The Lady Tennant Stradivarius made headlines in 2005 by selling for a record 2.03 million dollars.  The violin was made by Stradivari in 1699 just before his golden period and is considered one of the great Stradivari violins.  Of course there are a number of old famous violin makers who made instruments that are treasured by their owners, but Stradivarius violins bear a mystique and fame that had transcended the sometimes exclusive communities of musicians and classical music connoisseurs to an almost mystical position in our popular culture.

These violins come to us through the centuries with stories and history as well as their legendary physical and aural esthetic.  The Lady Tennant got its name when amateur violinist owner Marguerite Miles Tennant received the violin as a gift from her husband Sir Charles Tennant, a wealthy Scottish Industrialist.    Before 1900, the violin was known to be owned and played by Charles Phillipe Lafont a french violinist and composer (1781-1839).

Charles Phillipe Lafont was trained in the Viotti school and was a chamber violinist to Czar Alexander I of Russia and a first violinist of the royal chamber musicians  of Louis XVIII of France.  In 1816 he lost in violin contest to Paganini.

After Lafont, the Lady Tennant violin was owned by W.E. Hill & Sons and subsuquently purchased by Charles Tennant.  After Lady Tennant, the violin was owned by collectors and an anonymous owner who sold it at Christie’s Auction House for the record 2.03 million.

The violin is now owned anonymously but has been loaned through the Stradivari Society to  Yang Liu.  It is good to know that this Strad at least will at least for now be spared the fate of sitting soundless in a collection.

Yang Liu a first prize winner at the China 5th National Violin Competition and a prize winner of the twelfth International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition is certainly  lucky, but worthy to play on this beautiful historical work of art.

LIsten to recordings of Lang Liu playing here