Violin

This is a story about a frantic musician, a lost million-dollar violin and a resourceful police lieutenant. It all began around 9 p.m. Sunday when famed violinist Simon Shaheen, in town with fellow musicians to play an afternoon concert on the Main Line with members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, left his Galiano violin in a cab. He and the other musicians desperately tried to find the cabbie but couldn't. Time was running out because they had a performance in Los Angeles last night and planes to catch.

If it were not so difficult to get a car repaired in Moscow, a quiet Italian boy from the Bronx named Peter Thomas D'Auria might never have become the Soviet Union's most notorious violin smuggler. But then D'Auria, 36, might never have had the opportunity to say a few nice words about the KGB. Or discover how, here in the U.S.S.R., the right amount of money - given publicly - can get you out of the slammer and persuade the Soviet authorities to let you stay in their country.

Raymond Robert La Pelle, 88, a Frankford dentist, skilled amateur photographer and versatile musician, died Saturday at Frankford Hospital from medical complications that resulted from his having choked on food at a restaurant on Aug. 8. Dr. La Pelle conducted his practice at 1661 Harrison St. in Frankford from 1931, when he graduated from Temple Dental School, until 1984, when he retired at age 78. And he did it on his own, without so...

The violin, like a durable actor, has managed to present the musical profile of three centuries. It has been for succeeding eras the pure contrapuntalist, classical rationalist, poetic narcissist and passionate iconoclast. It continues to adapt as easily as ever to the newest ideals, and when violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Jon Klibonoff played works written since 1988 in their recital Friday at the Ethical Society, they were showing an already clear profile of yet another musical time.

The sure hands of Sergio Peresson, master violin maker, produced more than 400 exquisite violins, violas and cellos, instruments that rival the work of Antonio Stradivari in the depth and clarity of their sound. That sound will continue in performances around the world, as will the legacy of Mr. Peresson, 78, who died early Tuesday morning of a heart attack in his Haddonfield home. Norman Carol, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the owner of two Peresson violins, ranked Mr. Peresson as "the most outstanding maker" in the world.

For ages, literally, the only baroque-period violin sonatas that regularly reached the public's ears were J.S. Bach's. But Thursday at Temple University's Rock Hall, Bach was just the climactic postscript in a multinational, six-composer, 100-year cross section of music, mostly new to my ears, assembled and performed by early-music specialists Nancy Wilson (violin) and Temple faculty member Joyce Lindorff (harpsichord). This is musical terrain that's been shifting so dramatically that modern musicians have their hands full determining how the pieces should go before they can even start to think about what, on a phrase-by-phrase basis, the music actually means.

Gil Shaham's performance Monday with the Philadelphia Orchestra was a reminder of how richly the current crop of young violinists fulfill their roles. In his performance of Tchaikovsky's Concerto at the Mann Center - the central piece in the repertoire - Shaham found new things to say in it while proclaiming, in his playing, the beauty and eloquence of the instrument. A decade ago, Shaham, now 26, was in Philadelphia auditioning for Riccardo Muti. To the technical brilliance he splashed around the room that day he has grafted his own subtle voice and insights, completing the picture of the lyrical musician who happens to play the violin.

For some youngsters, taking violin lessons is the ultimate in boredom and humiliation. For Rick Margitza, however, it was simply a way to be part of the family business. A Detroit native, Margitza, 39, is the son and grandson of string players. One of his grandfathers was a bassist; the other, a violinist - and both were of Hungarian and Romanian Gypsy heritage, musical cultures in which the violin occupies a central role. His father, also named Richard, was a string arranger and classical violinist who played with the Detroit Symphony and also did some work for Motown Records.

If Jenna Shedd wanted to point to the sky and declare "I'm No. 1!" who could blame her? The modest Pennsbury junior is unlikely to deliver such a display or demonstration. Besides, Shedd's hands usually are too full to point. Chances are, she's either holding a tennis racket and ball, or violin and bow. In addition to being the Falcons' first singles player and the recently crowned champion of the Suburban One League Patriot Division, Shedd is the first violin in the Pennsbury orchestra.

Violins and violas, unvarnished and unstrung, dangle from a clothesline above the kale and green beans in Hiroshi Iizuka's tiny backyard. "They are browning," Iizuka says of his creations as he walks around the garden where butterflies flit among large cabbage leaves and long stakes hold back tomatoes about to burst. The instruments, too, will soon be ripe. Iizuka is a violin-maker, a craftsman who makes instruments that are used by musicians all over the world, including members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, and countless string quartets.