Imagine you play baseball and someone just offered to loan you the bat that Barry Bonds used to hit his 762nd career home run.
You can bet that's how the members of the Goldmund String Quartet feel.
Six years ago, the Nippon Music Foundation loaned the German ensemble the historic Paganini Quartet, four instruments once owned and played by the 19th century Italian violinist/composer Niccoló Paganini.
The Goldmund Quartet returns to Tucson as headliners of the 2026 Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival. From left, cellist Raphael Paratore, violinist Florian Schötz, violist Christoph Vandory and violinist Pinchas Adt.
"These instruments are actually quite, quite special for us," Goldmund cellist Raphael Paratore said during a phone call from snowy, ice-cold Boston last week. "It's a great honor that we're able to play on them now since 2019."
Tucson chamber music fans will get a chance to see these instruments up close when the Goldmund String Quartet makes its Tucson Chamber Music Festival debut March 8-15 at Leo Rich Theatre.
The Paganini Quartet are the only full Stradivarius quartet instruments still being played today, Paratore said. There are a couple of other sets, but they've been relegated to museum pieces, to be admired from afar and never heard.
Which is a shame; Paratore said the sound those instruments make is nothing short of spectacular.
"They really just match perfectly. It's wonderful just from the whole sound, the way it blends together, and it just makes it very unique," he explained. "They were really put together to match sound wise, and so that makes it very enjoyable, as well."
The Paganini Quartet includes the 1727 "Comte Cozio di Salabue" violin and the 1680 "Desaint’" violin; the 1731 "Mendelssohn" viola, one of just 13 surviving by Stradivari; and the 1736 "Ladenburg" cello, thought to be the maker’s last.
Pianist Jeewon Park
Paganini, regarded as one of his generation's greatest violin virtuosos, was known to play the instruments in concerts until he retired from performing in 1834. After his death six years later, the instruments were separated.
More than a century later, a New York luthier re-assembled the set in the 1950s; the Nippon Music Foundation acquired them in 1994 and loaned them to the Tokyo String Quartet, which used the instruments until it disbanded in 2013.
The set also has been loaned to the Cleveland String Quartet, Hagen Quartet and Quartetto di Cremona, before the foundation loaned the set to the Goldmund Quartet through a competitive, juried application process.
"It was really an amazing surprise when we suddenly got the email that we were granted this quartet," Paratore said.
The group — Paratore, violinists Florian Schötz and Pinchas Adt and violist Christoph Vandory — has a Japan-issued ATA Carnet, which requires them to go through Customs with the instruments. Once a year, they return to Japan to have the Carnet renewed.
"There's a lot of protocol to it. Of course, they're just so valuable and also so much cultural heritage within these instruments, so there's a big responsibility to handle them," Paratore said. "But for us, it's totally worth it, because it's just a big gift to play on these instruments."
During this week's 33rd annual Tucson Chamber Music Festival, presented by Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, the ensemble will perform works by Brahms, Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Schoenberg and Schubert.
Pianist David Fung
While this is the group's first Tucson festival, it's not their first performance here. The quartet made their debut with the Friends of Chamber Music in February 2022.
Paratore said that concert was the furthest southwest that the ensemble had ever been in the U.S.
33rd Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival
When: Sunday, March 8-Sunday, March 15
Violinist Axel Strauss
Where: Leo Rich Theater, 260 S. Church Ave.
Violinist Clara Neubauer
Tickets: Festival pass for five concerts $170, or $45 per concert, $12 for students with ID; $150 for the March 14 Festival Celebration
Cellist Jakob Taylor
Artists: Goldmund String Quartet (violinists Florian Schötz and Pinchas Adt, violist Christoph Vandory, cellist Raphael Paratore); pianists David Fung and Jeewon Park; Kristina Mascher-Turner on french horn; violin/viola Clara Neubauer; violist Paul Neubauer; violinist Axel Strauss; cellist Jakob Taylor.
Violist Paul Neubauer
Festival highlights:
Kristina Mascher-Turner on French horn
- Pop in and check out the musicians during open rehearsals from 9 a.m.-noon March 10-11, 13 and 15.
- See the world premiere of Michi Wiancko’s "The World Wants Us to Love It," performed by Jeewon Park, Clara Neubauer and Kristina Mascher-Turner on March 15.
- Peruse auction items in the Leo Rich lobby throughout the festival, with proceeds benefiting Arizona Friends. It concludes after the intermission of the final concert on March 15.
Schedule
- 3 p.m. Sunday, "Mozart, Martinů, Turner, Brahms": — Mozart's Piano Trio in G major; Martinů's Madrigals for Violin and Viola; Kerry Turner's "Candles in the Darkness"; Brahms' String Quartet in A minor
- 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, "Shostakovich, Brahms, Mendelssohn": Shostakovich's Sonata for Cello and Piano in D minor; Brhams' Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano in E-flat Major; Mendelssohn's Viola Quintet in B-flat Major
- 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, "Harbison, Beach, Dvořák": Harbison's "Twilight Music" (1985); Beach's Piano Quintet in F-sharp Minor; Dvořák's String Sextet in A major
- 7:30 p.m. March 13, "Mozart, Brahms, Schoenberg": Mozart's Quintet for Horn and Strings in E-flat Major; Brahms' Viola Sonata No. 1 in F minor; Schoenbert's "Verklärte Nacht" (Transfigured Night)
- 5 p.m. March 14, "Festival Celebration," featuring a concert, dining and meet-and-greet with the musicians
- 3 p.m. March 15, Schubert, "Wiancko (World Premiere), Chausson": Schubert's String Quartet in E-flat Major; Wiancko's Horn Trio (World Premiere); Chausson's Piano Quartet in A major
