourite viola bow.

In Canadian French, the dandelion is known as "pissenlit", or to put it politely, "urinate in the bed".

I'll defer to the the scholars who have studied this concerto and concluded that there is convincing evidence that the viola concerto came first and that the harpsichord version is a transcription.

Scholars maintain that the harpsichord concerto (BWV 1053) is an arrangement of the original viola concerto and that the cantata parts from which it has been reconstructed are closer to the original.

He also wrote a viola concerto which has been reconstructed from BWV 169, 49 and 1053. It is currently published by Bärenreiter

In fact, the viola was Bach's favorite instrument. We know this from a letter written by one of his son's after his father's death. He wrote: "the viola was my father's favorite instrument".

No one has yet mentioned our own Nathan Slobodkin who makes extraordinarily fine cellos.

Hi Kallie, good to see you back. I checked both Henley and Dilworth. Unfortunately, there is no mention of him. Seems a decent instrument.

That's true at the professional level but not at that of the amateur.