Bell Goes Beyond Star Power

Violinist Joshua Bell’s thrilling performance had an ecstatic audience leaping to its collective feet Tuesday evening by the time the first half of his program was over with Tuesday Musical in Akron Tuesday evening.

The highlight of the evening was hearing the superstar’s wildly exhilarating fiddling in the elaborately racing runs that are a hallmark of the Allegro molto in Saint-Saens’ Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano. Bell had promised in an earlier interview that this movement, known for its blazing virtuosity, would bring the house down, and it did.

Bell was appearing with Tuesday Musical for the third time, paired this time with pianist Jeremey Denk, his longtime collaborator. In the romantic Saint-Saens, Bell’s sound ranged from magical and mysterious to an unearthly sweetness. In the dramatic final movement, tension built as Bell and Denk traded off in melodic strains.

Bell, dressed in satiny black pants and a black, untucked shirt with maroon trim, was courteously affable as he introduced each selection. This deferential artist, commenting on a shortage of programs, told the packed house “I remember the old days when there were too many programs left at the end.”

He began his intimate recital by performing the Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in C Minor for the first time, marked by Denk’s jauntiness at he piano and Bell’s tripping contrapuntal flourishes in the Allegro.

Throughout the evening, Bell’s touch turned from tender to buoyant, whispering or bombastic. He celebrated the 200th anniversary of Schumann’s birth with the restlessness and hushed tension of Schumann’s Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A minor.

Ravel’s 1927 Sonata for Violin and Piano was the most unusual piece on the program, especially the Blues: Moderato, which was inspired by American jazz of the 1920s. Here, Bell praised Schumann as a “master of color.”

The odd harmonies of the movement aren’t what many audiences are used to: The slow movement is polytonal, with the piano and violin playing two different keys at once.

In contrast, the piece ended with the fast and furious Perpetuum Mobile, with the violin and piano answering each other in grand dramatic style.

The audience couldn’t get enough of this superstar, so Bell’s encore brought another treat: his hero Fritz Kreisler’s arrangement of Dvorak’s Slavonic Dance. Bell brought a much sweeter dimension to the work for violin and piano than the orchestral version does, including moments that sounded like fluttering laughter.

The selection was perfect, considering it was the exact day of the late Kreisler’s birthday. [Feb. 2.]