Why be John Malkovich, when you can be Beth Nelson?*

Although, once you know I left Turin at 6 this morning got back nary 30 minutes ago, "Being Beth Nelson" looks a bit less attractive...

It was quite a day, none the less. Trevor is at a conference in Amsterdam -- so, left to my own devices, what do I do? A pilgrimage to Cremona, of course! Now, for those of you who didn't read your Grout (and I could hardly blame you), Cremona is kind of like mecca for string players. The Guarneri and Amati families, as well as Antonio Stradivarius made an orchestra's-worth of violins, violas, and cellos there; in present day, their spirit lives on in 120 luthiers scattered around town. (Actual Strads & Guarneris are nowhere to be seen -- they're "out" with Yo-Yo Ma & Lynn Harrell). Instead, when you go visit these guys and play their instruments, they hand each one to you with a pedigree of exactly which Guarneri or Stradivarius that particular instrument was fashioned after.

All in all, I got to play 10 different cellos today, ranging in price from 9,000 to 31,000 Euro. Quite a range, huh? What makes it even more bizarre is how many times my instrument preferences have not correlated with the higher price tags, both today and in the past. That 31,000 one -- it was okayyy -- but the other one (Spanish, mind you) had a lot more substance. I was lucky to have a few other musicians around to give input as well as the luthiers. They kept telling me it sounded like an organ. I was actually a little fuzzy on whether they thought I *should sound like an organ, or should not, but it was always said with such Italian
entusiasmo, so it must be good! :-)

Because I'm a dork, I was heading for the Guarneri del Gesu cafe on my lunch break, which meant walking through the daily market at the Piazza (di Giuseppe Verdi, of course!) And what should I discover, but the requisite Stradivarius statue -- it seems Stradivarius didn't just have an ear for music, but maybe an eye for fashion as well? Those khaki pants were pretty nice...


*That Beth and her pop culture references! Well, if you don't get that one, all I can tell you is go to Wikipedia and look up "Being John Malkovich. I already spent today's energy playing cellos. :-P