ICONIC: David Garrett Pays Tribute to the Iconic Violinists of the Golden Age

Deutsche Grammophon is delighted to announce the forthcoming release of David Garrett’s latest album. Inspired by the legendary violinists whose dazzling showpieces and heart-melting melodies Garrett fell in love with as a child, Iconic includes more than twenty tracks and is set for release in all formats on 4  November 2022. Music by Bach, Dvořák, Gluck, Kreisler, Mendelssohn and Schumann, among many others, is presented in new arrangements for violin, guitar and orchestra (by Franck van der Heijden and David Garrett). David Garrett is accompanied by his guitarist Franck van der Heijden – who also conducts the players of Orchestra The Prezent – as well as being joined in duet arrangements by his former teacher Itzhak Perlman, star tenor Andrea Bocelli, flautist Cocomi and trumpeter Till Brönner.

David Garrett’s personal choice of music evokes the golden era of violin virtuosi, when performers such as Zino Francescatti, Arthur Grumiaux, Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler and Yehudi Menuhin delighted audiences with popular encores and other minatures. As a young musician, he looked up to these and other players from the past, aspired to emulate their artistry and immersed himself in their historic recordings.

“Sadly, in the last few decades, many violinists have stopped performing some of the short, instantly memorable works the greats of the 20s and 30s played in their recitals,” notes Garrett. “That’s why it means so much to me to get the chance to bring all these beautiful works back to life.”

Iconic opens with the seductive romance of Estrellita by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce. Its programme of unforgettable melodies also includes Saint-Saëns’s The Swan and Danse macabre; Foster’s Jeanie with the light brown hair; Raff’s Cavatina; Fauré’s Après un rêve; and the central Largo of the “Winter” Concerto from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Garrett teams up with Andrea Bocelli in an exquisite arrangement of Schubert’s Ave Maria; Itzhak Perlman in Shostakovich’s Praeludium; Japanese flautist Cocomi in Debussy’s La fille aux cheveux de lin; and German trumpeter Till Brönner in Dinicu’s virtuosic Hora staccato.

“Pieces like these shaped my musical thinking,” recalls the violinist. “I’ve recorded many virtuoso albums myself and this time it was particularly important to me to refocus on the essentials, on what really speaks to the heart. The works on Iconic aren’t primarily about virtuosity. They have great melodies which bring listeners closer to what really matters in life – to harmony!”

Iconic will be issued as a standard CD and double-disc LP. It will also be available as a Deluxe CD containing three bonus tracks, Paganini’s stunning Moto perpetuo among them, and as a digital album featuring the additional bonus of Kreisler’s Schön Rosmarin.

David Garrett began playing violin at the age of four. He made his stage debut when he was ten and became the youngest artist ever to sign to Deutsche Grammophon just three years later. By his mid-teens he had built a stellar solo career and recorded all twenty-four of Paganini’s fiendishly difficult Caprices. He subsequently enrolled at New York’s world-famous Juilliard School as one of Itzhak Perlman’s first students. Over the past two decades he has played with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors and reached new audiences around the globe with concerts that include rock anthems, classical sonatas, solo showpieces and film themes. Revealing the sometimes rocky path he has travelled from child prodigy to successful adult artist, his autobiography, Wenn ihr wüsstet (“If you only knew”), was published earlier this year.