Enlarge image
Violinist Joshua Bell performing in Washington in 2018
Photo: Pat Benic / picture alliance / newscom
»A devil’s violinist, unbelievable!«, I hear one of these fine Hamburg gentlemen whispering to his accompaniment from a row behind me, when this genius of the violin, Joshua Bell, performed the first movement of Niccolò Paganini’s 1st violin concerto on the stage of the Elbphilharmonie , with a cadence from his own hand – the improvised interlude, shortly before the end of the movement, when once again all the harmonies are caught, put together and varied, as a virtuoso gesture and gesture of the virtuoso.
He composed this himself and now gives it, quickly, like a particle accelerator, trill after trill, cascading tone sequences - here the audience is completely enraptured for the first time, one could say the hall is raging.
It's only 8:34 p.m.
Well, that's a prelude to a world tour.
From Carnegie Hall to Kennedy Center to far away Oklahoma - Jesus H. Christ!
They'll be amazed, the Americans!
And what honor this premiere-like starting signal is for the Hanseatic city can hardly be estimated.
Almost a coup.
Stradivarius, Paganini, Joshua Bell - you have to be careful with superlatives, but what is being offered by one of the best violinists in the world - it simply leaves you breathless.
Rock hard difficulties for Bell's Stradivarius
After all, his chamber orchestra is already a beautiful dream: »The Academy of Saint Martin in the Fields«, an exquisite orchestra that has been causing a sensation worldwide for decades - founded in 1958 by the legend Sir Neville Marriner, named after the little, right inconspicuous church with the small spire, all in grey, not far from Trafalgar Square in London, to the right of the National Gallery, a little way up the street.
A group of excellent and leading London musicians who, under Sir Neville, quickly became a fixture on the music scene - just think of the complete recording of all of George Frideric Handel's Concerti Grossi - and who give new meaning to the word »as if from a single source«.
Bell opens the evening with Bach's Chaconne, in a previously unknown version for accompanying orchestra by James Stephenson, which follows the 16-minute sequences of arpeggi, glissandi and flageolets on the instrument - for amateurs: Hammer-hard difficulties for Bell's Stradivarius - a beautiful, gives reverent depth and, surprisingly, does not drown out the soloist.
There it is again, the wonderful acoustics of this concert hall on the Elbe, where even the faintest tones glow like cut glass – the audience is already frozen in rapture, turning into silent pillars of salt.
No really, so much tense concentration was rare, what a silence, you don't even leaf through the program booklet so that you don't hear a rustling.
When the chaconne rears up again, after endless, here extremely flawless variations, and comes to an end, and one awakens as if from a trance, the message reached everyone: This is where music history is happening!
world level this evening
Once again the warning against exaggerations, but Joshua Bell – who also conducts with a bow and a £4 million Stradivarius, with such verve and energy that one instinctively thinks, hopefully he doesn’t accidentally throw the violin into the orchestra – is on undisputed great master.
Break.
A chance acquaintance invites us to talk shop, yes, we both know this recording of Yehudi Menuhin's Paganini from 1968, »Unequaled!« – »Isn't it?«.
And suddenly the scales fell from my eyes, as if a veil of fog were torn open: why are we talking about that classic?
Because this evening is just as world class.
The 2nd symphony by Robert Schumann is actually his third chronologically, but that is going too far here.
In any case, from 1845 to 1846 the composer, who was severely depressed and whose health was fatally ill, treated himself "by studying Bach" and through this work, which was strongly influenced by the Thomaskantor - Bach again and again!
– and the Academy lets every deep-psychological appeal shine, led by Bell, who now takes the place of concertmaster and, how should you put it, conducts his orchestra with full physical effort, like the acquaintance – you still meet in the cloakroom once – analyzed: »He vibrates in a way physically in such a way that Londoners can seamlessly follow him in every gesture.«
One starts to ponder: Bell, Stradivari, Paganini?
For my part, I'm going into the garden now, with soft tears, burn my violin.
