Search - David Garrett :: Pure Classics

Beautiful introduction to the violin's versatility in the ha

Veggiechiliqueen | 08/09/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Pure Classics" contains selections from David Garrett's Deutsche Grammophon recordings from 1995-2001: Mozart's Violin Concertos (1995), Bach's Partita in D-Minor (1995), Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto (2001), and 1997's Paganini: Caprices, as well as tracks by Beethoven and Conus. My only complaint is that pieces are not grouped by composer; Paganini gets the lion's share with six tracks devoted to his Variations, and these are scattered across the second half of the disc (however, Variations 1, 4, and 9 are sequential). This is a lovely overview of David's prodigious talent as a teen when he recorded these tracks, particularly the technically demanding Variations (Paganini did much to expand violin techniques). The repertoire choices are solid and David's technical mastery impeccable. His early Deutsche Grammophon recordings are out of print in the US, so this is a reasonably-priced introduction to his purely classical repertoire (David rerecorded Paganini's Variation 24 in A minor, better known from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations - Variations I-IV on Virtuoso)."