(The Associated Press distributed the following article on January 31.)
BALTIMORE — Gidon Kremer left his $3 million violin on an Amtrak train, but a quick-acting baggage handler retrieved the instrument and it was returned to its grateful owner.
Kremer, who’s performing as a guest artist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra this weekend, took the train Wednesday to Baltimore’s Penn Station.
He was traveling from New York, where he had performed with Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin at Carnegie Hall in a repeat of the all-Schumann program they did Jan. 17 in Chicago.
Before heading to Baltimore, Kremer learned that a violinist in the Kremerata Baltica, a chamber orchestra he founded in 1996, was sick and couldn’t make an Asian tour scheduled to start in a few days.
“I was preoccupied with that from the moment I sat down on the train to the moment I got up as we approached Baltimore,” he told the Sun.
Accustomed to traveling with only a garment bag and his violin, Kremer also had a large suitcase with him because he’ll be leaving for the Asian tour from Baltimore.
Waiting at the station was Jeremy Rothman, the BSO’s associate artistic administrator. “I saw he had only two bags with him,” Rothman said, “so I asked, ‘Is this everything?’ And I could see his face suddenly change.”
The train was winding toward Washington by then, carrying the unguarded cargo — a blue cloth case containing a Guarneri del Gesu violin, dated 1730, with an estimated value of $3 million.
By the time the train pulled into Union Station, Amtrak officials were waiting.
Kremer asked the BSO to invite Mike Famiglietti, the baggage handler who secured the instrument, to one of his concerts. He planned to attend Friday’s performance, a symphony spokesman said.