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Violinist back on his feet after £60,000 slip
By Jonathan Prynn, Evening Standard 12.02.08With his brooding good looks, tattoos and blond hair, David Garrett has been dubbed the Beckham of the violin.
But it was more like a stunt from a Mr Bean movie when the rising classical music star tripped and fell on his beloved 298-year-old Stradivarius after a concert at the Barbican.
The disaster left Garrett's rare instrument badly mangled and needing £60,000 worth of repairs.
It will be out of action for up to eight months with no guarantee it will ever sound as good again.
The accident meant the 26-year-old was left without a violin worthy of a virtuoso for a Valentine's Night concert - again at the Barbican - where he is due to play Bruch's Violin Concerto.
However, at the last minute he has been offered a loan of another Stradivarius from the "Golden Period" of 1705 to 1720.
It is being flown in from Milan to be presented to German-born Garrett by Marylebone violin dealers J&A Beare today.
The violin, made in 1718, is worth millions of pounds and comes with its own three-man security detail - led, coincidentally, by David Beckham's former minder Paul Hughes.
Garrett said: "I had just played a concert. I was all packed up and ready to go when I slipped and fell. People said it was as if I'd trodden on a banana skin.
"I fell down a flight of steps and onto the case. When I opened it the violin was in pieces. I was just sitting there on the floor, I couldn't speak and I couldn't get up. I didn't even know if I was hurt - I didn't care," he said.
"I have had that violin for eight years. It was like losing a dear friend. I have been looking around for the past few weeks but I was starting to get scared. Then I got a call from my manager to say we have been offered a Golden Period Strad. The guy had heard my playing in Milan and said we could have it for nothing."
Garrett's managers at Universal have insisted on security and insurance. "Since I trashed one they are determined there is not going to be a second time," he said.
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Once when he was young our great violinist Aldo Ferraresi (1902-1978) beloved pupil of Ysaye, fell on the Strad Ysaye had lent to him, and destroyed it. Ysaye pardoned him after saying: "You are a stupid".
But this does not mean that Garrett is anything similar to the great Ferraresi, except perhaps for this wreck!
- Gianluca La Villa, Ferrara, Italy
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