This Week in Classical Music w/Randy Kinkel 4/28/19

Click to Listen: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notre Dame's Pipe Organ undamaged;

Joshua Bell's Violin to be auctioned

 

 

It’s “This Week in Classical Music”—an update on what’s happening in the classical music world—I’m Randy Kinkel.

 

France's government has presented a bill aimed at speeding up the reconstruction of Notre Dame Cathedral.

The bill will allow the government to pass emergency orders regarding Notre Dame and to skip some ordinary renovation procedures.

In other renovation news Wednesday, an expert said that Notre Dame's massive 8,000-pipe organ has escaped undamaged from the flames that engulfed the building on April 15.

Pascal Quoirin, a specialist who restored Notre Dame's organ in 2017, has checked the instrument and says it did not suffer any damage in the blaze that destroyed most of the cathedral's roof.

"After two hours spent examining the instrument, I did not notice any damage that could have been caused by the fire," he said.

According to Quoirin, the thermometer inside the organ showed that temperatures inside the instrument did not rise above 17 degrees Celsius (63 Fahrenheit) on the day of the fire, ensuring no damage to its electronic components or pipes.

The 1750 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin, played by superstar violinist Joshua Bell during his teenage years when he began his concert career will be sold at auction on May 16.

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music which received the instrument in 1963 from an anonymous donor.  Since then, the violin has been loaned to deserving young students, including Joshua Bell. Proceeds from the sale will benefit the Jacobs School of Music’s students and faculty.

“I officially started my career in 1982 at the age of 14, while continuing my studies at Indiana University under the great Josef Gingold. I was unable to afford a great violin at that time, but thankfully Indiana University was in possession of this wonderful Guadagnini violin, and kindly lent it to me until I was finally able to purchase an instrument of my own. I played dozens of concerts on this fine violin.”

The 1750 violin was made by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini, the highly sought- after violin maker from the 18th century. Tarisio sold a similar instrument in June of 2018 for $2.1 million, the current auction world-record for the maker.

 

For more on these and other items and events, go to the website, kbach dot org; be listening every week at this time for another update;  find us on FB and follow us on twitter and Instagram; and remember to check out the Most Wanted Hour with Linda Cassidy, playing your top 100 classical picks.  I’m Randy Kinkel, for “This Week in Classical Music”.