Joshua Bell

So we might close the day with some beautiful classical violin! Starting with a child protpgy from  Indiana who picked up the instrument at 4 and went on to bigger and better things . . . bear with me the Tchaikovsky is a bit frenetic for me and has the urgency of youth not yet tempered with expression but the results are clear. Later we have this beautiful piece called ‘Meditation’ 

Now you may recall I am not much given to promote those who possess virtuosity for virtuosity’s sake but there are obvious exceptions (Oscar Peterson?) but also from the world of classical music like this in one Joshua Bell 

Click it really!

15-year-old Joshua Bell plays Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto . . . .

found trying to make his own stringed instrument out of rubber bands at about 3 or 4 years old his father bought him a child's violin and whilst they were academics and clearly very bright there was no pushing to excel, he merely did! He is from Indiana USA.

meanwhile sometime later . . . . .

Joshua Bell - "Méditation" from Thaïs

he is, as you might expect now, the  music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and visiting professor at The Royal College of Music both in London. His violin is said to be worth more than the just shy of $4 million he paid for it (Gibson ex Huberman, a Stradivarius made in 1713)!

He and his opera singer wife currently live in Kusco New York and have a place in Gramercy Park, NY He is now 56 . . . . . 

“Many a good tune played on an old fiddle"