Ivry Gitlis ‘Sancy’ Stradivarius
Ivry Gitlis plays the ‘Sancy’ Stradivari violin of 1713, which takes its name from its first known owner, the Leloup family of Sancy in the Auverge region of central France. In the 1870s the violin belonged to the Belgian violinist and avid violin collector Charles Wilmotte, who owned no fewer than 17 Stradivari over the course of his career. After Wilmotte, the ‘Sancy’ passed to Frankfurt where it was owned by the violinist Rudolph Gleichauff, then later to England to the collection of John Adam. In 1908 the Czech violinist Jan Kubelik played the ‘Sancy’ for a few years before he acquired the 1715 ‘Emperor’ Stradivari. The ‘Sancy’ then came to America in 1920 where the Rudolph Wurlitzer company sold it to Felix E. Kahn, the director of the Paramount Pictures Corporation. After Kahn, the ‘Sancy’ returned to the firm of Rudolph Wurlitzer’s son, Rembert, from whom the violin was bought for Ivry Gitlis in 1956.