JOSHUA BELL : Life imitating art.

For 33-year-old fiddler Joshua Bell, life is imitating art with startling fidelity. After performing the violin parts for the Oscar-winning score of the 1999 film The Red Violin, in August Bell bought his own red violin, the "ex-Huberman Strad" from 1713, noted for its lovely sound and what Bell calls a "deep red varnish–it looks like the red violin!" The price: "between three and four million dollars, but closer to three," the violinist says. Bell bought the violin from Norbert Brainin, the distinguished former leader of the Amadeus Quartet, who had picked it up in the 1980s. At that time, the violin had been recovered following a deathbed confession in jail by a café musician who had stolen it 50 years earlier from Polish violin phenomenon Bronislaw Huberman’s Carnegie Hall dressing room. This miraculous recovery is matched by the instrument’s qualities, says Bell. "I felt [that with the Huberman violin] I could do things effortlessly with an orchestra that I couldn’t do before," he explains. "Its sound has a ringing overtone and glow to it; I’ve never found an instrument with this kind of balance–a rich G string but sweet upper register."

A week after acquiring the instrument, Bell used it to record the soundtrack music to the new Miramax film Iris, starring Dame Judi Dench. He finds in it "many more colors that inspire the imagination" than his previous fiddle, the so-called "Tom Taylor" Strad, from 1732. He still uses the same bow, a 1790s Tourte acquired from the widow of noted violinist Samuel Dushkin. Bell explains, "In acquiring this violin, I had to sell my other one on short notice, and it was quite stressful. I ran into the young violinist Mark Steinberg of the Brentano String Quartet a couple of weeks before my deadline to pay off the new instrument. He tried my Tom Taylor and instantly fell in love with it, and found a sponsor to buy the instrument and let him use it."

Both Steinberg and Bell were students of the legendary Josef Gingold at Indiana University, and Bell recalls, "I grew up listening to Gingold’s 1683 Strad, a little less powerful than later periods but incredibly sweet. Gingold’s whole approach was to bring you in to his playing, an intimate way of playing–not the belting, powerful way. I’ve always considered myself a Strad player," he continues. "I like using lots of bow to play very soft and lightly and feel [the music] project to the back of hall."

Meanwhile, the many fans of the Grammy-winning Bell will get one last taste of his Tom Taylor Strad this month on a new Sony Classical release of the Mendelssohn and Beethoven concertos conducted by Roger Norrington.

–Benjamin Ivry

A Piece of the Rock

Members of the British rock band Led Zeppelin were no strangers to string sections, both natural and synthesized (such classic Zep songs as the bluesy "I’m Gonna Crawl" and the exotic "Kashmir" made liberal use of a string section), or bowing technique (axeslinger Jimmy Page frequently employed a bow to coax eerie sounds from his electric guitar). But who ever would imagine that a string quartet would want to tackle that band’s loping drum solo centerpiece "Moby Dick"? Enter The String Quartet Tribute to Led Zeppelin (Vitamin/CMH), a newly released 11-track ode to the gods of heavy metal thunder. The recording–which features contributions from the section, Stereofeed, the Prague Collective, Interior Rides, and Painting Over Picasso–is a mixed bag of the inspired and not-so-inspired. The CD is one of several from the Hollywood-based Vitamin label (distributed by CMH, the folks who brought you The Cocktail Tribute to Nirvana), which is responsible for new string quartet tributes to Icelandic rock diva Björk (who has recorded in the past with the Brodsky Quartet) and New Age vocalist Enya. Of course, this isn’t entirely a new trend–the Kronos Quartet raised eyebrows in 1986 with a cover of Jimi Hendrix’s "Purple Haze" and apocalyptica covers the death-metal dirges of Metallica. One of the best of the new batch, however, is a string version of Radiohead’s wistful 1997 masterpiece OK Computer, rife with post-punk angst and rich textures that lend themselves to this treatment. Can a string tribute to rage rockers Limp Bizkit be far behind?

 

While U.S. and Canadian symphonies–from San Jose to Miami, Houston to New Brunswick–are struggling to stay afloat in these stormy economic times, at least one Canadian orchestra has found a life line in the form of a government-sponsored bailout. Under a hush-hush deal disclosed in late November by the Toronto Star, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra–which has amassed a $7 million deficit–will receive a $4 million loan from the federal and provincial governments. Meanwhile, the neighboring Windsor Symphony Orchestra, nearly bankrupt three years ago, has made a dramatic financial turnaround sparked by strategic partnerships with private firms, spending cuts, and a 60 percent increase in ticket sales.

New York Story

The Claremont Trio–twin sisters Emily (violin) and Julia Bruskin (cello), plus Donna Kwong (piano)–made its New York debut at the 92 Street Y on November 6 as first prize winners of the prestigious 2001 Young Concert Artists International Auditions. The trio is a superbly accomplished young group with much intuition among the musicians, backed by splendid training, technique, and dash. Currently coaching with Toby Appel at Juilliard, they have also worked with Joseph Kalichstein, Claude Frank, Isaac Stern, and Harris Goldsmith. Intellectually acute–Emily also studies neuroscience while Julia is passionate about Eastern European history–the trio should be snapped up by some smart recording company.

–Benjamin Ivry

Aaron Jay Kernis, the Minnesota Orchestra’s new music advis0r, is the winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. Kernis, 41, was chosen for his "Colored Field" scored for cello and orchestra. The Grawemeyer Award includes a $200,000 prize and is sponsored by the University of Louisville in Kentucky. It was established by the late Charles Grawemeyer, a Southern industrialist, entrepreneur, and patron of the arts.

Class Act

Music teachers want California state lawmakers to put them on the legislative agenda to get more string players into public schools. The California state chapter of the American STRING Teachers Association, along with the National School Orchestra Association, has completed an advocacy video called Why Music? Why Strings?, to be shown to educators and lawmakers. The low-cost video tape, part of the National String Project Consortium’s effort to address the shortage of qualified string teachers, was funded jointly by the National ASTA and NSOA with technical assistance from the Los Angeles Musicians Union. To obtain a copy of the tape, call Bill Pordon at (619) 571-0902. Meanwhile, the California State University at Sacramento’s own String Project has announced the availability of new scholarships for string education majors. For details, contact master teacher Dr. Thomas Tatton at (916) 278-6558 or ttatton@gotnet.net; or music admissions office representative Mark Allen at (916) 278-6543 or mallen@csus.edu.

Passings

The tireless jazz promoter, visionary producer, and influential record exec Norman Granz, who founded the Verve and Pablo labels, died November 22 in Switzerland. He was 83. Granz supervised a roster that included Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, and John Coltrane. In 1944, he introduced jazz to the concert hall and produced the landmark 1951 recording Charlie Parker with Strings.

Raphael Sommer, the Czech-born Israeli cellist and founder of the acclaimed Trio Salomon, has died at age 64.

TRIUMPH: Joan Kwuon and Cho-Liang helped raise $300,000 at benefit.
Photo by Peter Schaff.

In Concert for Life

It was a night to remember. Violinist Joan Kwuon, radiantly pretty in an auspicious red gown, made a powerful artistic and social statement on November 30 at the second annual Artists for the Cure benefit concert held at Carnegie Hall. The event was sponsored by Artists for Breast Cancer Survival, cofounded two years ago by Kwuon and her violinist husband Joel Smirnoff. Kwuon, who was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 29, has recovered to perform admirably while emerging as a tireless advocate for breast cancer survivors.

The evening’s highlight was Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins BWV 1060, played with warmth and vivacity by Kwuon and Cho-Liang Lin, and backed by a small ensemble of student musicians from Juilliard. "As string players we are very aware and protective of the upper body," Kwuon notes. "With breast cancer, as with any other medical procedure related to the torso, it is extremely important to find surgeons who share and understand our concerns and who feel confident about their ability to treat with this [concern] in mind. Thankfully, there are many wonderful and talented surgeons, lovers of classical music, who are very receptive to the specific needs of performers."

A couple of those doctors were honorees that evening, making brief but candid speeches about advances in breast reconstruction techniques, not usually heard before a performance of the Bach Double Concerto, but pertinent given the context.

Artists for Breast Cancer Survival is a nonprofit organization that raises funds for breast cancer research and patient care. All artists or producers at its benefit concerts are breast cancer survivors or have been touched by the disease through family members or close friends. Smirnoff expects this year’s event to raise nearly $300,000.

The funds will be divided between the Anne Moore Research Fund at New York’s Cornell Medical Center and the Lennox Hill Hospital Breast Cancer Program. For details, visit www.artistsforbreastcancersurvival.org.

Meanwhile, audiences will get a chance to cheer Kwuon on at an April 30 Kennedy Center recital in Washington D.C. and next year during a U.S. tour with the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra.

–Benjamin Ivry

War of Words

Pierre Boulez, the often outspoken composer and conductor who once declared that modern opera houses were "full of dust and s**t" and should be "blown up," found his words coming back to haunt him on December 3. Boulez was pulled from his bed at a five-star Swiss hotel by police who then informed the startled maestro that he was on the national list of terrorist suspects. Boulez had his passport confiscated and was detained for three hours before being allowed to return to the hotel. Apparently, Boulez’s pointed comments, made during the heyday of the turbulent ’60s, led Swiss authorities to regard Boulez as a security risk.

OUTSPOKEN: Opinions spelled trouble for Boulez.
Photo courtesy of University of Louisville.

A week earlier, the always fiesty Boulez reflected on his legacy in a Strings interview. "My legacy?" he said, startled by the question, "well, I would be dead if I had to predict that. But if I were to be very arrogant, I’d have to say that I’m most proud of everything that I’ve done. I did the maximum that I could at each moment, that’s all I can say."

In late November, Boulez visited the University of Louisville in Kentucky to pick up the prestigious 2001 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, which comes with a $200,000 prize. The award was in recognition of his 1998 composition Sur Incises, a 40-minute work written for three pianos, three harps, and three percussionists. In recent years, Boulez–a 23-time Grammy Award winner who now splits his time as guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and in his native France–has composed several innovative pieces for strings, including the dramatic Anthemes, which employs an electronically manipulated tape of a violin.

Never one to mince his words when it comes to criticizing traditional music–"Ah, yes, and why not?" he quips–the 75-year-old conductor remains a staunch advocate for innovation. "If you are just playing traditional music then you will never have new traditional music in the future," he asserts. "There are modern composers and we have to perform their works, otherwise audiences will never me made aware of them. It’s very important that performers be involved in the music of their time."

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Auction Highlights, Fall 2001

November was a busy month for musical instrument auctions. It was also a historic month for Bonhams & Brooks and the United Kingdom network of Phillips. On November 1, the two houses announced the finalization of a merger uniting the companies under the name of Bonhams. Phillips still plans to participate in musical instrument sales, and at press time the two departments were operating under separate addresses. In spite of the landmark merger, both houses stuck to business as usual and hosted a pair of November sales. Bonhams & Brooks’ November 12 sale saw a fine English cello by Henry Lockey Hill (London 1810) take £20,000 ($23,184) at gavel. Other high points included a rare gold and ivory mounted violin bow by W.E. Hill & Sons (1951), which sold for £3,800 ($6,293). Phillips’ November 12 auction sold a fine French violin in immediate playing condition by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume (Paris, c. 1860) for £38,000 ($62,928).

A good silver mounted violin bow with a pearl eye by Eugene Sartory took £5,000 ($8,280) at close. And a violin bow attributed to Nicolas Maire (Paris c. 1860) with a tortoiseshell frog, golden metal face, and ivory and gold adjuster garnered £10,000 ($16,560).

Sotheby’s hosted a two-part sale: the general musical instrument sale on November 13 and an early music sale on November 21. Several lots had great success, including an Antonio Stradivari violin (Cremona, 1712) that brought £795,000 ($1,145,520). The instrument was sold with both a certificate from Caressa & Français (Paris; April 5, 1922) and a dendrochronology report from John C. Topham (Redhill; September 4, 2001). In the early music sale, an Edward Lorris bass viola da gamba (London, 1687) garnered £22,350 ($31,737). The instrument displayed a unique geometrical design in purfling at the center and the top of the back and head.

Skinner held a fine musical instrument sale on November 4 in Boston. An Italian violin by Giovanni Tononi (Bologna, 1696) brought nearly double its estimate, selling for $52,900. The instrument was accompanied by a certificate from Emil Herrmann (New York; May 15, 1929). A French silver-mounted violin bow by J.B. Vuillaume sold for $4,715. Also noteworthy, a Eugene Sartory French silver-mounted violin bow with a Parisian eye brought $9,775.

The American on-line auction house Tarisio held its fall sale November 3—4. Several lots drew attention. In particular, a fine Italian violin, in very good condition, by Michael Platner (Rome, c. 1735), took $73,125 at close. Also, a John Betts (c. 1780) violoncello bearing an original label sold for $61,875.

Christie’s November 12 sale had several lots that brought high closing prices. A good Italian violin by Antonio Gragnani brought £29,375 ($49,703) as a winning bid. Another high sale was a good English violoncello by William Forster (London, 1778), auctioned with a silver-mounted bow, case, and certificate for £32,900 ($55,667).