David Garrett Falls On His Violin - Read Below
We’ve heard of soldiers falling on their swords, but never a violinist falling on his Stradivarius.
It was at the Barbican, London, back in December when music prodigy David Garrett, 25, fell on his priceless violin, reducing it to bits.
He was walking off stage down some “slippery” steps when he fell. The prize object ended up beneath him and may even have prevented a bad injury, Garrett surmises.
The broken fiddle is now in New York, where a team of experts are determining what should be done with it. If it’s repaired it probably won’t be as good as it was before, and certainly wouldn’t be worth anything like as much. But it may have some value as a museum piece.
The instrument was made by one of the Master’s best pupils, but bears the famous “brand” nonetheless — a common practice among artists in those days.
Meanwhile David Garrett goes from strength to strength. He is being dubbed classical music’s David Beckham for his boyish good looks. At 13 he was the youngest artist ever to record for prestigious classical label Deutsche Gramophon, and in the next four years he released four albums, the last being the Tchaikovsky and Conus concertos, with Mikhail Pletnev and the Russian National Orchestra.
Naturally, legends abound. At four years his father gave him a violin to play with. Without a single lesson, the toddler is said to have picked it up and started to play. How well, we’re not told.
“After two months without a teacher I was playing better than my older brother,” claims Garrett. “I think that my parents thought there must be some talent there, so they started to send me out to teachers.”
Tonight, he faces an eerie sequel. He’s back at the Barbican playing a concert.
News From: http://www.classyclassical.com/2008/02/14/david-garrett-falls-on-his-stradivarius/
2 comments:
Hello, I was banned from the forum of the the official homepage of
violinist David Garrett. The reason for this is the following post I wrote in this internet forum :-
Well, it's obvious. David Garrett is trying to copy Nigel Kennedy. The record companies are worried about Nigel because he has got his own mind, and probably doesn't always automatically do what they would like him to do. Nigel, who is a brilliant musician, is also interested in other styles of music besides classical music, and invests time and energy in non profit-generating activities, for example his Polish jazz band.
But it is the classical music that brings in the big bucks, and the 'greed heads' have been getting worried.
The industry people have clearly been hunting for a replacement 'golden goose' to sell to those fans who up until now have bought Nigel's tickets and records. The first non-classical 'influence' David mentions on his own website is, surprise, surprise, gasp, shock: JIMI HENDRIX!!! Wow what a coincidence - the very same rock guitarist and singer that Nigel is legendary for interpreting on the violin.
And so here he is, David Garratt. Let's hope Nigel's fans and followers are too smart to be taken in by this pathetic and transparent attempt to manipulate them and palm them off with a pale copy of the real genius, Nigel Kennedy. To David I would say; 'Forget it, mate. You're just not good enough'. One could almost feel sorry for the poor record companies, forced to acknowledge the unalterable truth that true geniuses are very seldom, obedient, easily manipulated puppets, whose main priorities are to generate cash for themselves and their management, eg., Vincent Van Gogh, Mozart, Scott Joplin, Janis Joplin, etc.
The fact is that David Garrett is a clever marketing hype by the record company. It's like 'Pop Idol' for classical music. The broken violin story was probably all very carefully organised by his publicity team. Let's face it, it worked - headlines all over the place, and everyone saying 'Who is this person who I've never heard of who's broken his violin?'
He's been carefully selected not because of whatever talent he may have, but because of his young age and his Beckham type looks, hence the deliberate marketing of the phrase 'The Beckham of classical Music'.
The record industry think they have found their ideal new money-spinning puppet in David Garrett.
You don't know what you're talking about. Maybe some proof would give you more credibility.
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