At Moscow’s Conservatorium, Vieuxtemps’ music will be reunited with his instrument, to be played by the Japanese violinist, and winner of the first prize at the 4th Paganini Awards, Kyoko Yonemoto. She will play Henri Vieuxtemps’s and Niccolo Paganini’s works, accompanied by the Moscow State Academic Symphonic Orchestra, headed by Pavel Kogan and conducted by Pavel Sorokin.

The violin was purchased and brought to Russia by lawyer and businessman Maxim Viktorov in 2008. According to experts, presently "Ex-Vieuxtemps" is the most expensive musical instrument in the world. The Moscow public has already had the good fortune to hear it at Pinchas Zukerman’s concert in 2008.

"We collected together all the necessary components for a perfect concert of Niccolo Paganini’s and Henri Vieuxtemps’s music in Moscow: a talented soloist, one of Russia’s leading orchestras and a perfect violin. I am glad that we managed to organize a unique cultural event of international scale,” the organizers of the performance quote Maxim Viktorov as saying.

The instrument is so closely-connected with Paganini’s name that it is fitting that this violin should be played on the great composer’s birthday. It was Paganini, on top of his popularity, who first heard Vieuxtemps play the violin aged 14, and predicted that “the boy would definitely become a great man.”

Giuseppe Guarneri, who crafted “Ex-Vieuxtemps”, was the only luthier to rival Antonio Stradivari. His instruments diverged significantly from family tradition, becoming uniquely his own style. They are considered second in quality only to those of Stradivari, but are also claimed by some to be superior.

“Ex-Vieuxtemps” is not the only violin owned by Maxim Viktorov. Back in 2005 at the same Sotheby’s auction, he spent $1,160 million for an instrument that the great Paganini played.