12-05-2025
Charles Beare obituary: violin dealer to Yehudi Menuhin
As a musical marriage broker, Charles Beare set up countless love affairs between the world's greatest string players and their instruments. Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich and Joshua Bell all sought his match-making skills. Isaac Stern was another admirer. 'He is one of two or three people in the world I can turn to for three things: his knowledge, his memory — he can remember a violin like most of us can remember a face — and his untouchable integrity, the latter invaluable in a field not always known for it,' Stern said.
Beare described himself as a musicians' psychiatrist. 'If something goes wrong with an instrument, which is a work of art in its own right and also your livelihood, it can be a traumatic
