A pilgrimage to Taiwan’s extraordinary instrument collection

The multiple whirlwinds thrashed up by Trump and Co in the almost 100 days since his inauguration make it seem as if the very foundations of life-as-we-know-it may not hold. Hyperbolic cliché, maybe, but if the so-called ‘world order’ appears threatened, it is little wonder attention is being drawn to the possibility that, amid the chaos, China may see a window of opportunity to fulfil its long-standing ambition to seize Taiwan.

Quite apart from the military presence openly hovering in close proximity to the island, there have been tales of Chinese troops rehearsing beach landings and newspaper reporting from within Taiwan has captured a sense of unease and concern that this could be a critical period in the territory’s history. Whether the Trump trade war on China makes an invasion of Taiwan more or less likely remains to be seen.

Should that invasion occur, concern should first and foremost be expressed for the wellbeing of the island’s inhabitants. However, one of the major questions for Taiwanese cultural life is the potential plight of what many regard as the world’s finest collection of historic violins. This is to be found at the Chimei Museum in Tainan, Taiwan’s former capital city, located on the island’s south-western coast. The ultimate worry must be that in the context of bloody conflict the vast collection might suffer material damage. Beyond that, there remains the question of whether the collection would remain available to researchers and performers if the territory were to come under Chinese overlordship. Even if it was, a widespread international boycotting of the collection might well take place.

The Chimei Museum in Tainan houses perhaps the world’s finest collection of historic violins ©Adobe Stock

The purpose-built museum (which houses a wide range of cultural artefacts) stands as a memorial to its founder and funder – the late Wen-Long Shi, who accumulated a colossal fortune from his global business supplying a polymer resin used in plastics. He was also an accomplished amateur violinist, hence the collection. Shi took the view that ‘works of art are not to be kept just for oneself to enjoy, but to be shared with the public.’ As indeed they have been, benefiting many millions of museum visitors down the years.

Within the collection of over 1,750 instruments are to be found examples of the work of a host of legendary luthiers, from Antonio Stradivari, Guarneri del Gesù and Amati to Rogeri, Gagliano and Guadagnini. While every violin embodies stories of legendary performers, for many music-lovers the classic example will be the 1709 Strad once owned by the virtuoso Giovanni Battista Viotti. It was on this instrument that star British violinist Marie Hall gave the first two performances (the violin/piano arrangement, then the orchestral original) of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending in 1920/21. It was Hall’s performance (of unaccompanied Bach, it seems) on this Strad upon meeting Vaughan Williams in Italy in January 1914 which so impressed the composer that he set about writing his famous Romance for Violin and Orchestra. Hall played the instrument for virtually her entire career, spanning more than 50 years, up to her death in 1956.

The Viotti-Hall Stradivarius on which violinist Marie Hall gave the first two performances of Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending (Image courtesy of the Chimei Museum)

Dai-Ting Chung (pictured right), who trained as a violin-maker in the USA and is now curator of the Chimei instruments, needs no encouragement to explain the importance of the string collection. ‘It’s a truly rare thing to encounter the work of such a vast assembly of luthiers in one location – instruments crafted by over 1,100 distinguished makers. Chimei offers musicians the extraordinary opportunity to play numerous examples, including those often considered ‘dream’ instruments.’

A steady stream of researchers into violin history, makers seeking inspiration and those performing musicians conduct pilgrimages to Chimei from across the world. Among them, ironically, a research group from the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music. ‘From 2014 to the present, over two hundred violin makers have visited Chimei,’ Chung reports. ‘Between twenty and thirty professional performers visit each year from around the globe.’

Dai-Ting Chung: ‘It’s a truly rare thing to encounter the work of such a vast assembly of luthiers in one location’ (Image courtesy of the Chimei Museum)

Over the last twenty years, violins have been loaned ‘both to students and professionals on more than 4,500 occasions,’ says Chung. ‘Notable performers who have utilised instruments from the collection include Henning Kraggerud, Gérard Poulet and Richard Lin.’ Other Chimei stringed instruments have benefited the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and the Amati Quartet.

Apart from anything else, though, Chimei instruments have been available on a day-to-day basis for museum visitors – and for viewers online around the world – simply – to marvel at, as objects of veneration. A veritable history of the making of stringed instruments is on view.

(Image courtesy of the Chimei Museum)

The Viotti-Hall violin was crafted by Stradivari in 1709, during his so-called ‘golden period’ of violin-making. Marie Hall purchased the instrument for £1,600 not long after the hugely successful London debut in 1903 which rocketed her to international stardom. Twelve years after Hall’s death the Strad was purchased, for a then world record sum of £22,000, by businessman Jack Morrison – to play at home, he said. In 1988, the instrument again sold for a world record Strad price (£473,000), to a Brazilian amateur player who occasionally loaned it out. Among those who played the violin was the British violinist Thomas Bowes, who has reported being ‘completely taken aback’ by playing his first notes on the instrument. ‘It was such a clear-cut sound, with amazing projection.’ Wen-Long Shi acquired the Viotti-Hall Strad in 1991.

(Image courtesy of the Chimei Museum)

The current Chimei Museum building was opened in 2014. Doubtless its safety features guard against fire, theft and earthquake, but a Chinese takeover of Taiwan would introduce a different level of threat. On account of its Lark Ascending connections, the Viotti-Hall Strad would likely then be seen as a prime musical symbol of the potential danger posed to the Chimei instrument collection. How concerned is Dai-Ting Chung about the prospect of invasion? Perhaps wisely he responds to the question obliquely – or di I detect a touch of defiance? ’These instruments are the shared heritage of humanity. We are not their true proprietors, but rather their custodians.’

Thankfully, the Chimei Museum endorsed what is the sole recording of The Lark Ascending played on the Hall-Viotti Strad, available for listening online, with violinist Yijin Li alongside the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra. Lark Ascending lovers may choose to preserve that recording against future eventualities.