FoBoBlo

Editor’s Note: This post is from our sometimes contributor Andrew!

Classical music and celebrity aren’t often thought of as being synonymous (at least not since the days of Mozart, or perhaps since Amadeus hit movie screens in 1984). But Joshua Bell may be the closest thing to a modern, American classical music rock star – after all, who else besides Bell can say they’ve played with nearly all of the world’s major orchestras; won both a Grammy and classical music’s highest honor, the Avery Fisher prize; contributed to the soundtrack for Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons AND dated a Tony- and Emmy-award winning singer/actress (in Bell’s case, the effervescent Kristin Chenoweth)?

Since only Bell fits those descriptions, it is no surprise that much of the pre-concert chatter at the Kennedy Center before the first of Bell’s three-concert tour with the National Symphony Orchestra focused on the man, the myth, the legend, the violinist.

But, as conductor Hugh Wolff reminded the audience in a brief pre-concert conversation, before Bell could take them “on a trip through sunny Spain” via Edouard Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, he would take a voyage through Scotland via James MacMillan’s Í (A Meditation on Iona).

Much like the piece’s namesake, a gray, inhabitable island nestled between the Scottish and Irish coasts, the very modern Meditation, written just 13 years ago, captures and emphasizes this darkness through some very modern composing, including the shrill screeching of violins and drawn out crescendos, and through the use of some very modern instruments in the percussion section, including a thundersheet (a sheet of metal that makes a sound exactly as its name implies), a steel drum and steel pans.

While not “unbearably dull” as FoBoBlo contributor Rob feared the piece might be, it was not exactly “exceptionally gorgeous” as he had hoped. Rather, it fell somewhere between “too modern to understand fully…right?” and “music that could have been used in There Will Be Blood or on Lost.” There were hints of clarity – the low basses rhythmically mimicking the sound of the waves as Wolff alluded to before the performance – but by and large, MacMillan’s composition was perhaps a bit too conceptual. Either that, or Iona is one incredibly terrifying island of doom.

While the piece was relatively well-received, perhaps because of its modernity (a gentleman in front of me commented to his wife on his amazement at the use of steel drums), the audience was clearly saving the bulk of their applause for Bell, whose very warm reception was seemingly built up by the anticipation of his performance.

It quickly became clear that the praise Bell garners for his work is well deserved. While the dexterity of his fingers on the violin’s neck, his handling of the bow and his rich tone show that he is an incredibly talented musician, what distinguishes Bell from others, what gives him that aura of virtuoso and celebrity (besides having dated Kristen Chenoweth) is the way in which he performs. During the third movement of Symphonie espagnole, while the melody evoked scenes of a tango, Bell effortlessly swayed back and forth as he played, himself dancing with the violin to his own music. For Bell, it seems, while the music is his top priority, the performance is also incredibly important, and he is able to engage his listeners in both while making his work seem both flawless and effortless.

After just over 30 minutes of expert musicianship, with everyone in the hall fixated on classical music superstar before them, the audience was quick to reward Bell with a near instantaneous standing ovation at the conclusion of the piece – in fact, as Bell and the orchestra played the final notes, some had already begun clapping.

The performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 3 in A minor (known as, of course, the “Scottish symphony”) following the intermission highlighted a very different Scotland from MacMillan’s. Although Mendelssohn visited Iona on the trip to Scotland that would inspire his Third Symphony, it was the Scottish countryside that had the most influence on his work. Indeed, the stark violins and steel drums of MacMillan’s Scotland are replaced with soft pastoral melodies and sweeping lyrical phrases suggestive of the Scottish countryside, interwoven with moments of soft but intense horn calls that could have been background for a Braveheart-type battle. Based on the reaction following the piece, in the battle of desolate Scottish island and scenic Scottish countryside, the latter prevailed.

Also earning praise from the audience was conductor Wolff, whose impassioned conducting – himself dancing to the music, inhaling loudly at key points in the piece – was just as entertaining as Bell and the orchestra, although also a bit distracting.

But despite Wolff’s antics and the positive reception of the Mendelssohn symphony, well after he had taken his last bow to a standing crowd, it was clear the evening was still all about Bell: there were a small but noticeable number of empty seats in the hall after the intermission that followed his performance.

Ladies and gentlemen, Joshua Bell had left the building.