Thomas Urquhart, a label with more than meets the eye…
The years surrounding the English Civil War, Interregnum and the Restoration of King Charles II are crucial in the development of English musical taste. Queen Henrietta Maria (wife of King Charles I) returned to France in 1646 and established a royalist-court-in-exile based around the Louvre in Paris. Prince Charles, her son followed her into exile […]
Record Prices of the Past
When the Lady Blunt Stradivari sold by Tarisio in 2011 broke all auction records, Benjamin Hebbert looked back on the market shattering prices of the past for the August 2011 issue of The Strad Magazine. Some years on and we’ve seen further extravagant prices asked for and paid for the world’s finest instruments. The Vieuxtemps […]
Charles François Langonet, W.E. Hill & Sons and the Tuscan Strad.
Towards the end of the nineteenth-century the 1690 Tuscan Stradivari made for Cosimo III de Medici was the most famous violin in the world. Now an all but forgotten instrument, Benjamin Hebbert looks at it’s importance and some of the extraordinary copies made of it in by C.F. Langonet in the workshop of W.E. Hill & Sons.
A violin for Sherlock Holmes..?
The world’s most famous detective was probably fiction’s most famous violinist, but a further look at the influences behind these timeless novels places the young George Wulme Hudson closer than expected to the influences of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes aficionados have long speculated on the link between Conan-Doyle as a medical student in […]
More on the Lady Blunt…
Antonio Stradivari’s Lady Blunt was made in 1721 making it just about the last violin that he made within his ‘golden period’. After the 1716 Messiah it is reckoned to be the finest Stradivari violin in existence, and the finest example outright in private hands. Here it is being graced by Yehudi Menuhin at Sotheby’s in 1971 […]
Designing For Sound: The Bartlett School of Architecture
As part of my educational commitment, I’m delighted to be an invited speaker to the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, on 12 February 2015. This is part of an inaugural set of lectures for the designing for sound program, sponsored by Arup Acoustic Consulting and Flanagan Lawrence Ltd. My lecture will be […]
National Science and Engineering Week, Ashmolean Museum 2014
Benjamin Hebbert was back at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford on 22 March 2014. With National Science and Engineering Week inspiring lectures in museum’s and galleries throughout the country, this provided the challenge of talking to completely different audiences with different agendas in mind. The violin provides countless scientific angles to talk about, ranging from […]
Lecturing at the Stradivari Exhibition: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford 2013
The Ashmolean Museum played host to one of the most important exhibitions of Stradivari’s work of modern times from 13 June to 11 August 2013. I was delighted to be invited as a speaker in the accompanying lecture series, an opportunity to give a talk on the Medici commission of 1690, the musical influences of […]
Caged Messiah 2013
The 1716 “Messiah” might not have been Stradivari’s greatest work, but made at the height of his powers and preserved for almost three centuries in almost perfect condition, it is arguably the greatest testament to this legendary craftsman. For more than half of its life, debates have raged between those who want to hear it […]
Scrapheap Orchestra 2011
Some life experiences are unforgettable, especially those that your colleagues and clients will never let you forget. One of these was a lecture I gave at the British Violin Maker’s Conference at Dartington the morning after the workshop staff from Guivier’s had made sure I had far, far too much to drink. The other (at […]
