Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015 • Pitcairn reception delights symphony patrons

Publisher’s note: this story originally appeared in the Feb. 24, 2015 edition of the Lassen County Times.

Did you know Elizabeth Pitcairn’s mysterious and famous Red Mendelssohn Stradivarius violin constructed by the master builder in a little shop in Italy in 1720, yes, the one that vanished from history for about 200 years and inspired an Oscar-nominated movie, has a name?

“Meet Felix,” Pitcairn said of her unique instrument, “named for Felix Mendelssohn whose descendants owned Felix in the early 1900s … People often ask me if I think of my violin as a male or female entity. I really think of him as male but with the soul of a woman … I need a man in my life, you know.”

Chuckles from the audience.

That was only one of the secrets and stories Pitcairn revealed during a reception to benefit the Susanville Symphony Society held at Dr. Ray White’s Janesville home Wednesday, Feb. 18 in preparation for last weekend’s concerts at the Susanville Assembly of God Church.

Pitcairn and her accompanist, Donna Axton, (the director of music studies at Sierra Nevada College, director of the SNC Concert Choir, a Toccata performer and the music minister at St. Patrick’s Church), entertained a crowd of about 80 symphony supporters for about 90 minutes as patrons munched delicious homemade gourmet hors-d’oeuvres and sipped a selection of fine wines from White’s wine cellar.

Ah, what an instrument. In Pitcairn’s hands Felix revealed the sounds of a wide variety of emotions as his master evoked the seasons, the joy of spring, wind and rain, the musky scent of fall and the noisy clatter of dancing feet. The sound of that rare old violin rose to a crescendo, fell to a whisper, singing and sighing with a tone that can only come from a world-class instrument, leaving the audience hanging on to every note, oohing and ahhing out loud at the end of each and every number.

Axton proved to be the second virtuoso in the room, her keyboard going from harpsichord to pipe organ and everything in between, perfectly complementing Pitcairn’s performance and never getting in the star’s way.

Midway through her evening, which included a performance of an unpublished arrangement of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” a preview of a piece she played last week with the Susanville Symphony Orchestra and even a tune she first heard played by a busker at a train station, the virtuoso answered questions from the audience and showed off her delightful and witty sense of humor.

While modifications to a musical instrument can sometimes reduce its value, Pitcairn said her violin has been changed and upgraded many times over the last 300 years.

The actual shell, or body, of the instrument is completely original, and it occasionally receives an overcoat that protects and preserves the original 18th century finish. She said she doesn’t touch the body of the violin at all, “so if anybody gets the bright idea to ask if they can touch the violin, the answer is … “

In unison Pitcairn and the audience all said, “No.”

Hearty laughter from the audience.

“I will let people touch it here, this is the chin guard, and it’s aftermarket,” she said. “Nothing you see on this is original, except for the body and the scroll. In Strad’s day the fingerboard was shorter, the strings were made out of sheep gut, not steel with a synthetic core. My tailpiece is rosewood. My other boxwood one exploded. The bridge is a different shape and size then in Stradivari’s day. And also the (tuning) pegs are different … They have gears in them, so they never stick or slip. I could leave this under my bed for year and come back and it’d be hardly out of tune.”

Pitcairn said she’s been researching the history of the instrument since she received it as a present from her grandfather her senior year in high school (wisely, her mother wouldn’t let her take the valuable and rare instrument to her college freshman dorm room in Los Angeles), and she believes it was played in the 1870s as part of a violinist’s North American concert tour.

“Recently somebody sent me some newspaper clippings about Joseph Joachim lending his red Stradivarius (to a touring musician) … That was this violin. So, this violin was owned by Joachim, but before that, we don’t know … I think Felix truly enjoys the international scene. He likes being on stage. He’s built for the largest of concert halls. That’s where you hear the difference. That’s where those millions start to count.”

“Sounds pretty nice right here to me,” an audience member responded.

Everyone agreed.

After Pitcairn said one of her bucket list dreams is to visit Vienna, Austria where her friends own a string manufacturing company, she asked, “How many of you have been to Vienna?”

Nearly everyone in the audience raised their hand.

“Everyone,” Pitcairn said. “Oh, good.”

More laughter.

“The first time I went to Vienna I was at 30,000 feet in a B-17,” one audience member said. “The next time, after the war, we went to the beautiful Vienna opera house.”

When asked about the bow she uses when she plays her irreplaceable violin, she said, “Bows are very valuable, and they’re a great investment. They’re getting more valuable all the time. In fact, I think bows are probably appreciating faster than instruments. Sadly, bows are more fragile. Sometimes they snap for no reason, sometimes someone drops one or shuts it in a door. Terrible things can happen to a bow. I love this bow, but it’s a very inexpensive one — it’s only worth $12,000.”

As the audience laughed someone blurted out, “Is that on eBay?” More laughter.

“I’ve been playing a lot on this bow lately because I just came back from Bulgaria where I was recording a CD, and before I went to Europe, I got a certificate that there’s nothing endangered on this bow,” Pitcairn said. “I didn’t take my bow that’s got ivory on the tip and has endangered lizard and whalebone.”

For those who don’t know, the United States government regulates the importation of items made from endangered materials. In 2012 the Gibson guitar company paid more than $500,000 to settle a case that it had imported exotic wood, including ebony, to be used in its guitars.

Now I wouldn’t profess to be knowledgeable regarding bowing techniques, but Pitcairn’s bow ever so gently stroked the strings at times along with an extremely delicate vibrato from her left hand. At other times she attacked the strings with long, hard aggressive pulls and pushes and a vibrato that probably could be more accurately described as a tremolo.

She played double-stops and even bounced and danced the bow on and off the strings at times. Her bow work could have been the whole show in itself if it weren’t for the incredible sound coming from that magnificent 300-year-old instrument.

Pitcairn also shared one of her food foibles. She said she decided to adopt a vegan diet during the holidays as a body cleanse, and she visited a violin shop that was next door to the best vegan restaurant in Los Angeles.

“I went in there to get some takeout, and I was wearing my UGGs, my leather belt and I had this violin case with ivory, leather and whalebone,” she said. “I was an environmental disaster.”

More laughter.

While Pitcairn can rightly be considered one of classical music’s top artists, Axton, Pitcairn’s accompanist, has close ties to rock, country and pop music royalty herself. She was married to celebrated songwriter Hoyt Axton, and before their divorce she played in his band on the road for 15 years and on his records as well.

Remember Axton’s mother, Mae Boren Axton, co-wrote “Heartbreak Hotel,” one of Elvis Presley’s first big hits.

Hoyt Axton, impressed by his mother’s feat when he was a young child, grew up to make a name for himself as a songwriter, penning well-known hits such as “Joy to the World,” “Greenback Dollar,” “The Pusher,” “Never Been to Spain,” “No No Song,” “Della and the Dealer” and “Geronimo’s Cadillac.” He died in 1999.