Violinist Joshua Bell is a Renaissance man
It could only be Joshua Bell, the Grammy-winning violinist who had the pleasure of hearing "Red Violin" composer John Corigliano say he "plays like a god" on the Academy Awards broadcast, when Corigliano picked up his Best Score Oscar. Bell, who returns to Seattle Thursday (through Oct. 5) to play works of Ravel and Chausson with the Seattle Symphony, is considerably more than a 35-year-old hottie who, yes, does actually play like a god.
He's a tennis player who placed fourth in a national tennis tournament as a kid; a bowler who has bowled a 228; a big-time golfer whose handicap used to be 18; a race-car fanatic who hobnobs with fellow enthusiast Paul Newman and drives a Porsche 911; and a big overgrown kid who loves his appearances on "Sesame Street" almost as much as he loves leading the prestigious Academy of St. Martin in the Fields on international tours.
Versatile performer
Bell is a big crossover artist, too, participating in jazz, bluegrass and movie scores. PBS broadcast his performance of Bernstein's "West Side Story" Suite with the New York Philharmonic in Central Park. Next up: composer Edgar Meyer is writing a new concerto for him, one that undoubtedly will factor in a little bluegrass/jazz here and there.
Oh, and Bell's a huge techie, too, running his own Web site (www.joshuabell.com) and spending many hours behind video-game controls — and on the on-line stock trading Web sites. Sometimes it seems this is a guy who'll try anything and everything. He has tested an electronic "hyperviolin" for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, playing it in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. He has played for a reception at the Indianapolis 500. He has strapped himself, unseen by the movie cameras, to the body of an actor portraying a 19th-century violin virtuoso in "The Red Violin," forcing the actor's body to move like that of a real violinist. (The real question, of course, is why the filmmakers didn't just use Bell as an actor in the first place.)
Bell doesn't shy away from new music. Among his recent career milestones was the premiere of a concerto by Iranian composer Bezhad Ranjbaron — with Gerard Schwarz and the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. A recent recording of a new concerto by Nicholas Maw won Bell a Grammy.
Maybe he's a little sensitive about being taken seriously, with so many credits in the populist side of his discipline. Use a term like "encore pieces" in connection with his new CD, and Bell will bristle. "This isn't an encore CD," he said in a recent phone interview. "I've done encore CDs before, and this isn't one. Basically it's all 'desert island' melodies, the 14 or so most beautiful melodies I know — including arias and piano pieces and shorter orchestral works."
'Romance' is coming
The new CD, called "Romance of the Violin" (Sony Classical), will be released Oct. 28, and includes such tracks as Saint-Saëns' "The Swan," Bellini's "Casta Diva," Schumann's "Träumerei" and the Andante from Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 21. The orchestra is the esteemed Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, with whom Bell has toured here as soloist/conductor.
Has the conducting bug bitten this talented violinist? "Well, it's kind of appealing to me," he confesses. "I do have the itch to conduct. I guess I'm becoming more of a control freak as I get older. But it's also a bit scary. The dynamic between orchestra and conductor is an interesting one. A good way to work into this is to lead from the instrument. It's wonderful the way a great orchestra follows you, like making chamber music. You're forced to listen to each other in a way that can be quite wonderful."
He wouldn't say no to another collaboration with the cinema, either. After the good experience of "The Red Violin" and also the movie "Iris" (scored by James Horner), Bell asked "Red Violin" composer Corigliano to write a concerto for him. Corigliano took an expanded spinoff from the "Red Violin" score and turned it into a first movement, adding three smaller movements. Bell might even opt for a spot in front of the movie cameras.
"I've had a couple of things come my way," he says, "and I do have the desire to act. As a musician you are already an actor." He certainly has been a musician for a long time. As a youngster growing up in Bloomington, Ind., he was fascinated by the sounds he made by stretching rubber bands around his dresser knobs and plucking them. His alert parents decided he might like to try the violin. He was four.
After expert tutelage from famed violin pedagogue Josef Gingold, Bell became a sensation at 14, making his orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Following in quick succession were his Carnegie Hall debut, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, a degree in music from Indiana University, and a secure place in the pantheon of today's finest violinists. Bell also has spent a lot of time in the recording studio; his upcoming CD will be his 26th.
His partner in recent music-making, Bell's $4 million 1713 Stradivarius, has a story just as interesting as its owner's. Owned by the British violinist Alfred Gibson prior to 1911, the violin was purchased then by Polish violin virtuoso Bronislaw Huberman. The Strad was in Huberman's Carnegie Hall dressing room in 1936 when he was playing a recital on his other great instrument, a Guarneri. When Huberman returned to the dressing room, the Strad was gone.
Deathbed wish
It didn't resurface again until 1987, when it was offered for sale to Lloyd's of London by the widow of cafe violinist Julius Altman, who claimed to have bought it for a modest sum not long after the theft of the Strad. On his deathbed, Altman had urged his wife to "do something" about the violin, which he described as "important."
Inside the violin case were yellowed newspaper clippings about the disappearance of Huberman's Strad. Already the owner of a Stradivarius, Bell couldn't resist the Gibson-Huberman Strad when it came on the market in 2001, despite having to "mortgage my life" to buy it, as he told one interviewer. The distinctive reddish varnish of the violin led Bell to quip that he had ended up with the "Red Violin" at last.
Melinda Bargreen: mbargreen@seattletimes.com
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