Going Wild On The World's Most Expensive Instrument

Stradivari's "MacDonald" viola, poised to make history as the most expensive instrument in the world, has three bodyguards and its own white-gloved handler. But David Aaron Carpenter was going just a little crazy on it. For an informal recital Monday at the Manhattan headquarters of Sotheby's, which is handling the viola's multi-million-dollar auction later this spring, Carpenter, an acclaimed violist, had chosen to play Isaac Albéniz's 1892 "Asturias." The piece is fast and intense, with passa...