Joshua Bell / Academy of St Martin in the Fields

Fiendish

There are currently only two playable violins in existence that the great violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini is believed to have heard. American violinist Joshua Bell gave a concert on one of these instruments a few years ago. And even though he doesn’t believe in the mystical, he declared: »This gives the audience at least a hint of an idea of what Paganini himself must have sounded like.« To this day, the fiendishly difficult and brilliant virtuoso gestures that made Paganini a legend in his time can be heard in his First Violin Concerto. It is a work brimming with effects, and Joshua Bell performs it together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, whose music director he has been for many years now. By way of contrast, Schumann’s Second Symphony with its chorale-like opening seems a haven of tranquillity; one can hear clearly the composer’s study of the Bach fugues and of Beethoven’s song cycle»An die ferne Geliebte«.