Cincinnatians are lucky to hear many violin virtuosos as they pass through town to play concertos with the city's orchestras. But on Tuesday, it was a rare treat to hear the American superstar Joshua Bell perform an intimate evening of violin sonatas in Memorial Hall.
Bell, a native of Bloomington, Ind., has become a celebrity for his high-profile recordings, including film scores, his television appearances and even his much-publicized performance in a Washington D.C. metro station. But his recital with British pianist Sam Haywood gave listeners an up-close-and-personal glimpse of the breadth of the violinist's artistry and personality.
He is an arresting performer with deep musicality and a stunningly easy technique. Many times during his program of music by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Ysaye and Franck, he combined beauty and nuance with spectacular technical feats.
The concert kicked off a North American tour. The duo will play the same program on Monday in Carnegie Hall.
The recital started 15 minutes late due to the crush at the box office, and nearly every seat was taken in the 600-seat hall. It was the finale of the new Constella Festival of Music and Fine Arts, founded by Cincinnatian Tatiana Berman.
To open, Bell launched exuberantly, with his mop of hair flying, into Mendelssohn's Violin Sonata in F Major. From the outset, his expressive palette was extraordinary, and he projected warmth and sweetness on his Gibson ex-Huberman Stradivarius violin.
But the duo didn't settle in until the slow movement. Haywood - who played from an iPad on his music stand - was at first heavy and muddy at the piano. Memorial Hall has a difficult acoustic for the performer, but he soon adjusted. The lightning-quick finale featured nonstop virtuosities for both musicians, yet they brought its wit and charm to the fore.
Beethoven wrote his Violin Sonata No. 7 in C Minor at about the same time as his Eroica Symphony. Sometimes described as tempestuous, this sonata falls between Beethoven's lyrical "Spring" Sonata and the famed "Kreutzer."
Bell's playing in the march-like theme of the first movement was electrifying. This was all fire and drama; he slashed with his full bow at phrase endings like exclamation points, and caught the mystery of the softer passages. He turned often to communicate with his partner, while also playing to the last person in the hall. Haywood and Bell made a polished duo, and their collaboration was both refined and exciting.
In the program's second half, Bell gave a nod to his teacher, legendary violinist Josef Gingold, a former student of violinist/composer Eugene Ysaye. He performed the unaccompanied Sonata No. 3 in D Minor, "Ballade," by the Belgian composer (who was also a former music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra).
"I feel very connected to Ysaye because he was the teacher of my teacher," Bell told The Enquirer last week.
Playing without a score, Bell's playing was mesmerizing as the music grew in a kind of arc, from a single phrase to impassioned flights of searing virtuosity and back. A bona-fide showpiece, it called upon all of his resources - yet this was never about the fireworks. Bell's phrasing was always deeply emotional.
The duo concluded with Franck's Sonata in A Major. Continuing the musical connections, the work is dedicated to Ysaye, and was one of the first pieces Bell studied with his teacher.
But, those links aside, it is one of the most beloved pieces ever written for violin and piano.
The violinist set a languid tempo in the opening, and phrased with clear affection for the music. Time stood still in his gentle "recitative" in the slow movement, where his sound was almost vocal. Together, pianist and violinist summoned a gorgeous, freely expressive atmosphere.
Haywood excelled in fiendishly difficult moments, including the Allegro, an explosion of knuckle-breaking passages for the pianist. The finale, which featured pianist and violinist in a sunny canon, was a glowing summation to the evening.
Listeners seemed to be holding their breath until the final note of each piece, when the hall erupted in cheers. For an encore, Bell performed his own arrangement for violin and piano of Chopin's Nocturne in C-sharp Minor.
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