Action and Adrenalin

Dénes Várjon requires little introduction since he is frequently seen on the concert stage, he has many fine recordings to his name and he is a true globetrotter of a musician who still gives classes at his Alma Mater, the Liszt Academy. British cellist Steven Isserlis is renowned for his unmistakable cello sound as for his intense fascination with chamber music. He is an old chamber partner of Dénes Várjon.The outwardly relaxed yet deeply committed and sublime American violinist Joshua Bell was last in Hungary with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields (an ensemble of which he is music director). These three regular chamber music partner not only play works by Robert Schumann, pieces that are particularly important to Dénes Várjon, but Chopin's only sonata for cello and piano, as well as one of the most popular chamber works by Mendelssohn. On hearing this work Schumann referred to his fellow composer as the Mozart of the 19th century.

Steven Isserlis, Joshua Bell, Dénes Várjon

 

In the following paragraphs - published originally in Liszt Academy Concert Magazine 2014/1 - József Kling introduces the violin virtuoso.

Joshua David Bell plays the violin as if fighting for his life. He says he plays because he wants to make an impact, to convince others. Indifference is the worst thing that can happen to a musician. People pester him because of his exterior; he is compared to Hugh Grant and is viewed sometimes as if still a child, and yet he has passed the half-way mark of an average life. He was born on 9 December 1967 in Bloomington, Indiana. Both his parents were psychologists and yet he was raised on a farm with horses and chickens. Nature remains important for him even today, but he loves New York where he has lived for years, close to Carnegie Hall. But only when he is at home: each year he gives over 200 concerts across the world.

Yet his home is still important for him. Bell designed and furnished his New York flat with great care. On the walls of the music room hang old photographs which he inherited from his first teacher, Josef Gingold. He was surrounded by images of Hubermann, Heifetz and Ysaÿe in his childhood music lessons. "There is something magical if when practising, Ysaÿe's gaze fixes upon you," he said in an interview with Arte television years ago. "I had exceptionally supportive parents which every child greatly needs. My mother played the piano, and music very much brought us together. Furthermore, my mother loves challenges – she plays just about every kind of sport – and this attitude is very handy in my profession. My mother is Jewish, but religion did not really play a role in my life. Even though my father was originally a pastor, at a decisive moment in his life he vowed he would never set foot in a church again. He did not want to bring us up in a religious spirit. For me, music became religion. I do believe that there exists something of a higher power, something more sublime. This is particularly true when you listen to Bach, sooner or later you start to believe in God."

He received his first violin at the age of 4, and at 14 won the joint competition of Seventeen Magazine and General Motors, bringing him national popularity. In that same year he gave his first concert with a major orchestra, no less than the Philadelphia Orchestra under Riccardo Muti. In 1998 he gained wider general recognition with his recording of the Oscar-winning score by John Corigliano for the film The Red Violin, and in 2004 he supplied the violin sound in the concert scenes for the concert violinist protagonist of the film Ladies in Lavender. In 2007 an experiment by the Washington Post stirred controversy: Bell busked at the entrance to a subway station as people hurried to work and virtually no one noticed that they were hearing the playing of a world class musician on a Stradivarius worth many millions of dollars. The Post journalist received a Pulitzer Prize for the article.

Bell's violin, a so-called Gibson ex Hubermann, dates from 1713. In 1936 it assumed centre stage in a detective story when someone stole it from Bronisław Huberman's dressing room at Carnegie Hall. (Incidentally, it had been stolen once before in 1919, but Huberman managed to recover it successfully within three days.) The mystery of 1936 remained unsolved for nearly fifty years and the police could not track down the thief. It was only in 1985 when Julian Altman confessed on his death bed to his wife. Altman was a member of the National Symphony Orchestra and had played on the stolen violin for years without anyone realising what a unique instrument it was. Bell has been playing it since 2001. He bought it for four million dollars but since then its value has increased many times. It was love at first bow! He never again played on his old violin even though that too was a Stradivarius. Somewhere he said that if he had to part with the Huberman, he would grieve like someone mourning the death of a beloved dog with whom he had lived for years.

Photo. Bill Phelps
 

Action and adrenalin – he stated once –, these are the two things that shape his life. The constant challenge, the continuous manifestation before the audience, can become a kind of dependence; it can function like a drug against which one must defend. So Bell does yoga and meditation, seeking the opportunity for relaxation lest the constant turmoil eventually damage his health.

But naturally things are now slowing down given that since the 2011/12 season he has been the artistic director of the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. He continues a noble tradition: the founder of the ensemble, Sir Neville Marriner, and his successor, Iona Brown, both ascended to the conductor's podium as violin virtuosi and even conducted the ensemble with the instrument in their hands. In the case of the classical repertoire, it is not unusual for the soloist to be the orchestral leader; however, it is not generally the case with the romantic concertos written for a large orchestra. According to Joshua Bell, the secret is for there to be an orchestra which the soloist-conductor blindly trusts. A performance of the Brahms violin concerto totally engages the soloist and thus they cannot really instruct the orchestra. But the important things happen in rehearsal. Everything that occurs on stage is the consequence of an intensive rehearsal period. A good orchestra can then cope without a conductor. Nonetheless, it is a great help for his fellow musicians that Bell accompanies his own playing with intensive body language. The public would not believe just how much each gesture communicates to the attentive orchestra.

"I did not start conducting to conform to the expectations of the critics," he said in an interview. "I would like to create something that enchants me as well. For me, violin playing and conducting are not two separate trades. I am a musician. That is my profession."