Man with a golden violin
By Bradley Bambarger/The Star-Ledger
February 5, 2009
Joshua Bell. When and where: 8 p.m. Friday, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, Newark; 3 p.m. Sunday, Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall, New York. How much: $21-$82 in Newark; call (888) 466-5722 or visit njpac.org. $35-$75 in New York; call (212) 721-6500 or visit lincolncenter.org.
If there can be such a thing as a matinee idol of classical violin in the 21st century, Joshua Bell, 41, is it.
His looks remain boyish and, as he is surely sick of hearing, "all-American." Bell's golden technique and vintage repertoire mark him as a virtuoso in the old-school mold, and he has a crossover appeal -- yielding hit albums and Hollywood soundtracks -- that also harks back to another era.
For all the copies Bell sells of such discs as "Romance of the Violin" and his ability to fill halls around the globe, he is still a musician in a very different world from his old-world heroes.
In 2007, he went busking in a Washington, D.C., train station. He netted only $32 during rush hour, stirring laments about the failure of world-class Bach to move the masses in transit.
This weekend, Bell will be playing friendlier venues: NJPAC and Lincoln Center. He and longtime pianist Jeremy Denk will perform works written in the golden age from the 1880s to the 1920s -- Brahms's Violin Sonata No. 3, Franck's Violin Sonata, Janacek's Violin Sonata and Eugene Ysaye's Solo Sonata No. 2 ("Obsession").
Bell splits his off-road time between Manhattan and his native Hoosier state, where he teaches at his alma mater, Indiana University. He has an 18-month-old son -- named Josef, after his late violin teacher, the famed Josef Gingold -- with his ex-girlfriend, Lisa Matricardi, a violinist in the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Bell took time out to discuss his recital program and playing on the soundtrack for the recent film "Defiance."
Q: How was your latest encounter with Hollywood? Glamorous? Lucrative?
A: Well, it wasn't any more lucrative than playing a concert, probably less. But I like the movies, and I had a great experience doing John Corigliano's score for "The Red Violin" a decade ago. That won an Oscar and got me into the film world, so now I get a lot of requests for soundtracks. I've said yes to a few. One I'm especially proud of is "Ladies in Lavender," with Judi Dench. It was a small film, but it had a violinist in the story and some good music. As for "Defiance," it was such a great story that I wanted to be a part of it.
Q: Did it bother you that combination of the score's format -- Eastern European-accented violin with orchestra -- and the film's Holocaust-related theme seemed to parallel "Schindler's List" and its successful John Williams/Itzhak Perlman soundtrack?
A: The stories are so different. One of the things that appealed to me about "Defiance" is that it tells a different story than the one we are used to about Jews only being victims in World War II. I didn't know this true story about a group of them fighting back against the Nazis and surviving for years. As far as the music, perhaps the producers thought some about the popularity of the "Schindler's List" music, but I think the use of the violin in this score is more subtle. Regardless, the violin really represents Jewish culture in Eastern Europe. Actually, my Jewish grandmother came from very close to where the movie is set in Belarus; they emigrated before the war. That connection was another reason why I wanted to be involved.
Q: Is soundtrack work artistically satisfying?
A: It was fun, not something that's incredibly difficult. I could pretty much sight-read the music. The fun part was working in the studio with the composer, James Newton Howard, tweaking the violin part to figure out how to make it work best..."
Q: Tell me about your connection to the Ysaye sonata.
A: Ysaye was the teacher of my teacher, Josef Gingold. Ysaye is a hero of mine, but this is the first time I've played his Second Sonata. He was history's greatest violinist-composer after Paganini. We only have recordings of him when he was very old, but his technique was legendary. Gingold studied with him as a boy. He would talk about Ysaye, imitate the way he played, encourage me to learn his music. Ysaye isn't known to the general public as much as I wish, but all violinists revere him."
Q: What was Gingold's memory of Ysaye's sound?
A: Gingold stressed the way Ysaye's playing was incredibly expressive and nuanced. He came from the Belgian violin school. ... Subtlety and beauty of sound were its hallmarks, not necessarily pyrotechnics. But then Ysaye's Second Solo Sonata is the most technically difficult piece on the program; it explores the violin in amazing ways. The piece is called the "Obsession," which refers to Ysaye's obsession with Bach. I joke that if Bach's solo works are the Old Testament of the violin, then Ysaye's are the New Testament.
Q: This program could have been played in the mid-1920s. Do you feel like you're a keeper of the old-school flame?
A: Well, my heroes certainly came from that world, because my teacher had a direct connection to those great players of the past. There were more modern violinists in vogue when I was studying with him, but he would put on 50-year-old recordings of Fritz Kreisler for me. I developed a great appreciation for the sound of old players and for their repertoire -- virtuoso showpieces, transcriptions of songs. One of my gripes about today's programming is that these so-called "bonbons" are so out of fashion, considered lesser music. But I'll play some of those things as encores at the recitals. I love them.
