Two instruments with fascinating owners feature on Isserlis’s new album of music from the first world war. The cellist tells their stories
Can objects have souls? Or can they imbibe particles of the souls of those who have created, owned or touched them in the past? Collectors certainly seem to think so: why else would they pay fortunes for original manuscripts and letters that could be faithfully reproduced in facsimiles? With musical instruments the question is more complex. The great bygone string players owned great instruments, naturally, and we expect those instruments to sound beautiful, but could the virtuosi have left traces of their personalities indelibly etched on those instruments?
A related thought came to me recently when I made a disc of music dating from the first world war. If a musical instrument has sad or even tragic associations, if it can be haunted by unhappy ghosts, is one risking one’s wellbeing by playing that instrument? I do hope not.
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