Joshua Bell, violin
Michael Stern, conductor
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Sony Classical, 2003
With a career spanning more than thirty years as a soloist, chamber musician, recording artist, conductor, and director, Joshua Bell is one of the most celebrated violinists of our time. Having performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, Bell continues to maintain engagements as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. Bell performs on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin, with a François Tourte 18th-Century bow.
This album is an excellent choice for anyone who is learning to love the violin and orchestral music. Lighter classical tunes, many of them recognizable, have been arranged to showcase the violin. Each track seamlessly follows the previous one. The prominent harp part is a bonus.
Enjoy this album with your loved one on a romantic evening, when lulling baby to sleep, or as a peaceful close to a busy day.
My favorite piece on the album is track #3: Frédéric Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. posth.” The piece was originally written for solo piano.
The first few bars of the nocturne communicate tentativeness, as if the music is testing resonance. The lovely rhythmic harp accompaniment mirrors the left-hand piano part of the original score. The violin line builds in tension until it twirls off briefly, almost as if in rebellion, before reorienting itself with the rhythmic cadence. Near the end of the piece, the hint of a change to a major key feels hopeful. In the final bars the violin finally soars free.
The “posth” tag indicates that the composition was published posthumously. I wonder, where was the sheet music stashed during the forty years between Chopin’s death and the nocturne’s publication?
And consider Joshua Bell’s violin. Since its creation three hundred years ago, the violin has been stolen at least twice, disappeared for nearly an entire generation, and come alive all over the world (including a D.C. Metro subway station, where a world-class violinist performed incognito). When the Stradivari family ran their hands over this instrument one last time before passing it on, how could they have dreamed any of it?
What’s your impossible dream, reader? How much grander can you dream it?
(Have a few moments to dream right now? Click here to listen to Joshua Bell performing Frédéric Chopin’s “Nocturne No. 20 in C-sharp minor, Op. posth.”)
