Violinists can't tell new violins from old, study shows

Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story contained a photo of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra concertmaster Margaret Batjer from LACO's recent "Strad Fest LA" event. The photo was replaced to be clear that neither Batjer, LACO nor Strad Fest LA were associated with this report.

Old Italian violins are deemed the king of all violins. A Stradivarius can rake in millions at auction, and players have long noted the superior tonal qualities of violins from the 1700s compared to newer violins.

Many researchers have tried to explain the supposed superiority of the old Italian violins, testing everything from the old wood to the ingredients in the varnish used on the violins. A new study published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, by acoustic scientist Claudia Fritz and violin maker and researcher Joseph Curtin, shows that there really may not be a distinguishable difference in old vs. new violins.

"When you see a fantastic violinist confused and unable to tell the difference between a Strad and a newer instrument, it really makes an impression," Curtin said.

The researchers asked 10 world-renowned soloists to choose a violin to hypothetically replace their own from a batch of six new and six old Italian violins, five of which were Stradivarius models. In the blind study, the violinist wore dark goggles and tested the instruments in 75-minute sessions, one in a rehearsal room and a 300-seat concert hall outside of Paris. Six of the 10 soloists chose new violins as their preference, and when comparing playing qualities of their favorite new violin and favorite old violin, they rated the new violin higher on average.

Most of the violinists in the study went in with the notion that old is better than new, according to Giora Schmidt, a solo violinist who played old Italian instruments like Stradivarius for most of his career.

"I was expecting my first choice to be old," Schmidt said. "It's almost inherent for professional violinists to believe they need an old Italian to be successful."

Schmidt, who has played violin since he was 4 years old and currently plays an instrument made in 2000, said he was surprised when his top three choices were all new instruments.

"At the end of the day, many of us would sit around and try to figure out whether an instrument we played was old or new," said Schmidt. "What felt new to me may have felt old to someone else. The choice was really about personal connection with an instrument."

While the researchers found similar results in a study two years ago, they faced criticism that having the violinists practice in a hotel room, with a shorter trial time, could have affected the results. The current study is the first in a set of three papers that will examine each instrument's projection in the hall, and the listeners' preference in instruments.

"It's an exciting time to be a violin maker," Curtin said. "You used to hear that violins could never reach the level of an old Italian, but this second study confirms it's really about violin quality."

Antonio Stradivarius made violins from the late 1600s to early 1700s. The violins are so valuable that when a $5 million Stradivarius went missing from the Milwaukee Orchestra in January 2014, the orchestra put up a $100,000 reward for its return.

While the study confirms that research into modern violins continues to create products on the same level as some of the old, David Bonsey, a violin maker, and instrument appraisal expert not associated with the study, says for a violinist the Stradivarius is almost a religious experience.

"Every artist seeks to communicate the love of the instrument to the audience," Bonsey said. "New instruments might be able to do it, but watching an artist play a 1700 violin that has a piece of the previous players' souls, can't be measured or quantified."