卡爾・貝克父子 與 名琴史特拉底瓦里
Aug 05. 1971
Photo: In a setting that has a touch of an old Dutch painting, Carl F. Becker lovingly repairs a fine violin. (Sun-Times Photo by Jack Lenahan)
照片：卡爾．F.貝克 (Carl F. Becker) 處身一個帶有古老荷蘭繪畫風格的環境中，親切地修理著一把精緻的小提琴。 （Jack Lenahan 拍攝的《太陽時報》）
CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, Thurs., Aug. 5, 1971
By Richard Foster
芝加哥太陽時報，星期四，1971 年 8 月 5 日
Richard Foster報導
In February, 1970, a jet touched down at O'Hare Airport from the West Coast. One of the passengers was Sam Bloomfield, a retired aeronautical engineer and music lover.
Beside him on a seat (not in the baggage compartment) was a 250-year-old Stradivarius violin that almost 1½ years later, on June 3. 1971, was sold by Bloomfield at an auction in Sotheby’s in London for a record $201.600.
一架噴氣式飛機從西海岸降落在奧黑爾機場。其中一名乘客是 Sam Bloomfield，他是一位退休的航空工程師和音樂愛好者。
在他旁邊的座位上（不在行李艙內）放著一把有 250 年歷史的史特拉迪瓦里（Stradivarius）小提琴，就在一年半後，也就是 1971 年 6 月 3 日，Bloomfield在倫敦蘇富比拍賣會上以創紀錄的 201.600 美元的價格售出它。
CITYSCAPE
城市景觀
Waiting at the terminal for the plane that day in February were Carl F. Becker and his father, Carl G. Becker, the father-son team regarded as among the finest violin makers and repairmen in the world.
The two have made repairs for such string players as Jascha Heifetz, Mischa Elman, Nathan Milstein, Isaac Stern and Gregor Piatigorsky.
二月的那一天，卡爾・F・貝克(Carl F. Becker) 和他的父親 (Carl G. Becker) 在航站樓等候飛機，這對父子被認為是世界上最優秀的小提琴製作家和修理師之一。
兩人曾為海飛茲(Heifetz)、艾爾曼(Mischa Elman)、米爾斯坦(Nathan Milstein,)、史坦(Isaac Stern)、皮亞第高斯基(Gregor Piatigorsky) 等知名絃樂獨奏家做過修復服務。
A little loose glue
輕微脫膠
We talked for about an hour at the airport about the violin," the younger Becker recalled recently. "There wasn't anything major wrong with the instrument. The arching had altered and some of the glue bad come loose.
"Well, as I said. we discussed it and then he got up and got on another plane and went. right back to Palm Springs and left his violin with us."
Back home on the North Side, father and son began the first phase of their repair work, Scrutiny.
“We examined that fiddle for several weeks,” recalled Carl F. Becker. 51. "We just thought about it and talked things over, dis cussed what we had to do.
「我們在機場就小提琴談了大約一個小時，」年輕的小貝克最近回憶道。「這件樂器沒有任何重大問題。拱型已經改變，一些合膠鬆動了。」
「好吧，就像我說的。我們討論過，然後他起身登上另一架飛機去了。馬上回到棕櫚泉，把他的小提琴留在了我們這裡。」回到芝加哥北區的家中，父子倆開始了維修工作的第一階段：「檢查」。
「我們檢查了那把小提琴幾個星期，」卡爾・F・貝克回憶道。 「我們只是想了想，討論了事情，討論了我們必須做的事情。」
Good shape, but 100 hours
狀況不錯，仍花上100小時
“I suppose we put 100 hours of work into that Instrument. But when you say that, people are likely to think it was in bad shape und needed a lot of work. That wasn't the case at all.”
"It's just that working with that violin is a very delicate business. It's one of the best-preserved Strads in existence. A really remarkable instrument. And so what you do with it is very critical, and you can't hurry it."
The work done (Becker won't say how much the bill was), Becker got on a plane and returned the Violin to Bloomfield. Then It was sold. Becker says he doesn't know why "I can only speculate," he said. "Maybe he Just felt that he wanted to know what would happen to it. Sometimes a man will die, you know, and not know what his wife will do with an Instrument like that, whether she'll be careful of disposing of it properly. But whether that happened in this case, I don't know."
「我想我們在該樂器上投入了 100 小時的工作。但是當你這麼說時，人們可能會認為它狀況不佳，需要大量工作。但根本不是這樣。」
「為那把小提琴工作是一件非常微妙的事情。它是現存保存最完好的史特拉底瓦里提琴之一，一把非常了不起的樂器。所以你用它做的事情非常關鍵，你不能操之過急。」
工作完成後（貝克不願透露賬單金額），貝克上飛機，將小提琴送回Bloomfield。之後它被賣掉了。貝克說他不知道為什麼 「我只能推測」，他說。 「也許他只是很想知道它會發生什麼。有時一個人會死，你知道，但不知道他的妻子會用這樣的樂器做什麼，她是否會小心地妥善處理它. 但我不知道這種情況是否發生在這種情況下。」
Found in a Spanish attic
發現於西班牙閣樓
The instrument was made by the famed Violin maker Antonio Stradivari in 1721. In 1860, the instrument was discovered in an attic in Spain by one J. B. Vuillaume, who restored it.
In spite of the fact that it had been lying, forgotten, in that attic for about 100 years, Vulllaume reported in a letter, the violin was in remarkably good condition.
By 1864, it had found its way to England, where it was bought for 260 pounds by Lady Anne Blunt. She kept it for 31 years, and thereafter the instrument has been called the Lady Blunt Stradivarius.
During his career, Stradivari mad about 1,100 violin, violas, cellos, guitars and basses. About 600 of these instruments survive, most of them violins. They have the reputation of being the finest, and Becker was asked about it.
“Well, that’s what everyone asks. It’s a hard question to answer. His instruments are composites of a little more of everything that's good.
該樂器由著名的小提琴製作家安東尼・ 史特拉底瓦里 (Antonio Stradivari)於 1721 年製造。1860 年，此提琴在西班牙的一個閣樓中被一位 J. B. Vuilluume 發現，並修復了它。
儘管它一直被長久遺忘在老閣樓裡。 Vulllaume 在一封信中報告說，這把小提琴在閣樓裡被遺忘了大約 100 年，狀況非常好。
在 1864 年，它到了英國，由安妮布朗特夫人(Lady Anne Blunt)以 260 英鎊的價格買下。她保存了它 31年，此後該提琴被稱為 Lady Blunt Stradivarius。
史特拉底瓦里 (Stradivari)一輩子製作了大約 1,100 把樂器，包含小提琴、中提琴、大提琴、吉他和低音大提。這些樂器中大約有 600 件倖存下來，其中大部分是小提琴。為什麼他們有個聲譽被認為『最優的』，貝克被問及此事。
「嗯，這是每個人都問的。這是一個很難回答的問題。他的樂器是個『比好再多些』的合成體。」
Searching for the combination
尋找組合
“Stradivari was an intelligent man and a practical man, too. He experimented with instruments of different sizes and made other changes in them, trying to get that perfect combination.
"He had such a superb conception of the Instrument, too. Fine work. fine ideas, fine varnish. He had good ideas without being fussy about it.
"Someone -I think perhaps it was Mischa Elman-said a Guarneri violin is like a beautiful blond--a little on the coarse side, perhaps, but still very beautiful. And a Stradivarius is like a lovely, refined brunet.
"I don't know. A Guarneri is said to have a dark sound and a Strad has a sweeter sound, more robust, broader. And yet its tone is brilliant. It's that combination. I suppose, that makes it so rare and lovely."屎
「史特拉底瓦里非常聰明，也是一個務實的製琴家。他的樂器嘗試了不同尺寸規範，並一再地進行了更多改造，試圖獲得完美的數據組合。」
「他對樂器也有如此高超的構想。工藝好。觀念好，漆料好。他有很好的想法，但並不吹毛求疵。」
「有人說——我想也許是米夏·艾爾曼( Mischa Elman)——一把瓜奈里( Guarneri )小提琴就像一個美麗的金髮女郎——也許有點粗俗，但仍然非常漂亮。而史特拉底瓦里小提琴就像一個可人、精緻的深色小提琴。」
「我不知道。大多說瓜奈里 Guarneri 的聲音很深沈，而史式( Strad) 的聲音更甜美、更強勁、更寬廣。但它的音色非常出色。正是這種組合。我想，這使得它如此珍稀和受寵」
It's in the varnish
秘密在塗漆中
Musicologists have debated the source of that rare and lovely sound of the Stradivarius, and Becker said he and his father believe the crucial ingredient is the varnish.
"It's hard to prove, of course," he acknowledged, "and not everyone agrees. Even if you had the original recipe for the varnish and put it on a violin, it wouldn't sound like the genuine article because it wouldn't have aged.'
Becker and his 83-yearold father take about two years to make one of their own violins, and each costs $1,750, but 1 think we'll have to raise it to $2,000."
They make the instruments in their workshop in Wisconsin, although the repair work is done here. Becker instruments are used by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Milwaukee Symphony
音樂學家一直在爭論史特拉底瓦里那珍貴而可愛的聲音的來源，貝克說他和他的父親認為關鍵的成分是漆料。
「當然，這很難證明，」他承認，「而且並不是每個人都同意。即使你有他漆料的原始配方並將它放在小提琴上，它聽起來也不會像史特拉底瓦里(Stradivari)真品，因為它不曾老化。」
「小貝克和他 83 歲的父親花了大約兩年的時間來製作一把他們自己的小提琴，每把價格為 1,750 美元，但我認為我們必須將其提高到 2,000 美元。」
他們在威斯康辛州的工作室作琴，另外許多維修工作也在這裡完成。貝克提琴被大多的芝加哥交響樂團和密爾沃基交響樂團的成員使用。
Pioneer violin-making family
製琴世家先鋒
The family has been in the violin business a long time. The elder Backer's father was a violinist, and his father was one of the pioneer violin makers in America. The younger Becker is married to a singer.
And the Beckers figure to be in the violin business for some time to come. Mr. and Mrs. Carl F. Becker have four children, one of whom, Jennifer, 15, is planning to continue her father’s profession.
“She means it, too,” Becker added. “She’s said it since before she was 11 years old, when she started a form for a fiddle.
這個家族從事小提琴生意已有很長時間。老貝克的父親是一位小提琴家，他的父親是美國最早的小提琴製造商之一。小貝克迎娶了一位女聲樂歌手。
預計貝克家族在未來也將從事提琴業務。卡爾．貝克有四個孩子，其中已經15 歲的珍妮弗（Jennifer Becker），她打算繼續她父親的職業。
「她也有這個意思，」貝克補充道。 「她在 11 歲之前就有這個意願，當時她開始學習小提琴。那可是比 1935 年我開始著手製作大提琴側板時年輕多了。」
