Marcel Proust (1871-1922) wrote in his novel "Du Cote de Chez Swann" ("In
The Path of Swann"? - I'm giving you a free translation from my version in
Portuguese):

   "There is in a violin - when you can't see the instrument and you
   can't link what you hear to its image, a thing that changes its
   sonority, intonations that are so usual with certain contralto voices
   that you have the illusion that a female singer came to join the
   concert."

When this novel was first published (1913), people used to go to the
concert theatre - as far as I know, recordings (78's) were not still
available to wide audiences.  But, IMHO Proust was talking about recordings
when he wrote the above text.  Do the list members know what recordings of
CM were available at that time? Any particular piece for violin? What about
the recording industry - when everything started after all?

Wilson Pereira.
Natal, Brazil.