RM: This women thing can't work, when the violin is always in between.

David: Right, but on the other hand, it's something that I do for so many years and it has shaped me. Of course it is difficult with a committed relationship, I frankly have to admit.

RM: How time-consuming is it to be David Garrett?

David: Well, there is always plenty to do, but I....

RM: No, I don't mean your schedule, but your styling, the practising, of.....the whole time I look at ......to be honest, I have the best seat here....all the time I look at the insanely long lashes. (David: okay.) This is crazy. (David: Thank you. You also have beautiful eyelashes.) Thank you. Now we are on a first name. Are you still there (Note: she means the audience, because she looks only to David) Are they real?

David: Pull at them....If you will find out, you have to pull.....so, you got one?

RM: That would be cool. I could have wished something, that it finally would work with love or something. ....

David: Yes, if one falls out....but it's not working right now. If one falls out during the show, then....

RM: ...then, in any case I wish something for you....reminds me that we are on a first-name. I am Ruth.....

David: ......David. I am Garrett.

RM: How time-consuming is all this? It is all real?

David: All real! Even the hair colour now, which was a bit lighter and now after the movie we couldn't get it back to how it was before the movie, so I'll walk around like this for some time. In the meantime they are a bit broken off and it is better not to put in any extra. Now it really is all natural.

RM: We got countless calls. Does he really come? What hotel does he live in? Probably thousands of teenagers are camping now in front of this hotel.

David: .....sorry, I have to laugh, but....

RM: It is like this, right?

David: I don't notice this at all.

RM: Why not?

David: Well, because I always have my staff around me. They pull me from A to B. Yesterday we were in 3 cities. I woke up in London....

RM: Wait a second...you were in 3 cities, yesterday?

David: Oh well, the day before yesterday I played in London, flew over to Munich yesterday morning to play for the ZDF and in the evening went to Leipzig, of course, to be here.

RM: Thank you for being here, for all this stress.

David: What shall I do? That is fun. I think the best thing you can have in life is eventually finding a career that is certainly exhausting, but efforts are still something beautiful; just as Mr. Grönemeyer has correctly said, sports and good nutrition. Sure it is hard work but it has also a result and I think the best in life is, if something has a result.

RM: Well, you are doing something like 150 performances a year in the classical field, quite a lot of promotion; and now the cross-over, too. Of course, there are many critics who say eeeeh, he is wasting his talent. This is very bad. Why are you doing this?

David: Actually there is a big reason. I started very early with the instrument and I have very very early gotten a contract with Deutsche Grammophon. At this time I was 13. I was not self-determined at that moment. That means, my parents were the ones who said he has talent which should be encouraged. In this respect things moved very quickly. The first concert as a soloist with an orchestra at 10, signed a record deal at 12, better my parents signed for me. I wasn't able to decide for myself as much. What also struck me very much as a child: the environment! I saw many many - at that age - old people; you see it like this at the age of 13 or 14, old people which was okay. But I thought where are all the girls and boys my age? Why didn't they come to my concert? And then I moved to New York and have everything questioned a bit: Why do you make music? What is the reason? I love music but also think you have to work a bit more to get the audience. Which kind of audience is it you want to work hard for? For me there was only one thought: people my age, young people and this should be done with the music that might not be so familiar and perhaps not exactly known to them. That was the task I have set myself.

RM: Can you relate to the bad reviews? With the record company it was supposedly not as easy to implement, if it goes in the direction of pop.

David: Well, the paper needs to be filled; sometimes negative sells better than positive. This is the way it is.  Can I understand it? No.

RM: Roger Willems (note: writer and TV-host), it is also a bit like this in literature. Old literature is the good one and honourable and the new, the pop-culture, is spoken a bit condescendingly about. Can you compare it?

Roger Willems: It's hard to compare, because in literature the denial has a rather restrictive approach. Meaning the books are rather old-fashioned. They sound like they have been written in the 19th century. At the moment there is no real dramatic Modern.

David: But time cannot be a measure of good or bad.

Roger Willems: Yes, exactly!

David: Well, I mean there is great music been written today and also great music created 300 years ago. But there is also bad music that was written 300 years ago. You cannot take that as a measure.

RM: If you look at photos and moving pictures of earlier material from you....I thought by myself oh man, from a Dachshund to a Labrador.

David:.....I have also thought of it just now..... (every one laughs)   I see the human decay....

RM: Such a cutie, cuddly one....and today he is such a hotty...

David: I think I am still cute.

RM: ....in any case, but it's been like in the other direction...

David: But Ruth...are you really see it that way...Darling...

RM: Well, just look at it, so sweet and  so....but (David: yeeeessss) Yes, you are getting older.

David: But it has also something beautiful. Age is certainly....sometimes I lie there and think,  geez, you really would like to live through it again but then I say: no, better not. In so far it has been a good thing. All the things you have acquired. All these experiences that make you the person you are today and this is not to miss.

RM: That sounds very wise for a Labrador.

Jan Hofer to Karin Baal (actress, 72): Now you told me, in your whole life you've never ask for an autograph.

Karin Baal: Yes.

JH: We want to change it today.

Karin Baal: Yes

JH: How?

Karin Ball: I would like one from Garrett

David: Of course, of course.

Karin Baal: ...no autographs.....never in my life before....

JH: She even bought an album.

David: I am so excited. I do not really know which one it is, the classical or the cross-over , but it is always a great honour, because, of course, you also meet people who listen to music with pleasure in such a group.

JH: Yes, especially on all ages and that is great.

David: Yeah, music is like this. I always say, sports are for the body, music for the

mind. I think both should be given the same weight, as well.

JH: You handle the fiddle so easily.

David: I have this fiddle since....how old am I?...32...I go close with it since 27 years. I know exactly where you have to be careful and where not. 

Dietrich Grönemeyer (doctor and brother of a very famous German musician): For children the singing is also very important and to experience music. We know from our neuron-psychology that when you sing, if you listen to music while learning and thereby also move, much more remains in the long-term memory and it also makes more fun to learn what is offered, That is why music goes through all generations.

David: What I've noticed in my life, and how you said correctly, these are the 2 things that the body needs; sports to let the energy out and also the mind needs something....and for me it always was music. I think that this is also an important aspect....must be.

JH: True. What I just have described so disrespectfully as a fiddle is a Stradivarius.

David: Yes, it is an original from 1716. The paint is a bit off, but that's it with these instruments.

JH: What value does she have?

David: It is relatively expensive, I must say. Of course, it is an advantage if you can find a Stradivarius in a good condition, meaning there is no bottom-chemise: partly you have some cracks in here....

JH: So a few millions you have to put on the table, right?

David: This sounds as if you just throw a chunk of bucks on the table and say, where is the violin.

JH: Well, usually such an instrument you can only get loaned. You can only use it during a certain time period, because it is something for eternity, right?

David: Right, yes. I am really some one who pays extremely close attention to it. I have a huge respect not only in terms of the tone but also on the design; this is truly a work of art. And therefore I am very very careful with all my instruments.

JH: I believe this. It always sounds like ah, it costs so much money but this is not a measure for this kind of instrument, because it will be passed on from generation to generation.

David: Yes. Of course, there are instruments that are not so great, but still good. For many concerts I have a second violin; especially when you have to play outside, where the weather conditions are not necessarily optimal. I use this instrument really only when...here at the Gewandhaus, for example, if it is Leipzig, or in Berlin in the Philharmonic. Then of course you have the best of everything. I think, this is what you like to give to the music.

JH: Can you insure it?

David: You must insure it.

JH: Terrible if something would happen to it; unthinkable. Previously we have talked about who you would have liked to be and actually the answer is obvious: of course, Paganini. That was the great violinist virtuoso from Italy; I think it was a great role model for you. But didn't it give you a bit of torture, when practising?

David: Yes, Paganini is the scale of every young violinist, who must also be measured with virtuosity. I believe that the music is always dominant.  However, when you learn an instrument, first you have to learn the base. In this case the base is to control technical as well as possible. Accordingly, Paganini is the one where you have to compete. At 15 I recorded the 24 Caprices and have worked very hard.

JH: He never performed it at concerts.

David: He himself has never played it at concerts. He wrote them as etudes. These are really crazy challenging.....I can play some....I have not warmed up....

JH: This is just wonderful! You did a movie....you have embodied him in a movie. He was black-haired, I think, right?

David: Correct.

JH: Did you wear a wig or how did you do it?

David: They have dyed my hair black, radically. Because of them saying, we'll get you back to blond without problems in a few hours, I said, okay great, let's get them black.

JH: And? Were you back to blond again in a few hours?

David: No, unfortunately not. At the end of the shooting I had the same guy who dyed my hair black and he said, okay, it takes 2 hours, no problem. After 10 hours we still sat there and I had seen some meshed hair in the alum-foil and then I said, okay, colleague, that's it, I'm off to sleep now, goodbye. Well, I didn't go back...have gone somewhere else and have my natural colour for the time being. I think, it needs a few more months.

JH: Dear Ruth, as you are so close with David now, Could you please find out how he smells? Would you do it?

David: I showered, Ruth.

RM: .......but only for professional reasons, Mr Hofer!

David: I never use perfume or something.

RM: To be honest, he smells like gingerbread. That's nice, isn't it?....Yummy

JH: You have your own perfume line.

David: Yes, but quite honestly, I only use the shower gel. Perfume....I travel with very very small luggage. Accordingly I have as little as possible with me; just because I have to cope with one suitcase for 3 to 4 months. And if something breaks in the suitcase, this is not necessarily a good thing. I mean, I am always a friend of the less smell - also with perfume - the better. If needed, then just a tiny bit.

JH: If so, are you taking your own perfume or something different?

David: Currently, I am not using anything at all.

RM: He lubricates gingerbread behind his ears.

David: I like to eat sweets. Perhaps this is why.