For whom the Bell bows
One of the biggest events in classical music this year will come in September when Joshua Bell plays with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra
When Joshua Bell plays a single work with an orchestra, tickets anywhere in the world are sold out within minutes. However, Bell, one of the leading lights in fiddle-playing, won’t be playing a mere single piece with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra on Sept 4.
Instead, the still-boyish half-century-old will be performing two of the most difficult works in the whole 19th century repertoire. Don’t expect to stroll up to the box office before the programme and grab a ticket or two. That just isn’t done in the world of Joshua Bell.
The Indiana-born pianist has been attracting vast audiences ever since his very first concert at the age of 14, with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Bright, outgoing, a fearless artist, Joshua Bell is not simply a great player, but has become an icon of the American artist.
While he has encompassed the entire range of music, Bell is most fascinated by the 19th century. In New York at the end of July, this writer heard him play the Bruch Violin Concerto — and that is the same work with which Bangkok audiences will hear him.
Yet, there is far more. One of the greatest violinists of the 19th century, the Spanish-born Pablo de Sarasate, wrote a work innocently called Gypsy Airs, and it is still one of the most difficult works ever written for the violin. Joshua Bell, whose own worldwide travels make him something of a gypsy, will essay its extremities with the orchestra.
Bell will be the centrepiece of a concert which should prove to be purely emotional. Many a previous performance here have demanded a combination of head and heart. Here, one can leave the head aside and simply be transfigured by the sounds.
The concert begins with Carl Maria von Weber’s 1832 overture to the opera Euryanthe. And Bangkok audiences can be thankful not to hear the entire “heroic” opera, based on a 12th-century tale of knights, villains, magic rings, ghosts and romances. The story is absolutely terrible. But the overture? Ah, that is a thing of glory and trumpets, with the orchestra reaching a ghostly climax of eight muted violins — before a triumphant ending.
Then we have one of the rarest of works. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote his famous Chaconne For Solo Violin after coming home and finding that his wife had died. As Joshua Bell can relate, it is one of the most soaring works ever written for solo violin — and perhaps he will play it as an encore. (One can only hope.)
In its 250 years of existence, the Chaconne — which means a series of lengthy variations on a single melodic line — has been transcribed for huge orchestras, for harpsichords, for lute, and once for a trumpet solo. The most popular transcription was by Leopold Stokowski. But the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra conductor Olivieri-Munroe wasn’t looking for mere popularity.
Instead, he chose the orchestral version of the Swiss-German composer Joachim Raff. Raff believed that Bach had originally written this for orchestra (nobody else believes this) and wrote his own version, extending the violin double — and triple-fingering into a gigantic orchestral tapestry.
Finally comes this writer’s favourite short work by Sir Edward Elgar, In The South, written after Elgar’s holiday on the Italian Riviera. Why do I like it so much? Not only is it bold, glorious, with a fabulous finale, but the orchestration is rare. A long serenade in the middle by solo viola. Great bombastic chords by the brass. A finale which shows the Edwardian composer at his noble best.
All will be conducted by Charles Olivieri-Munroe, a name new to Bangkok but well known throughout Central Europe. Born in Malta, raised in Canada, he went back to Europe and today has sterling credits. Previously chief conductor of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen in Germany, he is also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Kraków Phlharmonic Orchestra and honorary chief conductor with the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. He has further raised his baton in front of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra (which he has taken on tour), and the Bremen Symphony Orchestra, amongst dozens of other orchestras.
Yet, it is evident that Joshua Bell will be the centre of the concert. And the Max Bruch Violin Concerto will show him at his emotional best. For this is a concerto which begins with sweep and fire, which allows the violinist to continue with equal incendiary excitement ending in a climax which calls for — which commands — an audience to shout “Bravo”.
Bell’s musical trademarks are elegance, rapturous phrasing, an instinctive understanding of his repertoire, and the most beautiful sound from his 300-year-old Stradivarius. His personal trademark is... well, normality.
Raised in academia — his parents were teachers at Indiana University — he took to violin at the age of four, but never took it that seriously. Which was fine with his parents, who encouraged him in sports and schoolwork. Yet, when his talent was shown, his parents enlisted the great Josef Gingold to inspire him. And with a natural genius, he made his Carnegie Hall debut at age 17.
At first, it was his all-American personality with his all-virtuosic violin. As the years went by, Bell was excelling at all the mainstream concertos, as well as a few contemporary works like Nicholas Maw’s Concerto, dedicated to him, and for which he won a Grammy award. He performed the solo part on John Corigliano’s Oscar-winning soundtrack for the film
The Red Violin, and accompanied Scarlett Johansson in the song Before My Time.
Today, he is also conductor of the Academy of Saint-Martin-in-the-Fields besides his constant touring.
And what makes him so esteemed? This writer has listened to and reviewed him half-a-dozen times and always attempts to ignore the dazzling virtuosity. Yes, several violinists can show off their stuff with the same dazzling feeling. With Bell, though, one feels that virtuosic tricks are secondary to his understanding of an entire work.
As for the Bruch Violin Concerto, to be performed with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, this is one of his trademark works. And perhaps we can quote the critic Grace Donaldson.
“Some of his finger flights in Bruch’s
Violin Concerto No.1 are so lovely that if they were turned into sculptural form, I’d happily stare at their beauty.”
Bangkok audiences, obviously, are set for a stunning evening.