< A music director goes public with a secret stash of private instruments

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., is shaping a new sound using some very old instruments.

(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF MASSENET'S "THAIS: MEDITATION")

FADEL: That's principal second violinist Marissa Regni. She's playing a 300-year-old Italian violin, and it belongs to the orchestra's music director, Gianandrea Noseda. He's been loaning the symphony instruments made between the late 17th century to the early 19th century. The musicians playing them had no idea they came from his personal collection until now.

GIANANDREA NOSEDA: The orchestra is made by great musicians. But if you - to a good driver you give a good Ferrari, the driver also will drive faster.

(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF BEETHOVEN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN C MAJOR, OP. 21- IV. FINALE. ADAGIO - ALLEGRO MOLTO E VIVACE")

FADEL: Noseda's instrument collection is worth about $5 million. But he says what makes them special is not how much they cost.

NOSEDA: I'm very sensitive about sound. How I couldn't - I mean, being a conductor. But if you ask me, which is the quality sound, the typical of Italian instruments? - probably, I cannot explain. But my ears can tell.

FADEL: So these instruments that are on loan to the National Symphony Orchestra - these are your instruments that you're loaning?

NOSEDA: Yeah.

FADEL: Why?

NOSEDA: Because I wanted to make a certain sound. Some players have very good instruments in the orchestra, so they will not ask for an instrument that I bring. But sometimes, you have an instrument that doesn't allow the artist, really, to express fully himself or herself.

FADEL: Yeah.

NOSEDA: I mean, if you - I'm not a string player. If you give a good instrument to my hands, it's just a piece of wood. But if you give a good instrument to a capable artist, of course, that helps to motivate the artist. And they become together a unity and improve the general sound in the orchestra.

(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF WALKER'S "SINFONIA NO. 4, 'STRANDS'")

MARISSA REGNI: The instrument is like a vessel to get the sound out. So if you've got a great instrument, you don't have to work nearly as hard. So you can express yourself and express the music.

FADEL: Marissa Regni plays one of the first instruments Noseda ever purchased, a 1725 Venetian violin by Santo Serafin.

REGNI: If you don't have a great vessel, you probably are spending a huge amount of your time thinking, how can I? I just need to get a sound out. All right? And so you're probably working infinitely harder than you need to be, physically. It's like you're straining your voice. Like, you think you're being louder, but you're really - you know, it's not as beautiful a tone.

FADEL: Wow. And what is it like? What is the difference between other violins you've played and this one?

REGNI: So the violin I have - I mean, I have a wonderful instrument already, a French instrument that was made in the 1800s. It's very powerful, but it's much more bright. And this instrument is much more mellow, very silvery on the E string. But I feel like the G string is very chocolatey. I mean, that's the best word I can think to describe it - is just a very chocolatey, rich, mellow sound. So...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: Wow.

REGNI: Beautiful. But then the E string is very...

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

REGNI: It's like on one side of the bridge, you've got this silvery, beautiful sound. On the other side, you've got this rich, chocolaty thing. And in between is - the two strings sort of bring those two sound worlds together.

FADEL: Yeah. Describing anything as chocolatey makes me fall in love with it.

REGNI: I know, right?

FADEL: (Laughter).

REGNI: Who doesn't love chocolate?

(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF BEETHOVEN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN E-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 55, 'EROICA': I. ALLEGRO CON BRIO")

FADEL: These aren't cheap instruments that you're buying. This - you must have had to save for each one, and then you loan them out.

NOSEDA: Yep. There is a point in life that you feel the need to give back. That happened in 2010 with me. I gave this instrument to the concertmaster of the opera house in Turin. I immediately realized that made a difference. The number of those instruments cannot be increased. If we know there are more or less 600 Stradivari, those are the 600 Stradivari. And not all the 600 Stradivari are good instruments. Some are like miracle, and some of them are not good. That's why you can find the best instrument of a not incredibly recognized luthier, and that instrument can play better than a bad example of Stradivari.

(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF BEETHOVEN'S "SYMPHONY NO. 1 IN C MAJOR, OP. 21 - I. ADAGIO MOLTO. ALLEGRO CON BRIO")

FADEL: There are around a hundred musicians in the National Symphony Orchestra. So having these eight instruments be part of that, how much of a difference in the tone, in the sound does it make overall?

NOSEDA: It makes a sound, a different sound, but it's more a complexity of things. It's richer in a way. It's bigger without being edgy.

REGNI: If you hear a beautiful sound near you, you want to sound as beautiful as that person, you know? And it's not like a - because I want to be as good as them. It's because you want to create this incredible sound - this core beauty. In order to do that, you all have to do it, right? You all have to sort of have that goal. So when you hear the things around you are beautiful, you want to be beautiful, too.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

NOSEDA: The offstage trumpet is good. Just a little bit more accented in the (inaudible). (Vocalizing). Forty-forty-nine, please.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

FADEL: What else are you doing as music director to transform the sound of the National Symphony Orchestra?

NOSEDA: The most important thing is when you work day by day to make the orchestra to interact, where everybody knows what to listen, how to cooperate to make sound. That is the first thing. And the second thing is incredibly important - to be surrounded by great players. Once, a very close friend of mine, conductor, told me, Gianandrea, it's not important that you become a star. It's even more important if you are surrounded by stars because all the light they produce will make you brighter.

(SOUNDBITE OF NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA PERFORMANCE OF WALKER'S "SINFONIA NO. 4, 'STRANDS'")

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