Stolen Stradivarius to sing again

Sheeran smashes UK chart records

WASHINGTON, March 11, (Agencies): After a meticulous restoration that took more than a year, a Stradivarius violin that was stolen from violinist Roman Totenberg and missing for decades is about to return to the stage.

Mira Wang, a violinist who immigrated to the United States from China 30 years ago to study under Totenberg, will play the instrument at a private concert in New York on March 13, and more performances after that are possible.

The violin known as the Ames Stradivarius is one of roughly 550 surviving instruments made by Antonio Stradivari, history’s most renowned violin maker. Built in 1734, it’s likely worth millions of dollars, although it hasn’t been appraised since it was recovered.

It was stolen in 1980 while Totenberg was greeting well-wishers after a performance in Boston, and wasn’t recovered until 2015, three years after Totenberg died at age 102.

The presumed thief, journeyman violinist Philip Johnson, was himself dying of pancreatic cancer when he showed his ex-wife a locked violin case in his basement. Nearly four years after his death, she took the violin inside the case for an appraisal and learned it was the stolen Stradivarius. It was soon returned to Totenberg’s family.

It’s not clear how often Johnson played the instrument, but The Washington Post reported that he played it in public as recently as 2011, the year he died.

For Totenberg’s three daughters, who like their father had given up hope that they’d ever see the violin again, its recovery has been a series of joys. Jill Totenberg compared it to “Christmas, even though we’re Jewish.”

They’ll hear it again at Wang’s performance for the first time since it disappeared.

“I’m sure we’ll all cry. I’m absolutely sure of it. Whether we cry at the same time is something else, but we definitely will cry,” she said. “When that violin was returned to us, we really felt like our father was back in the room with us that day.”

Another happy surprise: 35 years after it disappeared, the violin wasn’t in bad shape. Johnson couldn’t take it to a repair shop without being discovered, and he used Super Glue and Elmer’s to patch a few spots. It was unplayable because it had no strings

runs June 29 to July 16 in the northwest England city renowned for its industrial heritage and rich creative scene.

The lineup, announced Thursday, and the sound post inside was broken. But when Bruno Price of Rare Violins of New York first laid eyes on the instrument, he was pleased it was so well-preserved. He and the Totenbergs believe Johnson couldn’t have played it all that often.

Restoration

“For us, in the restoration of the violin, it was purely conservation rather than any serious repairs of any kind,” Price said. “So, in a way, the violin is probably in better shape for having been stolen — a horrible thing to say.”

Price and his staff took their time with the restoration, trying to make as few major repairs as possible. They sealed some cracks, fixed the broken sound post and replaced the neck, which must be done periodically anyway.

For Totenberg’s three daughters — Jill, a public-relations executive; Nina, the legal-affairs correspondent for National Public Radio; and Amy, a federal judge — there was no question that Wang would play the violin first.

“I’m not sure she assumed it, but all three of us assumed it,” Nina Totenberg said. “She really is like the fourth Totenberg sister.”

For Wang, the instrument presents its own challenges, even though she’s been playing her own Stradivarius for two decades. She had about a month to practice before the concert, a timetable she compares to a jockey hopping on an unfamiliar racehorse just before a race.

“To be able to really know a violin of that caliber, you need years. You need years to really know the nuances and to bring out the certain colors and bring out the different varieties of sound,” Wang said. “But we’ll make the best out of it.”

Wang will perform two chamber pieces: a string quintet by Felix Mendelssohn and a piano quintet by Antonin Dvorak.

No additional concerts are scheduled, but it’s possible that Wang will get more opportunities to play the violin. The family plans to sell it eventually, either to a musician or to a person or organization that ensures it will continue to be played and maintained.

“In the end, there’s going to be one person (for whom) it’s going to suit their type of playing even more perfectly than with Mira,” Price said. “There’s a very personal connection that comes with these great instruments,

includes performances by local electronic music heroes New Order and an art show devoted to the band and its musical predecessor, Joy Division.

but it sounds fantastic.”

LONDON:

Also:

British singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran’s new album “/” became the fastest selling by a solo male artist in British chart history on Friday, with hits from the record also dominating the singles chart.

“/”, pronounced “divide”, sold 672,000 in its first week, making it the third highest seller of all time behind Adele’s “25” and Oasis’s “Be Here Now”.

The third studio album by Sheeran, 26, has already achieved “double platinum” status, the Official Charts Company said, and sold more copies than the rest of the top 500 records combined.

Lead single “Shape Of You”, initially released in January, was the top selling single, achieving 141,000 combined chart sales. The entire top 5 is composed of other songs by Sheeran, and all 16 songs from the album appear in the top 20.

“Wow! What a phenomenal week. I’m buzzing,” Sheeran said.

The Official Charts Company said that the feat was something that no artist had come close to achieving before.

The album achieved success across all formats. It broke the record for highest first-week streaming sales, set by grime rapper Stormzy just last week, and even achieved the biggest one-week vinyl sales in over 20 years.

NEW YORK:

Nicki Minaj has responded to Remy Ma’s harsh diss track in a new song featuring her label mates Drake and Lil Wayne.

Minaj addressed Ma on “No Frauds,” released Friday. She raps about Ma’s six-year jail stint for assault and her record sales. Minaj also says Jay Z didn’t clear his rap verse for Ma’s album, and mentions Ma’s son and husband, rapper Papoose.

It comes two weeks after Ma released “Shether,” a blistering track where she claims Minaj uses ghostwriters and attacks her appearance. Ma released a second diss song, “Another One,” days later.

Minaj wrote Friday on Instagram that “diss records can’t be lies. Great diss records are FACTS. But here @ Young Money, we don’t do diss records, we drop HIT RECORDS & diss u ON them.”

There will be art shows, theater and dance performances — and the opera “BambinO,” in which infant audience members will be welcome to crawl around during performances. (AP)

LOS ANGELES:

Bill Condon, the director of the live-action version of “Beauty and the Beast” that arrives in theaters later this month, has signed on to direct Warner Bros. Theater Ventures’ brewing stage adaptation of “A Star is Born.”

Based on the 1954 Warner Bros moviemusical that starred Judy Garland and James Mason, this stage version of “A Star is Born” is an entirely separate project from the upcoming screen version slated for 2018, with Bradley Cooper directing as well as co-starring opposite Lady Gaga. Warner Bros. is producing the film, while the studio’s theater division, WBTV, is developing the stage incarnation.

No timeline for the theater adaptation of “A Star is Born” has yet been set, nor have any additional details regarding the creative team or casting. Set in 1950s Hollywood, the storyline follows a young actress who is taken under the wing of a faded Hollywood star. The score of the stage production will encompass Harold Arlen-Ira Gershwin tunes from the movie including “The Man That Got Away” and “Gotta Have Me Go With You.” (RTRS)