Passion and playfulness in an engaging programme from Joshua Bell

The moment the first chord rang out in the Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall Monday night, the audience caught their breath. Opening with Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata in F Major, violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Sam Haywood set the tone for the rest of the evening.Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata in F Major was performed with a controlled frenzy throughout.

At Cadogan Hall, Bell’s account of Robert Schumann’s Spring Symphony is as sunny an interpretation as you’re likely to hear. 

Joshua Bell brings intimacy and precision to his Philharmonic performance of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto. 

In its Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut, Bell's commission for an all-star lineup of composers boasts some virtuosic violin playing and a shared aesthetic, but not a throughline.

On a tour of the United States, Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields perform Mendelssohn, Schumann and Vince Mendoza in Davies Symphony Hall.