2024-10-18 06:45:00
David Garrett has become popular with his reinterpretations of famous songs – now he presents a kind of revue of the great pop stars of recent years. In fact, he too would like to invite her to dinner.
Aachen/New York.
“That’s Taylor Swift!”, “And that’s Ed Sheeran, right?”, “Wasn’t that Harry Styles?”: Anyone listening to violinist David Garrett’s new album can easily check whether he’s in it… or not for the last 25 years he has lived musically in step with the times.
You won’t find any dignified but often over-the-top classics from the ’70s, ’80s or ’90s in his latest work “Millennium Symphony” (out Oct. 18). Garrett, famous for his arrangements of famous songs for violin, decided to start looking for fresh material at the turn of the millennium.
Why? It has to do with the previous album “Iconic”, as he says. It was different. “It was an album with a selection of classical songs that I reworked,” Garrett tells the German Press Agency. He toured the world for a year and a half. “For me as an artist, it’s obviously exciting to make a radical change after a project like this,” he says. “So I felt it was right to do something that was a little more modern and updated.”
Don’t be accused of not feeling something
The result is “the biggest hits in recent pop history in a monumental, genre-crossing review of the highest class,” as the accompanying material rather cheekily puts it: for example, “Shake It Off” (Taylor Swift), “Blinding Lights” (The Weeknd), “As It Was” (Harry Styles), “Shape Of You” (Ed Sheeran), “Flowers” (Miley Cyrus) and – a German phenomenon – “Komet” (Udo Lindenberg & Apache 207).
Some songs are even a more special choice – like “Welcome To The Black Parade” (My Chemical Romance) and “Mein Herz brennt” (Rammstein). In some cases it is surprising that a violin piece can be developed from this – in others the use of Garrett’s flagship instrument seems very organic and almost inevitable.
He looked for pieces that worked well on the violin and with which he had a connection. “Of course there are one or two songs on the album that aren’t necessarily at the top of my personal playlist. But as I was writing I recognized a quality in these songs that captivated me,” says Garrett.
The best example of this is “Despacito”, the big summer hit. “I pushed myself to see how far I could go, I didn’t want to be accused of not trying something,” says the violinist.
Garrett has known how his work has been discussed since he was 13 – status: child prodigy! – received his first recording contract. Connoisseurs of classical music certainly appreciate the skills of the violinist from Aachen, while other parts of the public find his attention to mass taste, his rock star attitude and self-promotions as “a new stroke of crossover genius” in relation to album worth laughing A. “David Hasselhoff of the classics”, you’ve already read something like that.
Entertainment in classical music? It’s always been there
If you interpret him correctly, Garrett remains rather cold. “Millennium Symphony,” for example, was not written for classical music purists. And attributions like “David Hasselhoff of the classics” never came from the well-informed features section. However, he finds it strange that one can fall into disrepute for making fun music.
Classical composers always wanted to entertain, after the era of baroque music, which had a church atmosphere. “This aspect of entertainment, which has existed in classical music for centuries, is often overshadowed,” says the violinist. In 2025 he will go on a world tour. There will probably still be a lot of people.
Garrett doesn’t know if the musicians who sang the originals know his songs. There is contact with the labels, because you need the OK to modify an original. “I can’t say 100% whether my edits ultimately reached the artists themselves,” he says.
“I don’t know if Taylor Swift listens to my stuff.” However, he would have been very interested in this because he was also fascinated by the people behind the successes. “I would love to invite Taylor Swift to dinner and talk to her about her music, obviously.” (dpa)
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