Articles, Previews and Reviews

"I was one of the first he took as student. Josh was one of the last." Thus Jaime Laredo addresses their ties — his and Joshua Bell's — to Josef Gingold.

Laredo and Bell are major participants in next Sunday evening’s celebration of their late and loved violin teacher, born 100 years ago. They’ll be joined on stage in the IU Auditorium by a Celebration Orchestra, some promised special guests and the IU Violin Virtuosi.

“It’s a way to make the event cover past, present and future,” says Laredo. “Joe is our past, and we would not be what we are without him. Mimi Zweig’s Violin Virtuosi are the future. We are the present.

“For Josh and I to do Bach’s Double Concerto was my idea,” Laredo adds. “Joe would have loved it. He would be smiling, our doing it together. Joe used to talk about this ‘incredible kid.’ And now, look at Josh.”

We’ll be able to look and listen to the two of them, to hear Bell also play the “Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso” by Saint-Saens, with orchestra, and the “Praeludium and Allegro (in the style of Pugnani)” by Fritz Kreisler. “Joe loved those Kreisler pieces,” Laredo interjects. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings completes the program, a “thank you” to Gingold, according to Laredo, from the Jacobs School’s String Department.

“It was really a long time ago, but it seems like yesterday,” says Joshua Bell, “when I came to Mr. Gingold. He was in his studio and had a huge smile on his face. He opened his arms. There was from the first, and always, a sense of warmth and welcome. And there were all those photos on the walls, of him and the famous he had played with. Some of those pictures are now in my home. I inherited them.

“Those are great memories,” says Bell, “he with violin in hand and then making that beautiful sound. It rubbed off. That sound is what I aim for. But the lessons were about more than music. Mr.Gingold was absolutely like a parent, like a father, a grandfather, so giving. I’m deeply grateful. You become what you are because of your parents and teacher. I have been so fortunate. And I can tell you that when I play, all these years later, Josef Gingold is there.”

A teacher’s legacy

Distinguished Professor Josef Gingold was there for many students from 1960, when he joined the IU faculty, to just weeks before he died in January 1995 at age 85. He taught those who would come to star as soloists, those who took prominent seats in the world’s best orchestras, and those who turned to teaching, just as did he.

Jaime Laredo met the master at age 11, moving from San Francisco to Cleveland to study with him. Gingold played in the Cleveland Orchestra at the time. “Technically,” says Laredo, “I had only a year and a half with him. He didn’t want to keep me. That was so typical of him. Joe thought Ivan Galamian was the greatest teacher in the world. He insisted I study with him. He insisted I go to Curtis in Philadelphia, and I did. Joe and Galamian had a remarkable relationship. I studied with the two of them at Meadowmount in New York in summer. Joe Gingold would say, ‘You need Galamian to do this or that,’ and Galamian would say, ‘Only Gingold can give you this.’

“Joe was my second father,” continues Laredo. “Later we became colleagues and friends. Until he died, there wasn’t a week that we didn’t spend time on the phone. I knew all about Bloomington and IU even before I ever got here. And back when I did study with him, the lessons were never an hour, as they were supposed to be. A lesson was as long as necessary, always at least an hour and a half, sometimes more than two. He instilled such a love for music and the instrument. I know of no one who loved the violin as much as he. He used to tell me, ‘Before you go to bed, take the violin and feel it in your hands and enjoy the sound.’ His manner was so effusive so catching.

“Ah, but he could be very harsh,” Laredo recalls. “The gentleness would suddenly disappear. If a student wasn’t prepared, that was not tolerated. He didn’t want to waste time. He wanted to make music. Joe Gingold made me what I am, 100 percent. And being here at IU, in my studio, I think about him and find myself repeating his thoughts to my students. Just as he’s had a tremendous impact on my playing, he’s had an impact on my teaching. That sense of involvement, it’s there. He taught that by example.”

Bell calls him a “great master . and not only my teacher but my mentor and grandfather figure. I remember his resounding voice and that sense of humor and that great spirit. He was the most generous man and, of course, his glorious violin sound, that remarkable technique, and his link to the violin past all enriched my life. I miss him very much.”

The busy Bell is making a Bloomington stop amidst a frenzy of activities. “Jaime and I have never played together,” he says. “Mr. Gingold used to talk about this talented youngster he had years earlier. I’m looking forward to playing with him and with the kids, the Virtuosi, and just to be back home in Bloomington.”

Before coming here, he was to make concert stops in Stockholm, Moscow, Warsaw, Berlin and Vienna. Three days after the Gingold celebration, he’s off to the White House, then to a short stay in his New York home “to watch the Colts play” and back to Europe. “It’s good to keep moving and to be making music.”

‘At Home with Friends’

Not so incidentally, he’s been recording, too. Bell’s latest album, “At Home with Friends,” has just been released by Sony Classical. It pairs him in instrumentals and vocals with an amazing and, as it turns out, compatible mix of talents: Chris Botti, Sting, Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Nathan Gunn, Regina Spektor, Anoushka Shankar, Marvin Hamlisch, Dave Grusin, Tiempo Libre and Edgar Myer, among them.

“It was lots of fun being with friends, all of them great musicians,” says Bell. “I consider the results a chamber album. These are all serious artists. On one CD, you can find everything from classical to bluegrass and pop and Broadway. There’s ethnic music. There’s jazz.”

Listening makes for a pleasurable trip: the Chris Botti trumpet with Bell and an ensemble in “I Love You Porgy” from “Porgy and Bess;” a riveting sitar-violin duo with Anoushka Shankar, written by her father, Ravi Shankar; “My Funny Valentine,” sweetly realized with Broadway favorite, Kristin Chenowith; the haunting song of old by John Dowland, “Come Again,” with Sting as partner; Astor Piazzolla’s atmospheric “Oblivion” with Carel Kraayenhof’s bandoleon and rhythmic backup; Bell, pianist Jeremy Denk and baritone Nathan Gunn simpatico in Rachmaninoff’s “O Cease Thy Singing, Maiden Fair” and much more.

The “much more” includes the unexpected: a Bell-Rachmaninoff duet. Yes, Rachmaninoff himself and Joshua Bell perform the Allegretto Espressivo alla Romanza from the Grieg Sonata No. 3 in C Minor. It’s one of those technical marvels in which a 1928 performance by the pianist has been re-recorded somehow and combined with a Bell recording of 2009. “I heard about the technology,” says Bell. “I decided to put it into a collaborative album for fun. Doing it was very interesting, actually very cool.”

Well, it comes off cool and relaxed, as does most of this album. There’s a touch of home throughout, of kicking back. And Bell, the uncommon common denominator, plays beautifully.

---

If you go

WHAT: “Josef Gingold — A 100th Birthday Celebration for a Musical Legend.”

WHO: Violinist Joshua Bell, violinist/conductor Jaime Laredo, a Celebration Orchestra, the IU Violin Virtuosi in a program including Bach’s Concerto in D Minor for Two Violins, BWV 1043, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Saint-Saens’ Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and Kreisler’s “Praeludium and Allegro.”

WHEN: Next Sunday evening, Nov. 1, at 8.

WHERE: IU Auditorium.

ADMISSION: Free, but tickets are required. Both the Musical Arts Center and IU Auditorium box offices are out of tickets, but auditorium staff reports that they will recognize any standby line that forms at 30 minutes before the show, and start filling any empty seats 15 minutes before the show.

Show times

Unless ticket information is given, the events below are free.

• This afternoon at 4 in Auer Hall, faculty pianist Jean-Louis Haguenauer plays works of Bach, Beethoven, Schumann and Schoenberg.

• Monday evening at 8 in the Musical Arts Center (MAC), the IU Jazz Ensemble performs, directed by David Baker.

• Tuesday evening at 7 in Recital Hall, Octubafest begins, under the guidance of Daniel Perantoni. More events follow: Tuesday at 7 in Recital Hall; Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 7 in Ford-Crawford Hall; Saturday at both 5 and 7 in Ford.

• Tuesday evening at 8 in the MAC, the IU Wind Ensemble, led by Stephen Pratt, plays music of Bryant (“Suite Dreams”), Weill (“Little Threepenny Music”) and Don Freund (“Earthdance Concerto for Piano and Wind Ensemble,” with Freund at the piano).

• Tuesday evening at 8:30 in Ford, Pat Harbison directs the IU Jazz Combo.

• Wednesday evening at 8 in the MAC, Kevin Noe conducts the University Orchestra in works of Ives (“Decoration Day”), Britten (Suite on English Folk Tunes), Jaquith (“Blaze of Autumn,” winner of the 2009 Dean’s Prize) and Mozart (Symphony No. 36, “Linz”).

• Thursday evening at 8 in the Buskirk-Chumley Theater, the Latin American Popular Music Ensemble performs.

• Friday and Saturday evenings at 8 in the MAC, the IU Opera Theater concludes its run of Gounod’s “Romeo et Juliette,” conducted by Ronald Zollman, stage directed by Michael Ehrman, on sets designed by C. David Higgins. Tickets: Reserved seating, $15-$35 for adults; $12-$20 for students.

• On Monday evening at 7:30 at the Indiana History Center in Indianapolis (450 W. Ohio), the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis Laureate Series presents its “Gingold Centennial Celebration,” featuring violinists Andres Cardenes, Miriam Fried, Bella Hristova, Nai-Yuan Hu and Jaime Laredo, the IU Violin Virtuoso and pianist Anne Epperson. The program features music of Ysaye, Chausson, Wieniawski and Bach. Tickets: general admission, $22 for adults; $17 for senior citizens; $10 for students.