Historic Violin Associated with Mozart Features in Potomac Fundraising Recital
POTOMAC, Maryland. A historic violin associated with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart featured in the National Chamber Orchestra’s September 27 fundraising recital at the estate of Dr. Gregory and JaLynn Prince, where violinist Joshua Brown and pianist Yejin Lee performed music by Mozart, Debussy and Eugène Ysaÿe to support the orchestra.
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The recital centered on Mozart’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major, K. 526. The orchestra identified the instrument as a Jacob Stainer violin dating from about 1670 and said Prince Lobkowicz gave it to Mozart around 1787 following the success of The Marriage of Figaro.
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The instrument reached the United States from Paris in late August with Julien Benichou, the orchestra’s general and artistic director. Before the recital, Benichou discussed the loan with Rose Hong and Dr. Samuel Hancock on Global Discover TV, describing both the journey and his plans to make the violin available for performances in the Washington area.
“I flew with it from Paris in late August, and I have to say it was quite an emotional moment,” Benichou said.
According to the account presented in the interview, Paris-based collector Xavier Guerland arranged the loan. Benichou’s intention was to let audiences hear the violin during the orchestra’s season, giving musicians access to an instrument whose reported history spans several generations of European performers.
Stainer worked in Absam, in present-day Austria. The historical account accompanying the violin dates it to approximately 1670–1675 and describes the esteem in which his instruments were held by eighteenth-century musicians. The violin bears the name “WRANITZKI” on its back, an inscription associated in that account with violinist and composer Anton Wranitzky.
The orchestra states that Wranitzky, who served the Lobkowicz court, owned the instrument after Mozart. This connection was a subject of the television interview, which also included Staff Sgt. Kelly Cho, a violinist with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Chamber Orchestra.
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Cho discussed Wranitzky’s relationships within the musical circles of Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven and played the violin during the interview. Her contribution gave viewers an opportunity to hear the instrument as Benichou explained the history attached to it.
At the Potomac recital, Brown and Lee’s performance of K. 526 placed the violin alongside the piano in a work that gives both musicians substantial roles. Their musical exchange supplied a direct way for listeners to engage with the Mozart connection described by the orchestra.
The repertoire also included Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in G Minor and Ysaÿe’s Sonata for Solo Violin, Op. 27, No. 3, “Ballade.” These works extended the recital into a different period of violin writing, with the Ysaÿe piece placing the solo player at the center of the performance.
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The Princes’ estate provided a setting suited to chamber music and fundraising. Their home has served as a venue for concerts, exhibitions and other arts events, making the recital part of an established interest in supporting performers and cultural institutions.
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For the National Chamber Orchestra, the loan creates opportunities for further performances with the Stainer instrument. For Hong and Hancock, the television conversation offered a way to examine the people behind its journey, from a collector in Paris to musicians and listeners in the Washington area.
The orchestra plans to use the violin again during its season, extending the loan beyond the Potomac recital.
Information about the National Chamber Orchestra and its concerts is available at www.ncomusic.org.
