Instrument of Love

An Instrument of Love

Katz Reveres His Venerable, Antique Cello

BY DAVID KAPLAN
Rice News Staff

For 10 years, Paul Katz played one of the most famous cellos in the world—a Stradivarius once owned by the legendary Niccoló Paganini.

It was on loan from the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C. At the time, Katz was in the renowned Cleveland Quartet and had been told that he could use the instrument indefinitely.

But he decided to give it back. He missed his own cello.

Since ’72, Katz, Rice professor of cello and chamber music, has owned a very special instrument. If you peek through its “f” hole, you can see the signature of its maker, Andrea Guarneri, who also wrote the date: 1669.

All musical instruments have their own personality and character. Katz’s has a 331-year history.

When his cello was made, Katz says cellos were not generally used as solo or virtuosic instruments. It had only a supporting role and played only the bass notes.

But in the early 18th century, Antonio Stradivari perfected the size and shape of the modern cello, making it smaller than cellos of that time and smaller than the original size of Katz’s Guarnerius. This made faster, more brilliant playing possible, and with this new found virtuosity the instrument began to take on a more featured role.

At some point in the 18th century, Katz says his Guarnerius became part of a private collection of a prestigious Italian commercial gallery, where it spent around 200 years unplayed.

In the late 1960s, a well-known string instrument dealer and collector, Jacques Francais, spotted the cello and could see that it was a phenomenal instrument. Unsure if it could be restored, he sought the advice of Rene Morel, one of the world’s greatest luthiers whose clients have included Yo-Yo Ma and Isaac Stern.

Says Morel from his New York City studio, “Nobody wanted it because it had a very bad accident.” Morel, who had seen pictures of it, was convinced it could be repaired. He told Francais, “Don’t worry. Buy it. I’ll put it together.”

If repairing it wasn’t hard enough, Morel had another challenge: cutting the cello down to modern size, a procedure that if not done by a master can ruin the sound of a great instrument. Morel says that the cello had been cut down once before, but not enough. Reducing it was a painstaking procedure that required him to reshape all of the instrument’s arching and took more than two years of work. Being the master that he is, Morel completely camouflaged his work so that the cello now looks like an original, unmodified Guarneri.

Says Katz: “I’ve had the cello 27 years and have never found one expert in the world who could tell it’s been cut down.”

Morel describes Katz’s cello as “unusually beautiful.” Because of its ground coating of varnish, Morel says, “it is golden in the morning and more reddish in the evening.”
While the public knows the name Stradivarius better than Guarnerius, Katz says that in actual fact the players and dealers of the world consider the two master craftsmen of equal greatness: Some players are drawn to the bright purity of the sound of a Stradivarius, while others prefer the deeper, more throaty, masculine sound of a Guarneri. Katz prefers the Guarnerius as do others artists. For example, Isaac Stern plays a Guarnerius del Gesu violin.

Katz first saw his Guarnerius in ’72. At the time, the then 3-year-old Cleveland Quartet, of which Katz is a founding member, had begun to garner international acclaim and was in need of a great instrument.

Katz had decided on a different cello, but the day before he was to drive from Rochester, N.Y., to Philadelphia to purchase it, he got a call about a cello in New York City. “Since I was going to Philadelphia, I thought I’d stop in to play it,” Katz says. “You know, it’s sort of like the last date before you marry the woman you think you love.

“I went in and sat down, put the bow on the string and started to play, and, oh my God, I couldn’t believe it! I had to call Philadelphia and tell them the deal was off. It was an amazing sound. My marriage plans instantly changed!”

The sound would only get better. Katz says that when instruments are not played for a long time, they “go to sleep.” An instrument needs to be played regularly to keep its optimum tonal properties, and his cello hadn’t been played for perhaps 200 years.

“It was an amazing experience—for the next five years the sound continually opened up and became more awake and more alive and even more beautiful than when I bought it,” Katz says.

Describing the quality and character of his instrument, Katz says, “Some cellos have brighter, brilliant, radiant sounds. Others have darker, brooding sounds. This cello is the latter. It’s a very emotionally-laden instrument with a very complex sound.”

It’s not the first great instrument he’s played. In ’82, the Corcoran Gallery offered to loan the Cleveland Quartet four Stradivarius string instruments once owned by Paganini, probably the most famous quartet of instruments in the world.

He and his fellow Cleveland Quartet members flew to Washington, D.C., soon after the Corcoran made its offer, so they could try out the instruments. Katz brought along his Guarnerius, in order to compare the sounds made by each instrument.

In official with the museum met them at the airport. She put Katz’s cello in the back of her station wagon and failed to tightly shut the vehicle’s back door. As they were heading to the Corcoran, Katz heard a loud bang. His beloved Guarnerius had fallen out of the station wagon on to Constitution Avenue! Fortunately, Katz rescued it before it was run over, and it was not damaged by the fall. But Katz says he could never understand how, after witnessing that type of accident, the museum went ahead and lent his world-traveling Cleveland Quartet $15 million worth of Stradivarius instruments.

Katz says that after playing the Stradivarius for a decade he decided to go back to his Guarnerius because, “I missed it. And I think most people who’ve heard me play the two prefer me on the Guarnerius.”

A few years ago, the Corcoran sold the Stradivarius cello for $4 million. Katz does not know the monetary value of his Guarnerius.

Like many musicians, Katz says he loves his instrument like a family member. “To us, (musical instruments) are like living things,” he says. Katz may consider the cello family, but he isn’t overprotective. He sometimes lets his students borrow the Guarnerius when they enter competitions.

After 28 years, Katz says he is still in awe of the Guarnerius—its sound, its soul, its history. He has come to view the instrument as his artistic ally and muse: “It helps me reach people emotionally,” he says. “It inspires me. It awakens feelings in me which help me perform.”

Owning such a cello is a tremendous responsibility, he says. “I’m sort of the caretaker for the next generation. I’m just a blip in the life of this instrument.”