Mendelssohn - Violin Concerto [Bell/ Norrington-Camerata Salzburg]
A really good coupling, the Mendelssohn concerto is a perennial evergreen, one of the easiest to like then love, i count 20 different discs in my collection containing this work, that's a lot of music, much more than i realized, but the work in essence justifies it, also i have the other disc that Bell made of this work early in his recording career of the Mendelssohn with Marriner, the Bell / Norrington disc appeared in my Blog four years ago [25th June 2011].
Joshua Bell is American, he's now 47, he recorded this disc back in 2000, the front booklet and back inlay are excellent [photography by Timothy White], showing Bell with his violin, arms folded, a blue top and dark blue background, well lit, and the lettering is skillfully placed, i really like the finished product here.
It was the opening movement that was such a joy to listen to, at 13 minutes it's almost roughly half of the Concerto, the very opening is a marvel of invention, Mendelssohn here goes straight into the melody, and the violin features right away, making a violin / orchestra statement which is strong and powerful [0:00-1:01], it's easy to hear how the music flows just effortlessly, but almost every note was agonised over by Mendelssohn, he caused him no end of grief, but it's impossible to hear that in such a performance as this, the Concerto is in E Minor, a favourite for Violin Concertos, surprisingly Bell uses his own cadenza instead of the one by Mendelssohn [7:10-8:48], and at first sounds different / wrong, but in essence the whole point of a cadenza is to showcase the skill of the Violinist, almost an impromptu invention, and i guess it's good to hear something different for a change, Bell is a great fiddler, and the violin playing is brilliant, some of the difficult passages toward the end are played with aplomb, there's a real excitement here.
Here's Joshua Bell playing the Mendelssohn Concerto on YouTube.
Joshua Bell is American, he's now 47, he recorded this disc back in 2000, the front booklet and back inlay are excellent [photography by Timothy White], showing Bell with his violin, arms folded, a blue top and dark blue background, well lit, and the lettering is skillfully placed, i really like the finished product here.
It was the opening movement that was such a joy to listen to, at 13 minutes it's almost roughly half of the Concerto, the very opening is a marvel of invention, Mendelssohn here goes straight into the melody, and the violin features right away, making a violin / orchestra statement which is strong and powerful [0:00-1:01], it's easy to hear how the music flows just effortlessly, but almost every note was agonised over by Mendelssohn, he caused him no end of grief, but it's impossible to hear that in such a performance as this, the Concerto is in E Minor, a favourite for Violin Concertos, surprisingly Bell uses his own cadenza instead of the one by Mendelssohn [7:10-8:48], and at first sounds different / wrong, but in essence the whole point of a cadenza is to showcase the skill of the Violinist, almost an impromptu invention, and i guess it's good to hear something different for a change, Bell is a great fiddler, and the violin playing is brilliant, some of the difficult passages toward the end are played with aplomb, there's a real excitement here.
Here's Joshua Bell playing the Mendelssohn Concerto on YouTube.
