Mute viola d’amore, Vienna, circa 1750.
Stadlmann is most remarkable for his direct engagements with the court of Prince Esterházy, who played a Baryton made by him in 1750. Thus he is intimately connected to the musical world of Joseph Haydn who spent many years under the prince’s employment. Separately Stadlmann has a much deserved reputation as a remarkably close spiritual successor to Jacob Stainer, both in quality of work and reputation within the Austro-Hungarian world. This instrument originally emerged out of the Viennese collection of the Barons Nathaniel and Albert Rothschild and had been placed with the Kunsthistoriches Museum during the Second World War. Following restitution of the collection to the heirs, it formed part of the 1998 Christie’s sale. Some years later I was delighted to secure its purchase by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The instrument exemplifies the outlandish musical creativity of Nicholas II Esterhàzy’s cultural influence.
Connoissership at Oxford University.
For the academic world there are deep problems that arise from historic artefacts that are untethered from a record of provenance, and the violin is
