Anyone who has the habit of frequently going to classical music concerts in the beautiful main hall of the Atheneum may say without hesitation, that they never saw that magical place so crowded as it was on Tuesday evening, at Garrett’s concert in the “George Enescu” Festival. Viewers sat on chairs, on stairs, on aisles, in doorways, viewers crammed to let themelves be charmed. Charmed by a Stradivarius violin with a history of three centuries and by the artist who, despite of having performed in the film “Devil’s Violinist”, in Paganini’s role, is like an angel on stage, with a violin instead of a harp. And in order to make the charm complete, the artist chose to open the concert he had performed with the Monte Carlo Philharmonic with a composition by Enescu, that sounded fabulously due to his fingers flying on the strings and due to the wood estimated at over 3 million GPB. The wonder child has now become a Guinness Book violinist after managing to perform 13 music notes per second and he was not for the first time in our country.
Returning after a break of four years, he praised the hall of the Atheneum, declaring that it was “perhaps the most beautiful I ever performed in”. Also, the musician pointed out that he grew with the music of the great Romanian composer and that he hoped to return to Romania for the next edition of the festival named after the great composer.
“My teacher and mentor has been Enescu’s student. It was a touching moment for me to perform a creation of his at this wonderful festival”, David Garrett declared at a press conference, after a memorable concert he had performed in Bucharest.
Accompanied by Monte Carlo Philharmonic, conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti, Garrett has performed the “Ballade for Violin and Orchestra” (1895) by George Enescu, a work he has also presented on international stages. Moreover, the violinist presented “Concert for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor”, Op. 26 by Max Bruch. The orchestra performed also three compositions by Maurice Ravel — “Alborada del gracioso”, “Pavane for a Dead Princess” and the well-known and unmistakable “Bolero”.
The combination of perfectionism and openness, of attention to details and anticipation, revealed by Garrett’s performances – the stage name of David Bongartz – provide a complete explanation for the overwhelming success enjoyed by the musician ever since he released the CD “Virtuoso”. By this recording, the artist presented the audience his vision about several music genres that can be interfered creatively, at high artistic level, with no compromise at the level of music standards.
David Garrett is registered in Guinness Book as one of the fastest violin players of the world who has accomplished a record time of 66 records in a violin rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee”.
He was born in Aachen. His father was a German jurist and also a passionate violin player, and his mother was an American prima ballerina. He was gifted his first violin at the young age of four.
A year later, he took part in a competition and won first prize. By the age of seven, he studied violin at the Lübeck Conservatoire, and by the age of 12, Garrett began working with the distinguished Polish violinist Ida Haendel, often traveling to London and other European cities to meet her.
Garrett received his first Stradivarius violin at the age of 11, courtesy of German president Richard von Weizsäcker, after having performed for him.
At the age of 13, Garrett recorded two CDs, appeared on German and Dutch television, and gave a concert in the residence of the President of Germany, the Villa Hammerschmidt, at Dr. von Weizsäcker’s personal invitation.
He was offered the use of the famous Stradivarius “San Lorenzo”, which is among the best instruments of Antonio Stradivari’s “golden period”. At the age of 13, as the youngest soloist ever, Garrett signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon.
In April 1997, age 16, he played with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Zubin Mehta in Delhi and Mumbai in concerts marking the 50th anniversary of India’s Independence.
At 17, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music in London, leaving after the first semester. In 1999 he moved to New York to attend the Juilliard School, in 2003 winning the School’s Composition Competition with a fugue composed in the style of Johann Sebastian Bach.
Whilst at Juilliard he studied under Itzhak Perlman, one of the first persons to do so, and graduated in 2004.
Garrett attended the Keshet Eilon Masterclasses in Israel in the summers of 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2002.
Also, he played the lead role in the 2013 movie The Devil’s Violinist, as the noted 19th-century violinist Niccolò Paganini.