Can you hear the difference between a £10 million Stradivarius and an exact copy?

29 April 2018, 20:20 | Updated: 30 April 2018, 10:10

One instrument was made in 1724, the other in the 2010s. But can you tell them apart?

Stradivarius violins sound the way they do because of the unique artistry of their maker and hundreds of years of ageing, right? Turns out, maybe not. A few weeks ago, violinist and Instagram star Esther Abrami was in Florian Leonhard Fine Violins and got her hands on two incredible instruments.

One was an 18th-century Stradivarius, made in the violin maker's Cremona workshop, and the other an exact copy of the same instrument, made in London by violinmaker Florian Leonhard.

Esther plays them side by side – can you tell them apart?

Here's another look at the Florian Leonhard copy, played by Maxim Vengerov last weekend, behind the scenes at the Menuhin Competition in Geneva: