CANCELLED: Joshua Bell / Academy of St Martin in the Fields

There are currently two playable violins that are believed to have once belonged to the great violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini. American violinist Joshua Bell gave a concert on one of these instruments a few years ago. And even though he does not believe in things mystical, Bell says: »It does give the audience a hint of how Paganini must have sounded.« To this day, Paganini’s First Violin Concerto amazes us with the fiendishly tricky and brilliant virtuoso gestures that made him a legend in his own lifetime. Joshua Bell performs this exceptionally difficult score together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, whose music director he has been since 2011. Compared with the Paganini, the Fourth Symphony by Johannes Brahms seems almost a haven of tranquillity. But due to its complexity, this work also elicited storms of both enthusiasm and indignation at the first performance.