Antonio Stradivari
The auction house Sotheby’s will sell the Joachim-Ma Stradivarius on 7 February. Crafted in 1714 by the Antonio Stradivari, the Joachim-Ma violin was produced at the height of Stradivari’s Golden Period.
The Joachim-Ma is named for two of its distinguished former owners: the Hungarian virtuoso Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), and the celebrated Chinese violinist and pedagogue Si-Hon Ma (1925-2009). Joachim purchased this instrument at the age of 18, for what was reportedly the highest price ever paid for a violin at that time, and it was his principal instrument throughout his storied career. Joachim was a close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, and he almost certainly performed on this very instrument during the 1879 premiere of Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77.
