There is a certain paradox to the greatest violins. No matter how uniform the testimony of their players and audiences, a skeptic might question their supremacy. After all, these instruments have been played, for centuries now, by the most gifted violinists in the world — the ones who can coax, from any instrument, the most varied colors and tones. 

It is reasonable to wonder whether the renown of the great luthiers, above all Antonio Stradivari and Giuseppe Guarneri “del Gesù,” is due as much to those violinists’ talents as to the qualities of the instruments themselves. Perhaps for that reason, famous violins are often known in part by their former owners’ names — the Szigeti Strad and the Kochanski Guarneri, to name just two.