Joshua Bell - Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Joshua Bell - Academy of St Martin in the Fields

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Posted 2017-05-05 by John Andrewfollow

Wed 26 Apr 2017 - Thu 27 Apr 2017



It has been thirty years since the Academy of St Martin in the Fields last came to Brisbane. Founded in 1958, the Academy has become one of the world's most revered chamber orchestras, known to many of us through their superb recordings.

One of those in 1988 featured the 19 year old Bell, playing Bruch and, thirty years later still with youthful appearance and energy, he played it again, this time also directing the orchestra.

Small wonder that there was a palpable frisson of expectation as the capacity audience streamed into the Concert Hall.

Bell conducted from his chair, using his bow as a baton when not playing, and using unmistakable body movements while playing. The mental energy involved must be phenomenal, but there was no sense of stress, and the superb orchestra, in Mendelssohn's "Fingal's Cave" conjured up the power and the majesty of the sea with an urgency and an immediacy that your aged reviewer had never previously experienced.

During a recent interview with Timothy Mangan of the Orange County Register Bell commented that he has become a "better leader, communicator and is more assertive and more thoughtful, musically at least." The symbiosis between Bell and the Academy certainly spoke of amazing mutual understanding and communication.

Then came the Bruch Concerto. Heather Morris writes "Playing on the 1713 Huberman Stradivarius with an eighteenth-century French bow by Français Tourte Bell's tone on the opening phrase was magical, sparkling clarity with rich undertones." The finale allowed Bell to showcase a vibrant, exuberant Gypsy violin.

Our program notes told us that the Schumann slow movement had been re-worked by Benjamin Brittain as a tribute to his friend Dennis Brain, who died at the age of 36 in a car accident. It lay gathering dust in Brittain's archives until recently rediscovered. This piece is dark and haunting and there was a silence as the sound died down before the audience again burst into the rapturous applause that marked the whole evening, even (shock horror) where it should not normally be, between movements. Not that the excess of appreciation seemed to bother Bell who has an amazing capacity to express warmth and to engage an audience.

The last piece was more up-tempo, and possibly more familiar, as the concert was book-ended by Mendelssohn (the Italian). This was assertive and powerful – a good note on which to end. Except that the audience doesn't want it to end. The standing ovation continued with wave after wave of applause, and Bell returned relaxed and smiling to play, he announced, "a waltz from Tchaikovsky".

Often during this concert, one felt what performers call a "good silence" where audience and music are as one, and the audience's silence is so intense as to become part of the performance.
We had come with great expectations, both for the Academy and for Bell.

They were met and surpassed.


____________

Felix Mendelssohn The Hebrides, Op.26
Max Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op.26
Robert Schumann Violin Concerto: Second Movement
Felix Mendelssohn Symphony No.4 in A, Op.90 Italian

#classical_music
#concerts
#performing_arts
#shows
#april
!date 26/04/2017 -- 27/04/2017
%wnbrisbane
139299 - 2023-06-13 15:26:06

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