It is my great pleasure to present to you two of the Stradivarius instruments owned by Nippon Music Foundation. There are only a very small number of top quality instruments such as those created 300 years ago by Stradivarius and Guanerius del Gesu now remain in existence. Consequently, their prices have also gone beyond a player can afford to own individually. Therefore, Nippon Music Foundation decided to acquire and preserve such historical assets of international value. They are also loaned free to top-ranking musicians and promising young players internationally so that such instruments may give immeasurable pleasure to the listeners.
As part of such activities, we intend to organize concerts with the performers playing the instruments on loan to them from our Foundation. It is hoped that this will provide opportunities for classical music lovers to fully enjoy the music of the highest quality and also to promote futher the classical music culture.
We thank you for joining us at our memorable first concert event. Please enjoy the beautiful sound of the Stradivarius instruments.
We would also like to take this opportunity to express our sincere gratitudes to The Nippon Foundation for their generous support in making this evening's concert possible.