“Noah Bendix-Balgley, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s concertmaster, got a new violin this summer. It’s new only to him, though,” writes Elizabeth Bloom in Friday’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pennsylvania). “The violin was crafted by Carlo Bergonzi in 1732 in Cremona, Italy…. He bought the instrument with the help of the PSO, and although the specific details of the purchase are unclear, the transaction likely exceeded $1 million, according to violin experts.… Bergonzi made roughly 50 instruments, compared with Stradivari’s 1,000-plus…. To pay for it, the PSO helped Mr. Bendix-Balgley secure a loan.… Such assistance is fairly typical among top-tier professional orchestras, including those in Cleveland, Dallas, New York City, Philadelphia and San Francisco, Mr. Bendix-Balgley said, and it’s even more common in Europe. ‘It’s not like going out to get a new bike,’ he said, describing the setup as ‘basically, just like a mortgage.’ For the PSO, providing the concertmaster access to top instruments benefits the ensemble’s sound.” According to Bendix-Balgley, “The top E string is ‘very clear and sweet, projects very well’; the middle A and D strings have ‘a real warmth, but also a breadth of sound’; the bottom G is dark and ‘husky,’ allowing him to ‘dig into it.’ … It sounds like a match made in heaven.”
Posted October 28, 2013
