‘Unfortunately I have to stay here for at least another week, it’s terrible,’ says my girlfriend when I visit her in the rehabilitation center. I can’t really share her concern, the interior is luxurious with the large palms in the hall and the staff are exceptionally nice. She bends towards me in the wheelchair: “Would you like to do something for me? At the end of this month, a student of mine has to take the entrance exam for the conservatory, for the second time already. Becoming a professional violinist is his life’s dream, he just doesn’t want to give it up.” She puts her hand on mine. “Would you give him a few lessons until I can get out of here?” I look at her in surprise, and say: “But I don’t play the violin!” She squeezes my fingers. “You are a musician, that is enough.”
Two days later, the boy in my study timidly unpacks his violin, asks nothing and immediately starts playing. I guess Paganini, but which of the 24 caprices? The violin is not very good, but his fingers fly over the strings in an extraordinarily light way, working extremely well with the bow and forcing the instrument to appear better than it actually is. My reserve succumbs to the wondrous sound that delights not only me. My mouth pops open as my cat purrs and folds its body into a circle and listens. He never does that to me! Paganini’s brilliant violin runs now resemble rolling pebbles that my cat – wallowing from side to side – tries to grab with all four paws. My enthusiasm for the boy cools: why doesn’t that sweet cat never do that to me?
After an hour of intensive violin lessons (and the enviable cat happiness) I ask as indifferently as possible: “Funny that the cat prefers your violin playing.” But because he also gives cups to the boy, I keep silent that my cat doesn’t like my viola.
“I love cats,” the boy smiles and strokes my darling, “Do you know the Fantasia dei Gatti?”
No, I shake my head firmly.
“Augustin Hadelich, once a child prodigy, now an award-winning violinist and a cat lover, has shot an animated film in which he plays the 17th caprice to a pair of dancing cats. He is my idol.”
“Because of the video?” I ask.
“In his youth”, the boy is again distracted by the jump of my cat on his lap, “Hadelich was seriously injured in a fire. The chance that he would become a violinist was nil. He just didn’t want to give up.”
Eva Maria Wagner is a viola player and writer.
A version of this article also appeared in the July 4, 2023 newspaper.