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If You Only Knew

Autobiography | David Garrett; Leo G. Linder

E-Book (EPUB)
2022 Heyne Verlag; Heyne
368 Seiten; mit Bildteil
ISBN: 978-3-641-30699-1

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Kurztext / Annotation
The only autobiography of 'the greatest violinist of his generation' (Yehudi Menuhin)
The road to the pinnacle of violin-playing has not been an easy one for David Garrett. His childhood revolved around discipline and working daily with his father, who fostered his talent and supported him, while also being an ambitious driving force. From the tender age of ten, he was already performing on stage with the world's greatest orchestras, later playing all the classical works as a teenager, before freeing himself from the shackles of his wunderkind existence in his early twenties and moving to New York to study.

It was in that city that he laid the foundations for a new genre of classical music in the form of 'crossover', combining virtuoso violin music with the latest pop, which made him more famous than ever before. David is the perfect embodiment of a young man's onerous quest to carve out his own path and live authentically, finding his very own solution to this problem by fully committing to something that could just as easily have destroyed him as a person - music.

In this autobiography, we witness his world through his own eyes; the dazzling highs, along with the sweat and tears - a dramatic, inspiring and touching book for all fans and music-lovers.

Im Alter von 4 Jahren werden das Interesse und die Leidenschaft von David Garrett für die Violine geweckt, und er bekommt den ersten Unterricht. Mit 10 Jahren gibt er sein Orchester-Debüt, mit 13 Jahren wird er der jüngste Künstler, der jemals bei der Deutschen Grammophon unter Vertrag genommen wurde. Er spielt als Solist die großen Violinkonzerte mit den führenden Dirigenten und Orchestern der Welt.

Eine schwere persönliche Krise bringt ihn dazu, mit Anfang 20 ein Studium an der weltberühmten Juilliard School in New York zu beginnen. Hier perfektioniert er seine Idee von »Crossover«-Musik, indem er Melodien der Klassik auf seine ganz eigene Art und Weise mit Rock- und Pop-Elementen verbindet. Mit dieser Kombination schafft er es, Menschen generationsübergreifend für klassische Musik zu begeistern. Für den großen Erfolg stehen beispielhaft über 1600 Konzerte weltweit, über 4,5 Millionen verkaufte Alben sowie 25 Gold- und 17 Platin-Auszeichnungen u. a. in Deutschland, Österreich, Hongkong, Singapur, Taiwan, Mexiko und Brasilien.

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This impossible instrument

With my father, on one of the first times I ever tried playing the violin

Do I really remember it? Or am I simply recalling the memories of others? I think I do remember ... Szeryng was going to perform in Aachen in 1985. Polish-born Henryk Szeryng, one of the greatest violinists of his time - and I would soon be able to see and hear this hugely acclaimed man in my hometown. Incredible! Being just four years old, of course I had no idea how lucky we were, but my father was adamant that we should go. So we bought our tickets, quite near the front, to be as close as possible to this Henryk Szeryng. But one thing first had to be clarified: should we take our youngest child with us? Will he be able to sit still for so long? Will he whine? My father made the executive decision: 'David is coming. He needs to listen to this.' Worst-case scenario, my mother would have to take me out of the auditorium.

That night, I sat between my parents in the fourth row of the Eurogress concert hall, and, as Szeryng played, I started imitating the violinist I was watching up on stage - playing air violin, so to speak. I guess it must have looked pretty weird. Szeryng certainly noticed there was a child down there playing along, and, in the breaks between pieces, he would look at me and actually wait until I had calmed down again and was sitting still before nodding at the pianist and continuing to play.

After the concert, he came back on stage to play an encore. That's pretty standard. But what happened then, wasn't at all. As the applause died down, he stepped to the front of the stage, pointed his bow at me and said, 'When I was the same age as this little boy in the fourth row, I listened to Fritz Kreisler in concert.' Kreisler was a violinist from the 1920s and '30s, of the same calibre as Szeryng. 'Kreisler', he continued, 'saw me in the audience and dedicated his encore to me at the end, namely Tempo di Minuetto, which he had composed himself. And tonight' - he looked at me again - 'I am playing Tempo di Minuetto by Fritz Kreisler for you, young man.' This Tempo di Minuetto is a heartbreakingly romantic piece, a sweet little lullaby for a little prince, and he played it for me. Perhaps this moment was the initial spark. In any case, it wasn't long before my father pressed my first violin, a little child's violin, into my hands.

The violin is a curious instrument. Maybe this is something I should save for later, but then again I absolutely have to talk about it now, because - what would I be without my violin? I have asked myself this question again and again throughout my life, trying to imagine a life without a violin, and I haven't been able to, because I'm violin-obsessed. I just love violins; they have an irresistible allure for me, and not only because of the music - it's the violin itself that has me hooked, because I have experienced too much with it; the awful and the amazing. And anyone wanting to understand me needs to understand this instrument before embarking on my life journey with me. So for anyone who has never played a violin, I want to briefly explain what makes it different from other musical instruments.

If you want to make music, there are basically four different ways of creating sounds (leaving aside the human voice for the moment). You can press air through holes, in which case the sound is determined by keeping some holes shut and others open - that's how flutes, trumpets, clarinets and organs work. That's method #1. Or you can strike an object, whether with your fingers or with sticks or mallets - this is the case for pianos, drums, triangles and xylophones, and it's method #2. Then you can get strings to vibrate by plucking them, such as with guitars or harps. That's method #3.

Bowed instruments such as the violin and cello add a fourth option to this