THE “MOSCOW SOLOISTS” PLAYING STRADIVARI INSTRUMENTS IN WORLD CAPITALS

Performing music on instruments created by the great masters of the past is always a special event. Even more significant are concerts in which musical instruments from the collection of the State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments of Russia come to life in the hands of the “Moscow Soloists” chamber ensemble conducted by maestro Yuri Bashmet.

The State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments is part of the collection of the Russian National Museum of Music. It comprises 286 musical instruments crafted between the 16th and 20th centuries by such masters as Nicola Amati, Antonio Stradivari, Giuseppe Guarneri, and Carlo Bergonzi. The State Collection takes an active part in the development of the Russian performing school; Leonid Kogan, David Oistrakh, Rudolf Barshai, Mstislav Rostropovich, Vladimir Spivakov, Yuri Bashmet, Vadim Repin, and many others have played its instruments over the years. For the first time, the “Moscow Soloists” played the unique Stradivarius instruments from the State Collection during the tour of Russia in 2009; it became the first Russian ensemble to receive such an honor. Since 2011, the “Moscow Soloists” have regularly given such concerts to audiences in Vienna, Rome, Warsaw, Berlin, London, and Moscow as part of the project “Antonio Stradivari Instruments in World Capitals” that has made it possible for the State Collection instruments to perform abroad for the first time.

Each concert of this kind is both a musical and a cultural and diplomatic event that helps strengthen cultural relations between Russia and Europe. Thus, in a 2014 UK-Russia Year of Culture concert, the musicians played instruments by Stradivari and other Italian luthiers provided for one concert night by the State Collection of Unique Musical Instruments of Russia and the Royal Academy of Music. The RAM lent the concert the world’s most expensive viola, the Archinto, created by Stradivari in 1696 and better preserved than the rest of his instruments.