Decca signed the nineteen-year-old Joshua Bell in 1986 on the basis of privately made concerto tapes. Bell had first picked up a violin at the age of four, but he had been taking the instrument seriously for less than a decade. His musicianship and technical aptitude were nurtured and coached by Josef Gingold, a pupil of Eugène Ysaÿe. He made astonishingly rapid progress. Within months of signing for Decca, he had already made his first three albums, of concertos by Bruch, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Wieniawski, and recital encores.
Unfashionably, Bell felt especially drawn to the Wieniawski, which reveals his affinity for older school of violin playing embodied by Gingold, Heifetz – and Fritz Kreisler, the central figure on a hugely successful 1995 recital album. But by then, Bell was already demonstrating the breadth of his musicianship, and striking up partnerships with the pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Olli Mustonen, and the cellist Steven Isserlis. These partnerships would last for decades to come, and yield deeply rewarding albums of French repertoire for Decca, including Chausson’s Concert and Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps.
Bell is now music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, who accompanied him back in 1988 for that Bruch/Mendelssohn coupling. In a sense, therefore, this new Eloquence box brings us full circle to an appreciation of a violinist who has always taken his talent seriously. He went on to record concertos by Brahms, Schumann, Saint-Saëns, Barber and Walton, and his playing inspired the American composer Aaron Jay Kernis to write a concertante Air which he recorded for Argo. Previously only issued in the US, this Kernis album now joins the violinist’s Decca discography in this new Eloquence box, which is compiled with original album covers and annotated with a new appreciation of the violinist by Tully Potter.
CD 1
PRESENTING JOSHUA BELL
Wieniawski · Sibelius · Brahms/Joachim · Paganini · Wieniawski · Bloch · Schumann/Auer · Falla/Kreisler · Grasse · Sarasate
Joshua Bell, violin; Samuel Sanders, piano
CD 2
BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1
MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
Joshua Bell, violin; Academy of St. Martin in the Fields / Neville Marriner
CD 3
FAURÉ Violin Sonata No. 1
DEBUSSY Violin Sonata
FRANCK Violin Sonata
Joshua Bell, violin; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
CD 4
CHAUSSON Concert for Piano, Violin and String Quartet
RAVEL Piano Trio
Joshua Bell, violin; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano; Steven Isserlis, cello; Takács String Quartet
CD 5
POÈME
Saint-Saëns · Massenet · Sarasate · Chausson · Ysaÿe · Ravel
Joshua Bell, violin; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Andrew Litton
CD 6
MOZART Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 5; Adagio K.261; Rondo K.373
Joshua Bell, violin; English Chamber Orchestra / Peter Maag
CD 7
PROKOFIEV Violin Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2
5 Mélodies for Violin and Piano
Joshua Bell, violin; Olli Mustonen, piano
CD 8
SHOSTAKOVICH Piano Trio No. 2
MESSIAEN Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Joshua Bell, violin; Steven Isserlis, cello; Olli Mustonen, piano; Michael Collins, clarinet
CD 9
THE KREISLER ALBUM
Joshua Bell, violin; Paul Coker, piano
CD 10
TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto
WIENIAWSKI Violin Concerto No. 2
Joshua Bell, violin; The Cleveland Orchestra / Vladimir Ashkenazy
CD 11
SAINT-SAËNS Violin Concerto No. 3
LALO Symphonie espagnole
Joshua Bell, violin; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal / Charles Dutoit
CD 12
PROKOFIEV Violin Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
The Love for Three Oranges: Suite
Joshua Bell, violin; Orchestre symphonique de Montréal / Charles Dutoit
CD 13
BRAHMS Violin Concerto
SCHUMANN Violin Concerto
Joshua Bell, violin; The Cleveland Orchestra / Christoph von Dohnányi
CD 14
KERNIS Air for violin
BARBER Violin Concerto
BLOCH Baal Shem
WALTON Violin Concerto
Joshua Bell, violin
Minnesota Orchestra (Kernis)
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (Barber, Bloch, Walton)
David Zinman
“If Bell can play like this at 21, how is he going to play in 40 years’ time?” Gramophone, May 1988 (‘Introducing Joshua Bell’)
“The easy sparkling brilliance of bow on string is balanced with a warm melodic line that can be sultry or chimerical by turns. He plays with style and an impressive range of colour.” Penguin Guide (French Showpieces)
“Outstanding account [of the Tchaikovsky] … A masterly performance, full of flair [Wieniawski] … full, brilliant recording.” Penguin Guide (Tchaikovsky/Wieniawski: Concertos)
“What lightness of touch in Schön Rosmarin, what elegance of style, in the Caprice viennoise, what panache in the paired Liebesfreud and Liebesleid, and how seductive is the Berceuse romantique.” Penguin Guide (The Kreisler Album)
“Rich tone, flawless technique and phenomenal articulation … magnificent fiddling to have you gasping.” Gramophone, May 1988 (Bruch & Mendelssohn concertos)
“A masterly performance, full of flair.” Gramophone, December 1988 (Wieniawski: Concerto No. 2)
“Joshua Bell plays … with a good deal of refinement as well as technical assurance. He and Vladimir Ashkenazy are in thorough accord in their approach, which is expansive enough to let the music breathe, controlled enough to make any meandering or indulgence out of the question.” Stereo Review, April 1989 (Tchaikovsky/Wieniawski: Concertos)
“The way Bell and Thibaudet respond to each other, the sense of impassioned involvement with the music, the uncontrived elegance in the shaping of phrases: these are qualities one appreciates in any chamber music.” Stereo Review, December 1989 (Debussy, Fauré, Franck: Sonatas)
“A very beautiful album … A talent which you must investigate.” Revue des deux mondes, January 1990 (Debussy, Fauré, Franck: Sonatas)
“Bell’s violin tone is voluptuously sweet, Thibaudet matches its silkiness at the piano, and they mesh beautifully with the Takács Quartet … Absolutely first rate performance, and the recording itself could hardly be better.” Stereo Review, June 1991 (Chausson: Concert; Ravel: Trio)
“Very attractive playing … engaging warmth and animation … The rich-sounding recording is well-suited to the material.” Stereo Review, February 1994 (Prokofiev: Concertos)
“Played with brio and sentiment … ably assisted by Paul Coker.” Stereo Review, October 1996 (The Kreisler Album)
“Bell approaches his 30th birthday already an artist of mature insights, with a compassionate rather than exploitative way of identifying with his chosen repertoire, and a level of technical security that enables him to commit his full intellectual and emotional resources to communicative ends.” Stereo Review, July 1997 (Barber & Walton: Concertos)
“Sensitively partnered by the Cleveland Orchestra, [Bell] offers a reading tinged with magic and ever alive to the rapt communing nature of [the concerto].” Gramophone, December 1999 (Brahms: Concerto)