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Searching for a Cello

Continued from page 4

Des took his most recent test-drive this spring, on a 1655-vintage Amati. He was playing a spring concert with the University of Saskatoon Symphony in Saskatchewan when the symphony's music director asked him, during a master class, to warm up the instrument, which had been sitting in the university's closet for a year.

Des quickly agreed. It's unhealthy for a cello to go unplayed, and besides, he was curious how it would sound. Amati is the oldest violin trademark in Cremona, the magical instrument-making area, and Stradivari was reputedly a disciple of Nicolo's, the family's most prominent shop owner.

The cello lived up to Des's hopes. He found it easy to play, even more open than the Tononi. Pleased, he played it at the concert then tried to get permission to leave Saskatoon with the old cello for a few weeks of solo concerts. But the academic board that oversees its use felt a little uneasy about letting go of the Amati. Des hopes that in the future he can fly to the university periodically to visit it and that, someday, the board will come around.

But even if Des ever gets the Amati on short-term loans, he'll still need another cello, for the times the Amati isn't available. Recently he began checking out another hot prospect. For about a year Peter Shaw, of the Amati Violin Shop, has heard about an Italian cello from colleagues who own a shop in New York. Dominicus Busan, a Venetian maker, designed it around 1750. Shaw wasn't sure of the asking price -- somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 -- but he says the instrument was hyped almost as much as the Messiah Strad. He couldn't wait to see it.

Shaw flew to New York to borrow it, and last week, Des tried the Busan in Shaw's shop. Figuring out the cello's value is even more complex than usual: Because Busans are so rare, one seldom comes on the market, and Des and Shaw suspect the asking price is inflated. And the cello's papers are so old, and thus so unreliable, that Des needs to find experts to confirm the instrument's authenticity.

But Des is the expert on sound, and almost in spite of himself he allows that the cello was "interesting" and "kind of cool." He quickly adds that the shop's acoustics are forgiving, that the real testing has yet to be done, and that even if the sound were perfect, the cello might not be worth the price.

But maybe, he admits, just maybe he has finally found the right one.

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