A violin by
Antonio Stradivari

The first name associated with this violin is the German violinist and conductor Max Brode (1850 – 1917) whose early teachers included Heinrich de Ahna, Ferdinand David and Joseph Joachim. He owned more than one Stradivari in his lifetime, one given to him by Countess Fugger in 1874 when he accepted a teaching position in Augsburg, and another that he purchased from a Baron Vietinghoff in Saint Petersburg.

This Stradivari violin takes its name from the Dutch violinist Henri Willem Petri (1856 – 1914) who had also studied with Joachim in Berlin between 1871-1874. He was a regular soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic and Gewandhaus Orchestra for which he became its concertmaster in 1882. While in Leipzig, Petri befriended the composer Ferruccio Busoni who dedicated his second String Quartet to him as well his Violin Concerto, which Petri premiered in 1897 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Busoni conducting.

In 1889 Petri settled in Dresden as concertmaster of its orchestra, now the Dresden Staatskapelle, and in 1903 he became professor and head of the string department at the Conservatory. Petri purchased this Stradivari in 1902 from the Dresden maker and dealer Richard Weichold. Petri died of pneumonia in 1914 and his family sold the violin a couple of years later to the Dutch violinist Adriaan Lieffering.

Lieffering (1884 – 1951) grew up in The Hague where he began his music education at the Conservatory. He continued his studies in Berlin with the concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic, Anton Witek, and later joined the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur Nikisch. He was a fine soloist and became the Orchestra’s deputy concertmaster. By 1923 Lieffering returned to Holland where he held several teaching positions until the end of his life. Lieffering purchased the Stradivari in 1916 for 45,000 marks. After his death the violin’s whereabouts was unknown until it resurfaced at the beginning of the 21 st century. Charles Beare sold the violin to the collector Ephraim P. Engleman in 2005.

In 2016 the “Petri” Stradivari was sold to Dr. Ryuji Ueno who has loaned it to the talented and exciting young players, Mayu Kishima and Stella Chen. It is now on loan to violinist Kevin Zhu.