“May I introduce myself? Today I am known as the “ex Paganini” violin. I was born in 1727 in the workshop of probably the most famous violin maker, Antonio Stradivari in Cremona, a medium-sized town in the Italian region of Lombardy.

I can't remember my first years of life exactly, only that I was created to be the tool of an amateur or professional musician to produce music and sound. My documented life story goes back to Count Cozio di Salabue (1755 -1840). In 1817 I came into the possession of Nicolo Paganini. My stations in life were very varied, my owners included Baron Achille Paganini (Nicolo's son), Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, Comte de Vireille, Ernest Nicolini, George Hart, Henry Such, Frederic Smith, W.E. Hill & Sons, Emile Herrmann and Anne Clark, who bequeathed me and my three siblings to the Corcoran Gallery of Arts in Washington D.C. In 1994, my life path led me to Asia, more precisely to Japan, where I was adopted together with my siblings by the Nippon Music Foundation. This was a very fortunate coincidence and a great opportunity because since then, as a quartet in the hands of internationally outstanding musicians, we have been able to realize our original mission, namely to let our voices resound and bring great joy to listeners all over the world. Today, I am almost 300 years old, but I feel as motivated and in great shape as ever, and I look to the future with confidence and optimism. May my task, which my father Antonio gave me in 1727, live on for an infinitely long time.”

Japan, a country with its own millennia-old cultural history, only increasingly opened to the outside world after the “Edo Period”. In 1868, Edo became the official capital and was renamed Tokyo.

Where did this phenomenon come from shortly afterwards, that the Japanese are so particularly interested in a European music that is foreign to them?

Let me quote an excerpt from an article by Joji Hattori* as an attempt at an explanation: “Before I answer this question, one could also philosophize about whether the art of Bach, Mozart or Beethoven is at all German-Austrian, European-Western, and thus foreign to the Japanese, or whether it is great and so important for all of humanity that the geopolitical claim to it is extinguished. Then it would be a matter of course for the Japanese to take a close look at it, and the right question would be why there are still countries in the world that are not interested in Mozart.”

*Radio Klassik Stephansdom, spring 2019

Interest in European music and the associated instruments for interpreting it has developed rapidly in Asia.

Top-class European orchestras and soloists have given concerts in Japan; Japanese and other Asian musicians have studied in Europe and have grown up to become outstanding performers themselves.

As a result, musical instruments of European origin have logically found their way to the Asian region. And yet it was not so long ago, at the beginning of the 20th century, around 170 years after the death of the world-famous Italian violin maker from Cremona, Antonio Stradivari (* c. 1644 - 1737), that a violin by this master is said to have come into Japanese possession for the first time.

Since then, many first-class string instruments have found their way to Asia and in 1974 an institution was created in Tokyo that is unique in the world: the “Nippon Music Foundation”.

The idea of building up a collection, originally only with the instruments of the probably most famous Cremonese violin maker Antonio Stradivari, was realized. In the meantime, two instruments by the no less famous contemporary Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù have also been added, and the collection now comprises a total of 17 violins, 1 viola and 3 cellos.

However, the aim of the Foundation was and is not to assemble an art collection to be exhibited in the museum. No, these instruments are to be used for their actual purpose, namely, to be played by young, very talented musicians. A string instrument in this quality category is, on the one hand, a work of art of great financial value, but on the other hand it is a tool for producing sound. This fact distinguishes these high-quality objects significantly from other works of art and valuable antiques, be they paintings, sculptures, etc.

Borrowers are thus offered the unique opportunity to play an instrument of the highest quality category for a limited period. In other words, the opportunity to further develop their already successful professional career on an old Italian masterpiece and to experience new, previously unknown characteristics and qualities.

It is thanks to the generosity of the Foundation that they can realize this in practice at all. It not only provides the instrument free of charge, but also covers all associated costs, such as inspection, maintenance and insurance costs.

The opportunity to use such an instrument requires the musician to use it with the utmost care, i.e. to treat such an object with great respect and responsibility.

Today, the Foundation only owns instruments with famous names, backed up by historical documentation. In other words, top-class examples. A detailed list can be found on the Foundation’s website.

For me personally, the year in which the Foundation was established, 1974, has a special significance, as this was the year in which I opened my own atelier in Basel (Switzerland) as a third-generation violin maker.

Some of the instruments that are now in the Foundation have been known to me for decades. The violins “Engleman”, “Samazeuilh”, “Muntz”, “Lady Blunt” (sold 2011, the Nippon Music Foundation donated all proceeds to The Nippon Foundation’s Northeastern Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief Fund to support their relief efforts) and the cello “Feuermann” to name just a few here, because these were presented as representative exhibits at the exhibition in Cremona in 1987 to mark the 250th anniversary of the great master's death. I was able to participate in this event as a member of the “Honorary Committee”.

My dear colleague Andrew Hill (descendant of the world-famous W.E. Hill & Sons company from London), with whom I have been friends for decades, was significantly involved in the development and expansion of the Foundation from the very beginning as the official advisor with his great expertise and commitment.

I have the privilege of being appointed as his successor by the Nippon Music Foundation in 2024. This trust means that I have an obligation to continue to work in the best interests of all those involved in the future; for the Foundation, the borrowers and, finally, for the great instruments!


[PROFILE]
Mr. Roland Baumgartner is a third-generation violin maker who opened his own workshop in Basel in 1974.

Over the past decades, his company has specialised in the repair, restoration and trade of stringed instruments and their bows, and he is internationally renowned as an expert on stringed instruments. He is the author and co-author of various specialist publications and has been invited as a speaker at specialist conferences and as a jury member at many international violin making competitions. As an Honorary Member of the ‘Entente International des Maîtres Luthiers et Archetiers d'Art (EILA)’ - President from 1991 to 1993 - and the ‘Violin Society of America’, he is in regular contact with professional colleagues from all over the world, an important prerequisite for continuous professional development and the exchange of expertise.

In 2024, he was appointed official instrument advisor to the Nippon Music Foundation (NMF) in Tokyo, succeeding Andrew Hill, W.E. Hill, London.
https://www.geigenbau-baumgartner.ch/en/


Written in January 2025