Aug. 25, 2003

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COLLEGE STATION - Call it a reality concert.

There's a highfalutin $4 million 1720 Rochester Stradivarius violin that some would lift their noses flutter their eyes and tell you can not be beat.

Then there's a infant instrument. Crafted in six weeks this year, its maker will emphatically pronounce with piercing eyes, the newbie violin will play fairly well against the master.

You decide. Age-old art and modern science will square off here at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 15 at the Bush Library Auditorium in a free, open-to-the public comparison concert that also will mark the retirement of Texas A&M University biochemist and violin researcher Dr. Joseph Nagyvary.

His critics may sigh in relief over the latter, but the researcher quickly reveals plans to continue to make his Nagyvarius violins well into retirement.

"Antonio Stradivari was at his best in his 70s and 80s," Hungarian-born Nagyvary said. "I'm 69, so perhaps I'm entering the same stage of life."

But first, the supreme test in a challenge to Nagyvary from violin dealers and a German documentary crew producing a film about the famed 18th century violin maker Antonio Stradivari.

"What it comes down to is, can a brand-new violin completed in July with less than 100 playing hours stand up to The Rochester Stradivarius made in 1720 and with more than 30,000 playing hours in the hands of great artists," Nagyvary said. "I have accepted the formal challenge."

Concert-goers will get to decide which is the Stradivarius while 10 selections are played behind a screen on stage. The dueling violins will be played by teenaged performer Dalibor Karvay from Vienna, Austria, who has played the Stradivarius but will have one day to get accustomed to the new violin.

At the concert's intermission, the true Stradivarius will be revealed and a tally made to determine how many picked the violins correctly. After a brief discussion, selections of Nagyvary's choosing will be played by Regina Buonavenura from Manilla, The Philippines, in honor of Nagyvary's retirement. Nagyvary enlisted Bounavenura, who owns a violin made by him, to play his own 10-year-old violin.

The scientist said he will consider the comparison concert a success if as many as 40 percent pick his violin as the Stradivarius.

Nagyvary, who in the 1980s began using his knowledge of biochemistry to study the intricacies of the famous violins made in the 18th century by Antonio Stradivari, is not one to duck a challenge. Under the sponsorship of the American Chemical Society two years ago, one of his violins was pitted against an average Stradivarius (some 700 still exist) for a comparison test. Critics at that time could not tell the violins apart, Nagyvary said, though some reported they could detect a slight difference. A CD recording of that event is available for $14 by calling 800-523-5184, Nagyvary said.

This comparison concert will be different for several reasons: the ultimate of Stradivari violins - the $4 million Rochester - will go up for the test; the audience will get to decide which sounds better; and, a film crew will get footage for an upcoming film about Antonio Stradivari that will be broadcast around the world.

To prepare for the event, Nagyvary whipped out a new violin in a record six weeks, allowing that 300-year-old maple from the Himalayan mountains in China had been prepared some six months ago. With the violin fully assembled in mid-July, Nagyvary began vibrating the violin - mostly mechanically - to condition it for playing. A violin has to be played in tune -- every position and every note with the scales and ambitious music -- to be balanced, Nagyvary explained.

"I'm even attempting to fake the age so that even if the screen were removed, the audience would not be able to tell the two violins apart," Nagyvary said.

The whole even is a bit of a scientific experiment that the public will take part in, he said.

Violin dealers surely disagree with Nagyvary's well-published assessment that Stradivari was hardly different from other violin makers of his day.

"Stradivary was a good salesman. He sold to kings and those instruments were well kept. His neighbors made good violins too, but they sold to musicians and were used up," Nagyvary said. "But everyone in Cremona made good violins because they used the same process of smoking or boiling the wood to kill wood worm.

"The violin trade doesn't like a scientist figuring out something simple like that," the biochemist said. "I think the comparison test is worthwhile. I wouldn't take a chance to stick my neck out otherwise."

Nagyvary admits that there may be some difference between the old Stradivarius and his new violin, "but not enough difference worth $4 million."

More information about Nagyvary's violin research is at http://www.nagyvaryviolins.com