Berlin to Bucharest: A Direct Line to Enescu
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Below: the opening ninety seconds of the conversation. The street, the door, the smile, the violin already in the room — and the cadence of David’s voice, in English, while Mădălina lays the Romanian narration over the top.
Full transcript · English · Italiano · Español
We’ve transcribed and translated the complete interview — available in English, Italian and Spanish right here on the site (use the language switcher in the top bar). What follows is the full conversation as it aired on Observator: Mădălina’s narration and David’s answers, in the order they ran on screen.
[Berlin · David Garrett's home · between two concerts]
MĂDĂLINA IACOB (voiceover)
Just 66 seconds for The Flight of the Bumblebee. Today, we meet the man who changed the world’s perception of what a violin can be. And I hope this interview lasts a little longer than 66 seconds. Come along with me.
[At David's door]
VOICES (mixed greetings)
“Hello David!” · “Nice to meet you, David!”
DAVID GARRETT
“Pleasure.”
MĂDĂLINA (voiceover)
We met between two concerts, in Berlin. The city he happens to live in. But it could have been anywhere — Paris, Las Vegas, Madrid. His life is one continuous tour, more than thirty years long, ever since he first picked up a Stradivarius — a gift from the President of Germany — and set out into the world with one clear goal: to conquer it. In his own unique style.
INTERVIEWER
“How did you feel when you broke the world record?”
DAVID
“I do that pretty much every day. My teacher, Itzhak Perlman, always said to me — the most important thing in order to play fast is to practice slowly.”
MĂDĂLINA (voiceover)
He was 28 when he entered the Guinness Book of Records, becoming the world’s fastest violinist with thirteen musical notes per second. He’s also the one who turned classical music into super hits, and the great hits into one-of-a-kind moments on stage. His repertoire ranges from Michael Jackson and Beethoven to Metallica and Vivaldi, from Rihanna and Beyoncé to Chopin and Bach. Two styles that only seem different, David says.
DAVID (on mixing genres)
“It’s like choosing between drinking and eating. If you do that, you’ll eventually die — at least in my life, if I don’t do one of them. For me, they belong to each other. In the end it’s all about playing the violin. Look, if you want me to play Mozart, it has more or less the same line as something from Harry Styles. So for me, they all fit together.”
MĂDĂLINA (question)
“Tell us about your connection to George Enescu.”
DAVID
“I have a direct connection to Enescu, because my teacher, Ida Haendel, worked with him. She was one of his students — and he had only a few students. So that’s where my connection with George Enescu began. And he, too, played a Guarneri.”
MĂDĂLINA (voiceover — about the violin)
His violin — one of the oldest and most expensive in the world — which he calls the love of his life. A Guarneri del Gesù, named The Baltic.
DAVID
“The violin, and especially this beautiful Guarneri del Gesù — it’s called The Baltic, and it is definitely the love of my life. I was on tour when I first saw it, in New York, at Tarisio’s auction house. The finest Guarneri to come up at auction in the last thirty, thirty-five years — and I fell in love with it. A few months later, someone else bought this violin, and I almost bought it; I kept thinking, almost up to the last minutes before the auction closed — it was a lot of money. After the auction, I got a phone call telling me that this buyer wanted me to play the violin. Wow! I didn’t have to pay anything — and I got the love of my life.”
MĂDĂLINA (voiceover)
It cost over three million euros, and with it he has won over three million spectators across his tours. The world has come to know him this way — but he himself has barely had time to come to know the world.
INTERVIEWER
“If you had to give up the violin, what would you do?”
DAVID
“I’d go on a very long vacation. I’d leave the baby at home, and I’d get to explore the cities, the countryside…”
MĂDĂLINA (voiceover)
There’s been a more beautiful side to his life these past fifteen years. He has prepared a new tour, for our soul. On the 18th of September, he’ll be at Sala Palatului.
DAVID (about the Bucharest concert)
“Expect the unexpected! The most famous and best songs of the last twenty years — pop, rock, EDM, R&B. We play Avicii, Beyoncé, Rihanna, The Weeknd. Very fresh, of course — with the band, but in a classical manner.”
[End graphic: 18 September 2026 · Sala Palatului · Bucharest]
Romanian narration translated by The Strings Society. David Garrett’s English replies preserved verbatim. Light cleanup applied for readability.
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The piece carries one very gentle bombshell. Asked about his connection to George Enescu, Garrett doesn’t hesitate:
Ida Haendel — the great Polish-British violinist who studied under Enescu in Paris in the 1930s — passed that lineage on to David. It’s the kind of detail that turns a familiar name into a quiet inheritance, and it’s why this interview, on Romanian television, lands a little differently.
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From Enescu’s Guarneri the conversation drifts naturally to David’s own — The Baltic, a Guarneri del Gesù he calls the love of my life.
He almost bought it himself — he kept thinking, almost up to the last minute of the auction. (It was a great deal of money.) Someone else won it. Then a phone call came: the new owner wanted David to play the violin.
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And then, the news that brought all of this to Romanian television in the first place. David is coming back to Bucharest: 18 September 2026 · Sala Palatului.
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Mădălina also shared a brief glimpse from her own Instagram — a few seconds of the visit, before the cameras rolled:
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Read the full article (in Romanian) on Observator. Interview by Mădălina Iacob and Loredana Popovici, filmed in Berlin. Behind-the-scenes glimpse via @madalina.iacob on Instagram. All footage and quotes © Observator / Antena Group.