Only 21 this year, Joshua Bell in his first concerto recording gives formidably powerful performances of both the Bruch and Mendelssohn. It was Decca in the very early days of LP who established the aptness of this particular coupling with a classic record by Campoli, and Bell with his rich tone, flawless technique and phenomenal articulation follows on a great tradition. A native of Bloomington, Indiana, his middle-of-the-note security, remarkable even in an age of young wizards of the violin, is a tribute to the guidance of one of the world's greatest violin-teachers, Josef Gingold, who after his years as concertmaster for Toscanini and Szell made the Indiana State university School at Bloomington one of the leading centres for violin study.
Bell's achievement is the more striking on this disc, when the recording balance places him so close that you would pick up even the slightest flaw. It is that balance which brings my principal reservation to this otherwise magnificent issue. I know that Itzhak Perlman, among others, has made it fashionable to balance violin concertos as though heard by the soloist with the orchestra well behind, but it is something which I for one will never cease inveighing against, and it is sad that these fine performances are marred by it. It is true that the balance has one marvelling at Bell's power and assurance all the more, and the full, immediate recording leaves you in no doubt that he actually does shade his tone down to a pianissimo—as in his ecstatic lead-in to the first movement cadenza of the Mendelssohn—but it generally boosts the boldness at the expense of gentler qualities. There is plenty of warmth and poetry in Bell's readings of both concertos, but next to Mutter on DG for example, or Kyung Wha Chung on an earlier Decca issue (now available on a mid-price Ovation disc— HD 417 707-2DM) he lacks mystery. These are performances presented very much in the full light of day, very masculine (if that isn't too sexist a way of putting it these days), giving the impression of a soloist who is almost too sure where he is going.
Go to Laredo, whose fine Pickwick version on CD at mid price in every way competes with the others, not least on recorded sound, and there you have equally purposeful performances, clean and strong, which yet concede more in tenderness. With Bell the first movement of the Bruch, powerful as it is, lacks the inner, withdrawn quality which I look for at the start of this concerto, and so does the slow movement, which is warm, sweet and easily lyrical with no deeper feelings implied. The second movement of the Mendelssohn, taken at a relatively slow Andante, becomes a little heavy in Bell's hands, where Chung at a far faster speed makes it light and airy and Mutter, at a slower speed still than Bell, yet shades her tonal colourings to avoid any stodginess.
That comes back to the question of balance which I hope will be rectified on Bell's next concerto disc. One would then have a better chance to assess his deeper qualities more fairly. In the meantime this first concerto issue brings magnificent fiddling to have you gasping at the assurance strongly and sympathetically supported by Sir Neville and the Academy. I wish you could hear more of them behind the soloist in this full and brilliant recording, made in EMI's Abbey Road No. 1 Studio. Anyone still doubtful should try the wonderfully firm and assured account of the finale in the Mendelssohn, which combines power with excitement.
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