I can add a little tangential flavor to that, as I was involved in the sale of his old violin. These rare violins always come with papers that trace their history, or are involved in their history. The Strad he used to play, the "Tom Taylor", had an interesting story associated with it. Seems it was upstairs in a house where a woman was giving a vocal recital when the house caught fire. The owner of the Strad raced through the panic-stricken guests and ignored the soloist to save the violin (no word on the vocalist's fate in the papers I saw).
By the way, as audiophiles, we can relate to this--Bell sold his old Strad to "upgrade" to the Strad he has now. His mother was handling the sale, and remarked to me that she couldn't understand why he was doing the sale, the violin he had was perfectly fine and sounded great (have we heard that from our significant others when we upgraded our rigs?). Seems, though, that his new Strad has a bit more power and volume for playing in larger concert halls, where his old Strad was more suited to chamber music and smaller venues, so the upgrade did make sense from a touring concert violinist's point of view.
By the way, Newbee, couldn't agree with you more about Chung's Bruch, her versions are among my favorites.
By the way, as audiophiles, we can relate to this--Bell sold his old Strad to "upgrade" to the Strad he has now. His mother was handling the sale, and remarked to me that she couldn't understand why he was doing the sale, the violin he had was perfectly fine and sounded great (have we heard that from our significant others when we upgraded our rigs?). Seems, though, that his new Strad has a bit more power and volume for playing in larger concert halls, where his old Strad was more suited to chamber music and smaller venues, so the upgrade did make sense from a touring concert violinist's point of view.
By the way, Newbee, couldn't agree with you more about Chung's Bruch, her versions are among my favorites.