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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2011 > September > 12 > Entry
Review: Joshua Bell and the Austin Symphony Orchestra
In just the last eight months the Austin Symphony Orchestra has hosted as many premiere violinists as an aficionado could hope to see in a lifetime: Itzhak Perlman, Anne Akiko Meyers and this past weekend, Joshua Bell for the orchestra’s season opener at the Long Center.
It was no surprise to his fans that Bell embodies a particularly rich sweetness in his tone. And seeing it live was a reminder that some artists simply translate better on stage than on an album (and many of Bell’s albums are already outstanding).
Just as importantly, conductor Peter Bay and the symphony sounded newly invigorated for Strauss’ “Death and Transfiguration,” which opened the evening. The strings sounded especially unified, with pinpoint dynamics, alongside fine solos from flute, viola and violin.
Bell began with the Tchaikovsky “Meditation,” arranged by Glazunov, and in his trademark loose black shirt, Bell played this mournful theme with crystal clear tone, a tone that was strikingly elastic, delicately working the fingerboard.
Not to be outdone, there was also some fine clarinet counterpoint to accompany Bell’s ghostly high vibrato.
After intermission, Bell revived Glazunov’s violin concerto, debuting in Austin a work he described in conversation last month as an “old war-horse” of his idol Jascha Heifetz, perhaps the most revered player of the last century.
And it is pleasingly old fashioned, but more importantly, it’s a sprawling showstopper brimming with difficult double stops, left-handed pizzicato, charging melodies and ephemeral bird-like sounds. Apart from its difficulties, and a gloriously off-kilter cadenza, it emits a nostalgia for the black and whites of old Hollywood.
One might argue that Bell’s monster concerto should have closed out the evening.
Certainly there are a plethora of considerations that decide concert order, but there is something in our human nature that revels in the anticipation, like a vintage Bordeaux stored in the cellar for special occasions.
In any case, after well-deserved and copious applause for Bell, the symphony ended with Rimsky-Korsakov’s nicely textured “Russian Easter Overture,” with good work from the strings and brass, including a fine trombone solo, though the brass ramped up the volume a little too soon, drowning out the strings before the triumphant finale, at least as heard in the mezzanine.
It was a standout evening for the orchestra and Peter Bay, and, from Joshua Bell, another coup for classical music patrons.
Luke Quinton is an American-Statesman freelance arts writer.
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