There are few things humans like more than a good mystery — other than solving one, of course.
WATCH: Elizabeth Pitcairn perform Cantabile with TOCCATA
When Elizabeth Pitcairn’s grandfather put forth a $1.6-million secret bid at a 1990 Christie’s auction to win ownership of the legendary Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin, she was just shy of her 17th birthday.
“This violin is very much like a fine wine. It has this bouquet of color sensations and sounds. Something happens in the middle of the piece and I’m just like, ‘Wow.’ I get prickles. You have to wonder what you have in your hands and who’s played it.”
– Elizabeth Pitcairn
In 1720, Antonio Stradivari crafted the historic instrument at his small shop in Cremona, Italy. It is said to be from the golden period of Stradivari’s work, which includes some of the most acoustically perfect creations ever achieved by man.
For nearly two centuries, the whereabouts of the violin were unknown. Those years were beautifully reimagined in the fictional 1998 Canadian film “The Red Violin.”
Eventually the instrument found its way into the hands of Hungarian violinist and composer Joseph Joachim, who was a close collaborator of Johannes Brahms.
It surfaced again in 1930s Berlin when bought by descendants of composer Felix Mendelssohn. The violin was still in impeccable condition by the time it was won at auction by the Pitcairns on Thanksgiving Day.
“It was the most amazing violin I’d ever played,” says Pitcairn. “I immediately fell in love with it.”
Heiress to the PPG Industries fortune of a Scottish industrial family from Pittsburg, Pitcairn has studied violin since she was age 3.
“My great-grandfather started the company and my grandfather was an art collector and philanthropist,” she says. “We were one of the original Scottish immigrant families to come over around the same time as the Rockefellers and the Carnegies. PPG at one time manufactured 70 percent of plate glass in America.”
Her distant relatives also had a hand in naming the South Pacific’s Pitcairn Islands of “Mutiny on the Bounty” fame.
While she continued her musical education at University of Southern California, Pitcairn kept the violin a secret until her public concerts with the mysteriously euphonious instrument began to garner attention.
“Ever since then it’s been pretty much a whirlwind,” she says. “[The red violin] attracts a lot of people into concerts halls that wouldn’t normally go there. And it helps to raise money for special causes and my music camp, Luzerne Music Center, in upstate New York.”
The quality of a Stradivarius is defined by three things: power of projection, ease of execution and beauty of sound.
“It’s a particular type of instrument that asks you to play a certain way,” says Pitcairn. “So, the better your technique, the more you get out the instrument.”
Although they been together now for 28 years, she doesn’t consider herself the owner of the violin, but more of a passing companion.
“This violin is very much like a fine wine,” she says. “It has this bouquet of color sensations and sounds. Something happens in the middle of the piece and I’m just like, ‘Wow.’ I get prickles. You have to wonder what you have in your hands and who’s played it.”
Pitcairn returns to Tahoe to join TOCCATA’s 13th Winter MusicFest from Feb. 17 to 25.
“I love what James does,” says Pitcairn of TOCCATA conductor James Rawie. “He’s an entrepreneur and self-starter. He really cares about his musicians and his singers. Once I went up there and played, I continued to visit twice a year. This community is really special for me. It’s like my second family at this point. I feel so appreciative for everyone and the audience makes me want to keep coming back.”
Pitcairn will be performing Concerto No. 4 in D Major by Mozart and Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28 by Camille Saint-Saëns.
Feb. 17 | 3:30 p.m.
Cornerstone Church | Incline Village, Nev.
Feb. 18 | 3:30 p.m.
St. Gall Catholic Church | Gardnerville, Nev.
Feb. 23 | 7 p.m.
St. Theresa Catholic Church | South Lake Tahoe
Feb. 25 | 3:30 p.m.
St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church | Reno, Nev.
For more information and tickets, call (775) 515-7077 or visit toccatatahoe.com. Pitcairn is currently accepting scholarship applications for Luzerne Music Center summer youth programs at luzernemusic.org.
