Hobbes-Smith collects antique musical instruments. At a music festival in Italy, he sees a valuable violin which he wants to add to his collection. Is the owner prepared to sell it? Read this story and find out.
Before you read the story we recommend you do vocabulary activity (1) and vocabulary activity (2), which practise words in the text. If you wish, you can listen to the first part of the story. When you have finished reading the story, do an activity that practises your comprehension. You can also practise conditional sentences, with an activity that matches halves of sentences about the story. Finally, do some writing yourself.
Page one of three. Go to page two | go to page three
It was like a piece of amber. It was like a warm, wine-red jewel. As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be mine.
It was a Giordano, of course. I knew it was a Giordano as soon as I saw it. There are very few Giordano violins left in the world. An expert in New York said that there were twelve. Now I knew that the expert was wrong. I had just found the thirteenth.
But let me start from the beginning. A story should start at the beginning, not in the middle, or at the end. My name is Geoffrey Hobbes-Smith. I am an expert in antique musical instruments. I live in Oxford, where I have a small but important business. I buy and sell antique musical instruments. It is necessary for me to travel a lot because of my work. I frequently visit France, Italy and Germany, and sometimes I go as far as America or even Japan. I don’t like travelling, but it is necessary.
Six months ago, I was in Italy. I had been invited to attend a festival of early music on the island of Ischia. Ischia in the spring was beautiful. An island as green as an emerald, and around it, a sea as blue as the sky above. I stayed in an enormous villa, which once belonged to a famous English composer. It had a huge garden, with hundreds of lemon trees. The lemons in Ischia were as big as footballs. I don’t like travelling, but sometimes being in a different place is a pleasure.
The music festival was very boring. There were a lot of enthusiastic students there, but there weren’t any famous or important musicians. I only like listening to famous and important musicians. Students should stay at home and practise – not play their instruments in public! After one or two concerts, I was bored. I preferred to stay in my lovely garden and look at the deep blue sea and the dark green trees.
When the last night of the festival arrived, I was happy. "Tomorrow, I will be able to go back home!" I thought. But unfortunately, things became more complicated. Because I hadn’t been to many of the concerts, I thought that I should at least attend the final one. I arrived when the small orchestra were tuning up, and mentally prepared myself for another boring evening. I even closed my eyes and thought about sleeping.
The orchestra began to play. As I expected, it was nothing remarkable. They played pieces by Bach and Purcell which were nice enough, but nothing special. After about an hour, I looked at my watch and thought about leaving. I had made a mistake. I shouldn’t have come. Perhaps it would be impolite to leave? I don’t care, I thought, I’ll leave after the next piece.
It was when the next piece started that I saw it. I don’t know how I had missed it before. Perhaps it was because the violin had a more important part in this piece. This time, however, it was unmistakable. It was the sound that I noticed first. A Giordano violin has a pure, rich, deep tone, quite different from other old violins. Giordano violins are not as famous as Stradivarius violins, but they are more interesting for an expert. As well as the particular tone they have, they are constructed in a very interesting way. The Maestro Giordano, it is said, had a special secret method for constructing his violins. He had a workshop in Naples where he made musical instruments at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Everybody who entered his workshop had to promise to keep the secret for the rest of their lives. I don’t believe this story. I think it’s superstitious nonsense. However, I must say, this story is the reason why some people pay a lot of money for Giordano violins.
Excuse me, I am forgetting the story. I was there, at a small, unimportant concert by a small, unimportant orchestra at a small, unimportant music festival on a small island – and I was looking at a Giordano violin! One of the rarest antique musical instruments in the world! I couldn’t believe it!
I looked at the musician who was playing the violin. He was only a boy – probably a student who didn’t even know what he was playing. I looked carefully at the amber-coloured instrument. The long neck, the large body, the sound as rich and as warm as summer nights on a Mediterranean island. There was no mistake. It was definitely a Giordano, and I definitely wanted it. It was frustrating: I could see it, but I couldn’t have it. The concert seemed to go on for hours – and I couldn’t wait for it to finish!
As soon as the piece ended, the audience started to applaud. The musicians stood up and bowed. The audience applauded more, and the musicians bowed again. I thought it would never finish! Finally, the applause stopped and the musicians started to leave the stage. I couldn’t wait any longer. I walked up to the stage and went up to the young violin player. I didn’t look at the violinist, I looked at the violin.
"It’s a nice violin, isn’t it?" he said to me. I was surprised - he spoke English very well.
"How did you know I was English?" I asked him.
"You’re Mr. Hobbes-Smith, aren’t you? From London?"
"Well, no. Actually I’m not from London, I’m from Oxford. But, yes, I am Mr. Hobbes-Smith." I’m quite famous, I thought to myself.
"My name is Giuseppe."
"Pleased to meet you, Giuseppe. Now tell me about your violin. Where did you get it from?"
"Oh, I can’t remember. It’s my father’s. He’s got lots of old instruments. I think this violin is quite old, but I’m not sure. It’s very nice, isn’t it?"
"Er, yes, yes. It is very nice. Very nice indeed."
Go to page two | go to page three
| 
