Violin Bell

Bruch’s tribute to Scotland was written before he had set foot in the country. Even so, the Scottish Fantasy suggests someone steeped in the folk songs of the Highlands, with traditional Scottish melodies threaded throughout. Joshua Bell, soloist and conductor, leads his orchestra through the fens with playing of exquisite dramatic sensitivity and a golden tone, resulting in a rich, characterful portrait of the wild landscape. They also put their attention to the Violin Concerto No. 1, a work they first recorded together in 2000. There’s a good deal more sureness to the playing from both parties this time, underlining these musicians’ burgeoning artistic relationship.

Unusually the liner note deserves a mention ahead of the music: the fine pianist Jeremy Denk, half of this regular duo, manages to encapsulate the elusiveness of French romantic music with such insight in a few sharp sentences, his words almost shape the way we listen to this superbly played disc. Saint-Saëns' wistful and emotional Sonata No 1 and Ravel's bluesy, ironic sonata have a whipped, airy quality. Joshua Bell plays with fire and finesse, with Denk a powerful ally. Franck's dark-light violin sonata, mysterious, ardent and far more than the sum of its parts when played as majestically as here, forms the centrepiece of this seriously beguiling disc.

A very light but very lovely disc of mid-twentieth century violin concertos, this 1996 recording by Joshua Bell with David Zinman directing the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra coupling the concertos of Samuel Barber and William Walton along with Baal Shem, the concerto-in-all-but-in-name by Ernest Bloch, may be for younger listeners a first choice among digital recordings.

Joshua Bell's fresh approach to these violin warhorses makes for an unexpectedly inviting listening experience. In the Mendelssohn he marries his bright tone to forthright phrasing in a manner that communicates the music's emotion without sliding into the gooey sweetness heard in some interpretations. There's little if anything hackneyed about Bell's reading, indicating he's thought about the work anew, right through to the stylistically appropriate cadenza he composed himself (Bell cites research that suggests Mendelssohn's friend Ferdinand David may have actually composed the original cadenza).

Joshua Bell's fresh approach to these violin warhorses makes for an unexpectedly inviting listening experience. In the Mendelssohn he marries his bright tone to forthright phrasing in a manner that communicates the music's emotion without sliding into the gooey sweetness heard in some interpretations. There's little if anything hackneyed about Bell's reading, indicating he's thought about the work anew, right through to the stylistically appropriate cadenza he composed himself (Bell cites research that suggests Mendelssohn's friend Ferdinand David may have actually composed the original cadenza). Roger Norrington's crisp, period-informed style, with its pointed accents and propulsive energy easily fits in with Bell's conception.

Joshua Bell lights of the stage with this dazzling performance of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, the centerpiece of the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm in honour of the 2010 Nobel Laureates. Part of the official Nobel Week, this tribute concert opens with music by Beethoven that urgently evokes the spirit of freedom from tyranny. Closing the evening is a glowing account by Sakari Oramo and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic of Sibelius's monument to orchestral majesty, the titanic Fifth Symphony.