Curator Carol Lynn Ward Bamford and violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved explore two great violins from the collection of the Library of Congress, on by Nicolo Amati, the other by Antonio Stradivari. Each violin offers a different window on the past. Both instruments date from the 161700s; however one is in a modern configuration, the other in baroque 'setup'. What do these quite different instruments, and setups, reveal about the 17th century music played on them here, about the characters of their makers?

For transcript and more information, visit https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast11288