Arts & Events

Joshua Bell, Music Director of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, brought his violin virtuosity
to Davies Hall on Sunday, April 7 in a concert that featured Bell as violin soloist in Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. Also on the program was Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2gh The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields is a player-directed orchestra in which collegial values are foremost. In performing Robert Schumann’s 2nd Symphony here, Joshua Bell did not conduct the orchestra from a podium but from the chair of first violinist. This kind of player-direction has long been a hallmark of this orchestra, which was founded by Neville Marriner back in 1958. Watching and listening to them perform at Davies Hall, I was impressed by this orchestra’s cohesiveness and polish.

The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto ranks as many listeners’ favorite among violin concertos. It is full of inspired melodies, performed here with passion by Joshua Bell on violin. This work opens with only one introductory measure in the orchestra before the solo violin enters with a wondrously lyrical theme of shimmering beauty. Then a countersubject is heard in both the orchestra and solo violin. Later, another melody appears in clarinets and flutes, and a brief cadenza for solo violin prepares the way for a recapitulation. The second movement, an Andante, emerges without a break out of the closing phrase of the opening movement. After eight bars of orchestral introduction, the violin enters with another luscious melody, one that has been described by some as “other-worldly” in its beauty. As played here by violinist Joshua Bell, this ravishing melody was indeed other-worldly. Next comes the final movement, a lively, fast-paced one, which again emerges without a pause after the slow movement. This work closes with a brilliant coda. Throughout this Violin Concerto, Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields amply demonstrated their much-touted cohesiveness and polish.

The work that actually opened this concert was the jazz-inspired piece Flight of Moving Days composed in 2024 by Vince Mendoza. This work featured violinist Joshua Bell and drummer Douglas Marriner, grandson of Neville Marriner. Solo violin and drums exchange many ongoing dialogues in the course of this piece, which also involves the full orchestra.

After intermission, Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 2 in C Major, Opus 61, was performed. This gloomy work was composed during 1845 and 1846 at a time when Schumann was troubled by physical and mental distress. It opens with a piercing sound of trumpets in the key of C, a sound Schumann found obsessively recurring in his head before he began writing this symphony. This trumpet outburst becomes a kind of motto for the entire symphony. The second movement is a Scherzo that includes two trios, one a tribute to J.S. Bach. The third movement is a melancholy yet lovingly affirmative Adagio of noteworthy beauty. It is initially heard in the strings but the oboe and bassoon soon join in. After an interlude with strings, horn and trumpet, the radiant melody returns. The final movement features much accompaniment by the timpani, here brilliantly performed by timpanist Louise Goodwin. There is also important thematic material from this fine orchestra.