Bell curve: violin works elevate stodgy Philadelphia Orchestra program

Philadelphia audiences watched Joshua Bell grow up. Literally. The virtuosic violinist made his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 14, playing Mozart with Riccardo Muti, and has returned more than 30 times in the ensuing five decades. Bell dominated the entire first half of the Orchestra’s most recent subscription program, and the crowd greeted him like a favorite son. In contrasting works by Chausson and Vieuxtemps, he showed exactly what makes him such a sought-after soloist, balancing a generous Romantic tone with flights of marvelous dexterity.

In Chausson’s ruminative Poème, Bell finessed luxurious, seemingly endless lines that floated above the orchestra, even though he never pushed for an excess of volume. In a work where atmospherics and style count for much, his lush, old-school approach seemed perfectly suited. Vieuxtemps’ rarely performed Violin Concerto no. 5 in A minor, which immediately followed, was a steeplechase by comparison. Across three unbroken movements, he dispatched every tool in a violinist’s arsenal, balancing the demands of the piece with a welcome dose of good taste. (Vieuxtemps wrote the piece for a violin competition; in the wrong hands, it merely sounds like showing off.) In between the fireworks, Bell found moments of elegant repose; the central Adagio emerged with grace.

Bell proved collegial in sharing his encore with Principal Harp Elizabeth Hainen, a classmate from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. The pair performed a wrenchingly beautiful arrangement of Chopin’s Nocturne in C sharp minor, which prompted this listener to hear the most familiar of music with fresh ears. Hainen’s glittering style was the perfect complement to Bell’s abundant tone.

Would that Bell had such a congenial partner on the podium. Returning to Verizon Hall for the first time since 2018, former Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Christoph Eschenbach proved as ill-suited as ever in highlighting this orchestra’s strengths. The rich, vibrant sound that blooms in the hands of any assistant conductor seems to wilt under his baton, and the string accompaniment in the Chausson took on a rigid, constricted quality at odds with Bell’s sumptuous reading of the solo part. In the Vieuxtemps, which calls for some lightness and cheek, he appeared to be having precious little fun.

The second half of the program belonged to Brahms’ Symphony no. 1 in C minor. The performance began inauspiciously, with a forced sound in the strings, plodding whacks of the timpani and rests that seemed trampled even beyond the brevity that the composer baked into the score. Perhaps because I had heard this piece performed so well by this Orchestra just a season ago – in an expansive, richly colored reading with Nathalie Stutzmann on the podium – the entire Allegro felt devoid of an original perspective. It was an odd overflow of bland centrism for Eschenbach, who was often dinged for being too wild-eyed in his approach to the standard repertory during his Philly tenure.

Matters improved as the symphony wore on, although Eschenbach frogmarched the already short third movement. There were fine contributions from Principal Oboe Philippe Tondre and Associate Concertmaster Christine Lim, who occupied the first chair for this performance. But the overall effect served as a reminder that some divorces are justified.