Violinist Daniel Hope has given his two programmes for Saturday Classics the subtitle, a "Fiddler's Tale". In this, the second programme, he offers a selection of recordings that reflect the story of his priceless violin - the wonderful 1742 Guarneri del Gesu, known as the "Ex- Lipinski".

The violin was once owned by the 19th century virtuoso Karol J�zef Lipiński, a rival to the great Paganini. He was a friend of Schumann and Liszt, and Schumann dedicated his virtuosic set of piano character pieces, "Carnival", to Lipiński. After Lipiński, the violin arrived in the hands of the late 19th Century's richest Russian, Nikolay Yusupov, one of the country's most celebrated artistic benefactors and a close friend of Pushkin, and from there to a founder member of the Joachim String Quartet, who gave Johannes Brahms some of his first performances. Also in the list is the man who is best remebered today for arranging and naming a celebrated orchestral movement from Bach, "Air on a G String". He was the violinist August Wilhelmj.

First broadcast in April 2012. Show less