The red violin true story. The Red Violin : A Tragic Story Of Music And Loss 2022-10-21

The red violin true story Rating: 8,1/10 865 reviews

The Red Violin is a 1998 film directed by François Girard, inspired by the true story of the legendary "Red Mendelssohn" Stradivarius violin. The film follows the life of the violin as it travels through the centuries, passing through the hands of various owners and musicians across Europe and North America.

The film opens in present day, with the auction of a rare violin, known as the "Red Mendelssohn," at a prestigious auction house in Montreal. The auctioneer, Frederick Pope, recognizes the instrument as the one he had seen as a young man in Cremona, Italy, over 50 years earlier. This sparks a series of flashbacks that detail the history of the violin and its previous owners.

The story begins in Cremona, Italy in 1681, where the violin is crafted by the renowned violin maker, Antonio Stradivari. The film depicts the creation of the instrument as a labor of love, with Stradivari using the finest materials and putting his heart and soul into the craftsmanship. The violin is painted red as a symbol of Stradivari's love for his wife, Anna.

The violin is then passed down through the generations, ending up in the hands of a young boy named Kaspar Weiss, who is a prodigy violinist. Weiss becomes the violin's most celebrated owner, performing for the courts of Europe and winning numerous accolades for his talent. However, his success is short-lived, as he is forced to flee Austria during the Napoleonic wars, leaving the violin behind.

The violin then ends up in the hands of an unscrupulous collector, who takes it to England and sells it to a wealthy merchant. From there, the violin passes through the hands of several more owners, including a traveling circus performer and a jazz musician in Montreal.

Throughout its journey, the violin's red color serves as a symbol of its enduring beauty and the passion of its various owners. In the end, the film suggests that the violin's true value lies not in its monetary worth, but in the music it has inspired and the emotions it has evoked in its listeners over the centuries.

The Red Violin is a poignant tribute to the enduring power of music and the importance of preserving cultural treasures. It is a reminder of the rich history and traditions that have shaped the world of classical music and the enduring legacy of the masters who created it.

The Red Violin

the red violin true story

One scene, in which Victoria awkwardly slavers over Frederick's half-clothed body while he plays, is unintentionally farcical. What the real story is, we might never find out — but do we really want to know all about it? Retrieved March 3, 2017. And when the movie isn't dishing out this sort of instant history, it spends too much energy bending the narrative to create teasing little plot twists that aren't worth the effort. This merchant only sees the value of the gemstone mounted in the scroll of the violin, and he removes the stone. Retrieved August 14, 2017.

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Truly Playing the Part

the red violin true story

Over the course of three centuries, the violin makes its way from 17th-century Italy Cremona to 18th-century Austria Vienna to a tribe of mountain-dwelling gypsies, to 19th-century England Oxford to Communist China Shanghai and finally to contemporary Canada Montreal. Tchaikovsky Cecchi uses this work in his music. When Poussin inquires about the violin, the monks explain that they buried it with Weiss. However, there are some who believe that the red violin was indeed painted with blood, as the color is particularly striking and there is no other known source for the pigment. By 1937 the violin belongs to a bourgeois Chinese family. Known as the Gibson ex Huberman, the revered instrument came into my life one fateful day during the summer of 2001.

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Is The Red Violin A True Story? (Described for Everyone)

the red violin true story

He offers his hospitality in exchange for the violin. Then Corigliano rescored the Chaconne for the film, infusing his theme with influences from Vivaldi to Paganini to Gypsy music, and asking Bell for input along the way. According to biographer Max Kalbeck, "As soon as Brahms heard the sound of the violin, he pricked up his ears, during the Andante he wiped his eyes, and after the finale he went into the green room, embraced the young fellow, and stroked his cheeks. The violin would then have been left in the sun for a few days to weeks to allow it to dry completely. In Montreal: Samuel L.

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The Red Violin (1998)

the red violin true story

I fell in love with the instrument right away, and even performed that very night on it at the Royal Albert Hall. Next up on the block is the newly restored red violin, which arrived at the auction house in a shipment of goods from China. Drawing Conclusions Pitcairn released the facts about the violin when she played a solo in 2003 at the Lincoln Center with the New York String Orchestra. He was the son of a wealthy violin maker, and his father was a well-to-do violin dealer. Why was The Red Violin red? The Violin: A Social History of the World's Most Versatile Instrument. When Victoria does not receive his letters for a full week, she resolves to return immediately.

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Joshua Bell: Here's the story behind my very famous, once

the red violin true story

Morritz calls his wife at home in New York City and asks to speak to his daughter, telling her he has a special present for her upon his return. I simply did not want it to leave my hands. So, as far as sorting fact from fiction, who knows, perhaps the writers were inspired by the spirit of Stradivari himself. The scam is so widespread that the FBI has issued a warning for violin players to be on the lookout for these scammers. Bell took to hanging around the set on occasion, helping to make sure the visual performance from the actors matched his own, as recorded. He provided this essay he wrote about his violin.

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The Real Red Violin: A True Story About Rembert, the "Stradivarius Wurlitzer by Terry Hathaway

the red violin true story

That performance, though, comes during a moment where his character is testing a Stradivarius, not playing the Red Violin. Sometimes entertaining the mystery is more enjoyable than uncovering truth. When I perform in Israel with the Israel Philharmonic, I am always touched to think how many of the orchestra and audience members are direct descendants of the musicians Huberman saved from the Holocaust — with funds raised by concerts performed on the very same instrument I play every day. This would darken it naturally. Nowadays, they are on loan to a number of famous violinists including Nicola Benedetti, David Garrett and Janine Jansen. Retrieved March 3, 2017. I soon learned all of the known details of the violin's remarkable history, which is complete with twists and turns to rival the film that I had only recently finished working on, The Red Violin.


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THE RED VIOLIN

the red violin true story

Scenes set in Shanghai during Mao Tse-tung's Cultural Revolution, in which Western cultural artifacts are tossed into a bonfire, also come off as cartoonish distillations of history. I learned so much about violins in this doc, and the auction scene as well. When newly finished, it would have been a very light wood, close to white in color. Retrieved March 3, 2017. It just looked ridiculous. Nicolò had carried his wife's body to his shop after her death and slit her wrist to collect blood for making the red varnish.

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The Red Violin : A Tragic Story Of Music And Loss

the red violin true story

It shows the connectedness of life; how each life reflects and enhances another, sometimes over many years. What is the secret of The Red Violin? But then the music subsides, and the movie clatters back down to earth. Ultimately, when the collector dies the Chinese government "inherits" the by now anonymous violin in a motley collection of stringed instruments, including at least one genuine Stradivarius. The theory is that red was also a highly popular color amongst the aristocracy at the time and this could also have influenced his choice. Retrieved March 4, 2017. What makes a Stradivarius violin so special? This was so much so that one time he identified an unknown, red violin by just hearing it played. Retrieved March 3, 2017.

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The Red Violin: A True Story?

the red violin true story

Close-ups, however, remained a problem, and here Flemyng needed help to make his fingers at least appear to know their way around a fingerboard. Regardless, Altman took great pains to conceal the violin's true identity, covering its lovely varnish with shoe polish and performing on it throughout the rest of his career, which included a stint as first chair with the National Symphony Orchestra during World War II. Over the top of this structure is the lilting music of JOHN CORIGLIANO, who was nominated for an Oscar for this score. That evolved into the Chaconne for Violin, a concert piece for full orchestra commissioned by Sony, Bell and the Boston and San Francisco symphony orchestras. It then travels around the world through the next 300 years, falling from one set of skilled hands to the next, its curse or blessing? Huberman auditioned musicians from all over Europe.


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