CONCERT REVIEW - Evening with violinist Bell delights
By SALLY VALLONGO
BLADE STAFF WRITER
Last night’s Toledo Symphony Special Event concert in the Stranahan Theater was a memorable evening of music not often performed locally and rarely played as well anywhere — especially once violinist Joshua Bell took the stage.
Bell, a wunderkind who grew up into an even better performer than his precocious start promised, didn’t merely own the second half of the program, when he actually played.
No, his presence and the anticipation of that appearance seemed to cast a golden spell over the entire concert. Led by resident conductor Chelsea Tipton II, the orchestra radiated confidence and spirit and a puckish humor from the first note of John Corigliano’s referential opener, “Promenade Overture.”
Inspired by Franz Josef Haydn’s beloved Farewell Symphony — in which musicians leave the stage section by section — contemporary American composer Corigliano turned the concept around. He also turned around the main Haydn theme, and it became the signature passage throughout the work, passed from section to section as each re-entered the stage.
Would that the “Karelia Suite,” the sole work by the great Finnish composer Jean Sibelius on the entire symphony season, have been treated with more finesse.
While perhaps familiar, the work has much more to offer in its three brief movements than was heard. Tipton led a perfunctory performance, capable and firm, yet lacking in subtle shapings that bring out the dark beauty of Sibelius’ music.
Much the same could be said of the reading of Liszt’s tone poem “Les Preludes.” Bursting with memorable themes and dripping with drama, the work received a thoroughgoing performance, yet one lacking in conviction.
Ah well, with the appearance of Bell came an abundance of heart and soul, fi nesse and shaping.
Standing tall, thin, and as arced as his bow, Bell seemed to inhabit the music from the first note of Rachmaninoff’s romantic and sinuous “Vocalise.” Or, maybe, the music inhabits Bell and he releases it phrase by phrase through the magical juncture of bow and string.
His playing is graceful and intense — not in the explosive way violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg was intense during her performance at this same special concert in 2007. Bell’s is far more introspective.
In both the Rachmaninoff and the haunting Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor that followed, Bell communicated a sense of longing. He didn’t merely play the music, he and his violin caressed it, bringing it to life. Here Tipton and symphony provided sensitive support and, watching the faces of all the musicians, great enthusiasm for the soloist and his playing.
Yes, it was a musical love-fest onstage and off, capped by Bell’s too-brief encore, an excerpt from Corigliano’s marvelous score for the film The Red Violin.
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Contact Sally Vallongo at: svallongo@theblade.com.
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