Bizarre Court Case Puts a Violinist, and Leipzig String Quartet, in an Unflattering Light

The New York Times ^ | 12 June 2015 | Michael Cooper

[Theoria]

The violinist Stefan Arzberger had planned to play the music of Beethoven, Haydn and Mendelssohn with his colleagues in the Leipzig String Quartet later this month at Wigmore Hall in London, where he fondly recalls once sipping sherry with patrons after a concert.

Instead he finds himself facing a charge of attempted murder in New York City, accused of barging naked into the room of a 64-year-old woman at a Midtown hotel he was staying in while on tour this spring and trying to strangle her. His defense is hardly less lurid: His lawyers say he was drugged by a prostitute he had brought to his room earlier that night.

In his first extended English-language interview since his arrest, Mr. Arzberger — who has received support from a number of musicians, including Kurt Masur, the former music director of the New York Philharmonic, who conducted him in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra — said he did not remember what happened in the early morning hours of March 27, when the attack took place, according to a criminal complaint.

“I spend my time now investigating what happened that night, to find out — because I have no memories,” Mr. Arzberger, 42, who is out on $100,000 bail, said the other day over lunch. “This is something I never had in my life, something like this. No memories at all.”

Now, he faces criminal charges of attempted murder, burglary, strangulation and assault, and a civil suit from the woman.

[Red Badger]

...he was drugged earlier that morning by a prostitute he had brought to his hotel room, who they later discovered was a man.'

They were Haydn the salami.............

[Publius]

The puns on this thread are getting funnier and funnier.

Maybe he just wanted her/him to scratch his Ives.

[left that other site]

But first we must Verdify the charges.

[Theoria]

Suk and Fuchs.

[left that other site]

A violinist has nothing to fret about. No frets at all.

[left that other site]

He is in a lot of treble now!

[Red Badger]

Poor man, I bet he’s under a lot of Strauss...................

[left that other site]

Quavering with terror over this I’m sure!

[Red Badger]

His life is beginning to Un-Ravel......................

[Red Badger]

Probably just a bunch of Bartok................

[left that other site]

He left the room, and should have stayed away, but he was Offenbach. That is when he realized he was in treble.

[Red Badger]

That poor woman Berlioz made it out alive!.................

[Publius]

If not quavering, at least demihemisemiquavering.

[left that other site]

What exactly is the Bassis of her complaint?

[Publius]

She should have kept Orff the grass.

[left that other site]

Maybe he can claim TEMPO-rary insanity!

[Red Badger]

He was very Debussive.....................

[left that other site]

She better make sure her lawyer passed the bar.

And didn’t just go from bar to bar.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

His defense lawyers said they believed that he was drugged earlier that morning by a prostitute he had brought to his hotel room, who they later discovered was a man.'

Broken "Bach" Mounting?

(Lord, I apologize for that one there, and please be with all the starving Pygmies down there in New Guinea! Amen!)

[Theoria]

Sounds like a Loesser, but a man’s Organ can lead to Jarrell.