h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Nigel Kennedy - he fell off his bike and broke his arm. And I've got tickets for a concert on 13 December. According to http://www.nigelkennedy.com/, he's only cancelled up to 29th November and should be playing in Berlin on 12 December.

Hope he's OK.

Trillian your links not working

Does beg the question on how he thinks he's going to play with a broken arm

Hi! it's probably due to the comma being right at the end. Here we go again

http://www.nigelkennedy.com/

still don't know how he thinks he's going to play with a broken arm. Takes some skill playing the violin, let alone to play it like he does.

Fell off his bike? Makes it sound like his fault ... of course, it *could* have been his fault.

How will he play with a broken arm? I imagine if it probably makes a difference a) how well the bone knits together in the time, and b) which arm it is. I imagine the bowing arm gets a lot more movement than the fretting arm.

I do hope that he's recovered by the time of your concert, TC.

Had a look at the website you gave the link to and it made me smile.

I heard that Nigel wasn't touring at the moment because security restrictions on planes mean that he can't bring his Stradivarius with him.

You can just imagine someone saying "Yes, you *must* put your £1million+ instrument in the hold with everyone else's luggage" can't you.

once baggage handlers got hold of it, it would end up as very expensive Stradivarius matchsticks

Good job he didn't have it with him on his bike.

Well, he's extended his recovery time on doctors' advice. And quite right, too - he should do a bit of practice before standing up in front of people who've paid a fortune to go and hear him play.

Our concert has been rescheduled for 22 February.

My mum's x-ray has been postponed because of a broken x-ray machine - hopefully that will be ok next week, and not only in February next year.

It seems it's his left arm that's injured, but I can't find more details than that. http://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?hl=1&n=&t=&a=&p=&k=Kennedy&archived=0&storyID=14824&categoryID=2&cookies=1
(I notice that that URL sets cookies. Here it is without cookies, which works for mehttp://www.musicalamerica.com/news/newsstory.cfm?hl=1&n=&t=&a=&p=&k=Kennedy&archived=0&storyID=14824&categoryID=2
His site is interesting. His current violin is a Guarneri, the one that Tchaikovsky's violin concerto was premiered on in 1881, apparently. Guarneris are the violins that Stradivari owners covet.

His tour is based on his jazz CD; he certainly can cross the boundaries. I remember hearing him some years ago on TV saying "here's something I've been working on" and then playing the violin making it sound just like a saxophone -- something that up to then I couldn't have imagined possible.

Hm, inadvertent smiley there; I typed colon-closeparentheses.

: ) without the space gives you

Doesn't matter - you're quite welcome to in my journal!

The tour is based on the jazz programme, but I think he's already taken that round Germany. The programme for the concerts in Mannheim and Karlsruhe is classical:

Mozart concerto no.4 in D Major
and
Beethoven concerto in D major opus 61

Last summer he toured with the Klezmer group he had going. There was a concert near here, but I missed it, so I'm determined to see him whatever he's playing this time!