Den 15 februari fick vi ett mail från vår tidigare återförsäljare i USA, Mr Philip Greenberg.....

Mailet:

Hello Irene, Peter

Here is a copy of a letter I just sent to someone who is inquiring about your violins. As you know I am one of your biggest fans, but I must say last night's results even shocked me. BRAVO PETER-once again.

Much love, Philip

Det bifogade brevet:

Hello,

I am in New York where I am giving two lecture/demon-
strations on rare Italian Violins. I had with me for that purpose

4 Stradivaris
2 Guarneri del Gesu's
2. Carlo Bergonzi's
1 J.B Guadagnini (Turin)
1 Nicolo Gagliano
1 Antonio & Heronymus Amati 1596
1 Antonio Gagliano
1 Domenico Montagnana
1 Francesco Goffriller
1 Giovanni Grancino
1 Leandro Bisiach
1 Peter Westerlund

After my lecture, a brilliant concert violinist played the opening of the Bruch Violin concerto on each violin in groups of threes. After each group, the audience voted on which sounded best to them. The winner of the first round was then played against the next three and the audience voted again. then the next three etc.

The process can tend to give advantage to the violins that are played later- because the ones that are eliminated in early rounds are then not played against the later ones. Since Peter's was in the first group of three and won, and since it won in each and every group of three, it was therefore played against each and every violin and beat them all in terms of the audience's preference for sound.

As I told you, I have several of Peters violins available. I brought one to the lecture just as a last minute decision to satisfy my own curiosity. I just grabbed one ( without even seeing if it was the best sounding Westerlund I had) as I was going out the door to my lecture. Among the Strad's and del Gesu's that I had with me, were several of the most famous one's in the world ( $5.5 million US).

Best wishes,Philip Greenberg