Critics and commentators alike have declared that the innocent ear would take the playing of this latest 14-year-old violinist for that of a fully mature adult. That, perhaps, is hardly the point. And I, for one, am rather relieved that David Garrett (Aachen-born, takes name from American mother) is not yet anywhere near the finished product. Nor is this a hothouse bloom: rather Garrett's Beethoven and Mozart reveal an emotional life and responses that are still in bud, where nothing is expressed which may not yet be felt.
The Beethoven Sonata wakes to an early, tentative spring. This is thoughtful, uncluttered playing clean of articulation, pale of colour. Garrett seems fearful of adding anything to the piano's song in the slow movement: when it is his turn, he draws a fine charcoal line, with minimum vibrato. His pianist, Alexander Markovich, though sensitive in his support, is not the most stimulating musician a debutant could choose, and it is quite a relief when it is time for the unaccompanied Partita.
Unfortunately Garrett's Bach is disappointing. Each note of the Allemande is given equal weight and colour so that it is difficult to detect the music's pulse at all. The Sarabande too, shows an only weak sense of the work's rhythmic bone structure. But a spirited Gigue, and a Chaconne of quite some sensitivity and power, point to the fact that all this may be more a symptom of the under-projected privacy of adolescence than a sign of unexceptional musical talent. I eagerly await his forthcoming Mozart concerto disc with Abbado.'