David Garrett

Garrett, live (2010)

David Garrett (* 4. September 1980 as David Christian Bongartz in Aachen ) is a German violinist . At times he was the fastest violinist in the world.

Life

Childhood and youth, first career in classical music

Garrett was born the middle of the three children of the German lawyer and violin auctioneer Georg Paul Bongartz and the American prima ballerina Dove-Marie Garrett. His sister is the singer Elena (Bongartz). At the age of four he made his first attempts at the violin. His father, who worked part-time as a violin teacher, gave him his first violin lessons. At the age of five, Garrett won a prize in the Jugend musiziert competition . When he was eight, the parents decided to have the boy perform under his mother's name, as Garrett sounded more familiar than Bongartz . At the age of nine he made his debut at the Kissinger Sommer Festival . At the age of twelve he received his first recording contract and at the age of 13 was already under an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon . Together with Claudio Abbado he played Mozart violin concertos. Yehudi Menuhin called him the "greatest violinist of his generation" . Garrett says he practiced the violin for eight hours a day. From 1990 to 1991 Garrett was tutored by Zakhar Bron . From 1992 he was a student of Ida Haendel .

After graduating from the Einhard-Gymnasium in Aachen , Garrett enrolled at the Royal College of Music in nearby London for the sake of his parents , although he actually wanted to go to New York . But he soon had to leave school because he never attended lectures, and at the age of 19 moved to his brother, who was then living and studying in New York. Garrett said in an interview: "Everything was imposed on me: what to play, where to perform, what to say and not to say in interviews."

In 1999 he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School , where he studied under Itzhak Perlman . In 2003 he won the school's composition competition with a fugue in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach .

Second career, crossover music

In the following years he tried to re-establish himself as a musician despite resistance. As his own career manager, he came up with the concept for a crossover album that he produced together with the London record label Decca . The album was never released because the record company wasn't convinced it would work. He made his breakthrough in Germany in 2006 with the Berlin concert promoter DEAG , which relies heavily on the event character of classical concerts and took over Garrett's cross-over project. A new image was tailored for him, that of the violin rebel . In 2014 his crossover project was continued with a tour across Germany.

In 2009 he designed a t-shirt collection for the s.Oliver fashion house and in 2010 he launched his own perfume with matching shower gel called Rock Symphonies .

As an actor

In 2013, Garrett played the lead role as Niccolò Paganini in Bernard Rose's literary adaptation, The Devil's Violinist . Garrett was also executive producer here .

Instruments

At the age of 13, the Aachen Talbot Foundation provided him with a violin made by Antonio Stradivari for several years , the San Lorenzo from 1718. Since 2003 he has owned a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini from 1772 (this was made in Seriously damaged in a fall in 2008). Since 2010 he has been playing a Stradivarius again (made available by the owner , who remains anonymous): The ex A. Busch from 1716, which was owned by the violinist Adolf Busch from 1913 to 1933 .

reception

successes

From the end of May 2008 to April 2010 he was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the fastest violinist in the world. In an appearance on the British children's TV show Blue Peter Garrett played the Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov error-free in just 66.56 seconds, which is 13 notes per second. He undercut his own record on December 20, 2008 at the Guinness World Records Show by 1.3 seconds with a time of 65.26 seconds. On April 7, 2010 he was beaten by Ben Lee : Lee needed 64.21 seconds for the same piece. From 2008 to 2009 Garrett was UNESCO Ambassador .

On October 17, 2010, Garrett was awarded the Echo Klassik , the renowned music prize of the German Phono Academy , in Essen for his top position in record sales as bestseller of the year . Only a few months later he received two echoes at the 20th Echo Music Awards on March 24, 2011, one in the category Most Successful Music DVD Production (national) and the other in the category Artist Rock / Pop (national) . On October 26, 2014, he was awarded another Echo Klassik in the bestseller of the year category for his album Garrett vs. Paganini excellent.

criticism

In the press he was described as a “particularly high-pitched example of a brilliant violinist who fails anyway”, as a “television violinist”, “ Jörg Pilawa of classical music”, or “ David Hasselhoff of classical music”. His music is criticized, among other things, as "soft porn pop classic junk food".

Garrett regularly rejects the criticism as "music snobbery " and emphasizes his claim to want to reach population groups with his mix of serious and popular music who would otherwise stay away from classical music.

Discography

→ Main article : David Garrett / Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)					Remarks
		DE	AT	CH	UK	US
1994	Violin sonata	-	-	-	-	-	First published: November 1, 1994
1995	Mozart: violin concertos KV 218 and 271a, sonata for piano and violin in B flat major KV 454 with Claudio Abbado	-	-	-	-	-	First published: October 23, 1995
1997	Paganini Caprices	-	-	-	-	-	First published: March 25, 1997
2001	Tchaikovsky, Conus: Violin Concertos	-	-	-	-	-	First published: October 22, 2001
2002	Pure Classics	-	-	-	-	-	First published: December 2, 2002
2005	No dress code	-	-	-	-	-	First published: 2005, only in Japan
2007	Free	-	-	-	-	-	First published: March 2nd, 2007
	Virtuoso	DE32 × 3 Triple gold (44 weeks)DE	AT51 (2 weeks) AT	CH96 (1 week) CH	UK17 (3 weeks) UK	-	First published: November 16, 2007 Sales: + 300,000
2008	Encore also known as: David Garrett (US version)	DE7th × 5 Quintuple gold (114 weeks)DE	AT9 gold (58 weeks)AT	CH31 (31 weeks) CH	-	US116 (6 weeks) US	First published: October 24, 2008 Sales: +510,000
2009	Classic romance	DE4th platinum (49 weeks)DE	AT12 (17 weeks) AT	CH21 (18 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: November 6, 2009 Sales: + 200,000
2010	Rock Symphonies	DE1 × 5 Quintuple gold (72 weeks)DE	AT3 × 2 Double platinum (46 weeks)AT	CH4 (30 weeks) CH	UK21 (4 weeks) UK	US41 (7 weeks) US	First published: September 24, 2010 Sales: + 540,000
2011	Legacy	DE6th platinum (19 weeks)DE	AT8th gold (10 weeks)AT	CH18 (12 weeks) CH	UK87 (1 week) UK	-	First published: November 4th, 2011 Sales: + 210,000
2012	Music	DE2 × 2 Double platinum (50 weeks)DE	AT3 platinum (54 weeks)AT	CH7 (25 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: October 12, 2012 Sales: + 420,000
2013	Garrett vs. Paganini also known as: Caprice (British version)	DE8th gold (14 weeks)DE	AT5 platinum (11 weeks)AT	CH19 (11 weeks) CH	UK60 (1 week) UK	-	First published: October 25, 2013 Sales: + 115,000
2014	Timeless - Brahms & Bruch Violin Concertos with Zubin Mehta & the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra	DE11 gold (13 weeks)DE	AT9 (9 weeks) AT	CH25 (9 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: October 24, 2014 Sales: + 100,000
2015	Explosive with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra	DE4th gold (20 weeks)DE	AT4th gold (19 weeks)AT	CH7 (18 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: October 9, 2015 Sales: + 107,500
2017	Rock revolution	DE5 gold (20 weeks)DE	AT5 gold (23 weeks)AT	CH12 (15 weeks) CH	-	-	First published: September 15, 2017 Sales: + 107,500

Awards

• Bambi
  • 2013: Classical category

• ECHO
  • ECHO classic
    • 2008: for classics without borders
    • 2010: Best seller of the year for his album Classic Romance
    • 2012 bestseller of the year for his album Legacy
    • 2014 bestseller of the year for his album Garrett vs. Paganini
    • 2015 bestseller of the year for his album Timeless
  • ECHO Pop
    • 2011: for most successful music DVD production (national)
    • 2011: for artists rock / pop (national)
    • 2013: for artists rock / pop (national)

• Golden camera
  • 2010: for Best International Music

• Golden feather
  • 2009

• Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
  • 2011

• Frankfurt Music Prize
  • 2017

• BZ culture award
  • 2020

literature

• Michael Fuchs-Gamböck , Thorsten Schatz: David Garrett. The rebel with the violin . 1st edition. Knaur-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-426-78431-0 .
• Carolin Pirich: On both strings . In: The time . No. 6. January 31, 2013.

Web links

Commons : David Garrett  - Collection of Images

• David Garrett in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Official website of David Garrett
• Detailed interview with David Garrett on planet-interview.de
• Burkhard Schäfer: David Garrett: "Music is not a religion". In: zeit.de. January 15, 2009, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
• Frederik Hanssen: Star violinist: Good strings, bad strings. In: zeit.de. January 6, 2010, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
• Interview with David Garrett at the Swiss classic portal Classicpoint.ch

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johannes Rothenbaum: David Garrett: The exclusive biography . 1st edition. mvg Verlag, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86882-478-0 , p. 12 f. “The question of when it all began is hotly debated by fans of the virtuoso. The fact that David Garrett's birthday is on September 4th is undisputed among his supporters, but the year in which he was born is causing controversy. While some maintain stiffly and firmly that Garrett was born in 1980, others commit themselves to 1981 with the same vehemence. Garrett himself has done little to explain the matter in the past. Rather, he occasionally stated 1981 in interviews, but on the other hand confirmed 1980 as the year of his birth when asked. In this never-ending discussion, it is forgotten - or ignored - that there has long been an official statement: Garrett was born on Thursday, September 4th, 1980. "
2. ↑ Garrett's grandmother's obituary - accessed March 16, 2013
3. ↑ David Garrett Support - Biography ( Memento of the original from August 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ www.kultiversum.de accessed on March 10, 2013
5. ↑ http://www.musik-heute.de/10641/kissinger-sommer-intendantin-wuensche-mir-mehr-jugendliche-in-konzertsaelen/
6. ↑ ^{a b} Carolin Pirich: Violinist David Garrett: On both strings. In: zeit.de. February 9, 2013, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
7. ↑ David Garrett: Always felt sadness as a child ( Memento from September 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) In: noz.de from June 18, 2009, accessed on December 14, 2014
8. ↑ Interview with star violinist David Garrett: Pullern on Broadway. In: stern.de. April 24, 2008, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
9. ↑ Kai Luehrs-kaiser: Walked through the dirt. In: welt.de . February 9, 2008, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
10. ↑ The old “Wunderkind” brand became the new “Geigenrebell” brand. Zeit Online, accessed March 11, 2013 . 
11. ↑ ROCK SYMPHONIES: Star violinist David Garrett brings his first fragrance line onto the market. (No longer available online.) Online magazine COSMOTY.de, archived from the original on November 26, 2015 ; Retrieved March 12, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ↑ Cordula Dieckmann: David Garrett plays the devil violinist Paganini. In: Welt Online . September 17, 2012, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
13. ↑ Experience: I crushed my £ 1m violin , The Guardian, April 16, 2011
14. ↑ Busch Stradivari evidence
15. ↑ Description of the Busch Stradivari from the Bongartz website
16. ↑ Ben Lee from FUSE Break Official Violin World Speed ​​Record in: prlog.org of August 7, 2010, accessed October 25, 2010
17. ↑ www.news.de ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
18. ↑ Harald Eggebrecht: violinist David Garrett - From the tragedy of a former boy prodigy. In: sueddeutsche.de. November 18, 2011, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
19. ↑ Tobias Rüther: The television magic violinist on duty. In: FAZ.net . November 20, 2011, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
20. ↑ Frederik Hanssen: Star violinist: Good strings, bad strings. In: zeit.de. January 6, 2010, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
21. ↑ Burkhard Schäfer: David Garrett: "Music is not a religion". In: zeit.de. January 15, 2009, accessed December 14, 2014 . 
22. ↑ www.david-garrett.com
23. ↑ David Garrett receives an ECHO Klassik for “Best Seller of the Year”. ( Memento from April 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Website echoklassik.de, July 30, 2012, accessed on October 14, 2012.
24. ↑ www.david-garrett.com