The Sunday concerts at the Walter Reade Theater do not always feature young aspirants, but often the recitalist is indeed relatively new to the scene. This past Sunday’s concert displayed the work of pianist Max Levinson along with violinist Stefan Jackiw, who is 20 years old and an undergraduate at Harvard. While Mr. Levinson is already quite experienced, Mr. Jackiw previously made a significant New York appearance as part of the Accolades series at the Metropolitan Museum in 2004.

This day there was no sense that the piano was but an accompanying instrument, as the pieces on this program were all designed for maximum keyboard impact. Violists claim Mozart as one of their own, but it is equally true that the young man — whose primary instrument was the fortepiano — was also a fine violinist who performed his own sonatas either with a fiddle or at the bench. In fact, these early works were described as piano sonatas with violin obbligato, and the string part was even deemed optional in written instructions from the composer.

Most impressive this day was the synchronicity of these players. They seemed to intone as one right from the brilliant beginning of the A Major Sonata, K. 305. Mr. Jackiw has a very bright tone with a charming, unforced air. The music seems to flow quite naturally from him and his level of accuracy is excellent. Although he escapes from his individual notes without incident, he does have an odd habit of hitting his strings with the fingers of his left hand when his instrument should be silent — a rather obvious faux pas that even an untrained ear finds startling.

Aaron Copland wrote his Sonata for Violin and Piano in 1943 as a memorial tribute to a friend, Lieutenant Harry H. Dunham, who was killed in the South Pacific. The work is a contemplative set of loose variations upon an opening, somewhat haunting motto stated by the violin and reprised at the very end of the last movement. Copland played the piano part himself during the work’s premiere at Town Hall in 1944 and it is in many ways the richer writing. To those who think of this composer as an opportunistic sort of hack, this piece and the Piano Variations (not to mention the now virtually forgotten symphonies) are powerful evidence of his legitimacy.

Mr. Jackiw established strong credentials as a ruminative player in this piece, walking that fine line between sentiment and sentimentality expertly. His enunciations were always tasteful and often eloquent. Mr. Levinson dug in a little deeper and demonstrated a thorough conversance with the work’s emotional core.

The Beethoven Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1 in D Major began with great panache, but seemed to lose a lot of air as it wore on. Here the players were not as spirited as they should have been — the normally lively Rondo: Allegro sounded a bit stilted. This was disappointing because the piece is such an exuberant explosion of youth and yet we often have only the memories of old men as inspiration in concert. Mr. Jackiw was smooth in line but not colorful in shaping his phrases. In fact, this performance pointed out the rather superficial nature of his music making. As a young man, he has concentrated, as he should, on technique. He now needs to utilize that skill to develop poetic communication. I was reminded of that comment of Arnold Schoenberg: You don’t have technique; technique has you.

Until this point in the concert, there had been no Romanticism on the program proper, but a brief encore allowed Mr. Jackiw to exhibit his sense of historical style. An arrangement of Frederic Chopin’s famous Nocturne in C Sharp minor was the ideal vehicle for him to expand his vibrato to its full potential and for him to show off fine harmonics and unapologetic portamento. A steady diet of this type of emotionalism might have seemed over the top, but this one extract was really quite beautiful, reminiscent of Fritz Kreisler himself. Here Mr. Levinson morphed into an accompanist, sinking into the background in a piece that is normally a great opportunity for the piano. But that is what partnership is all about.

Mr. Jackiw will have a big decision to make soon, as apparently music is not his only option. If he chooses to become a performing artist, I would recommend a year off. He still needs to play his scales every day, but to grow into a first-class player, he may need to abandon the practice room after breakfast and go out and live a little.