Comments

Thank you, Laurie! Great interview.
I especially liked Joshua Bell's take on authenticity: "In a way, I love that. I love the fact that the music was unabashedly expressive, not self-conscious about style. It was very honest." Food for thought. Nice interview, Laurie. But...did he let you play his violin?

Seriously, I like his comments about people opening their minds to all types of music and all types of musical styles. There is no right or wrong with art. It's simply the artists interpretation put out there for anyone to enjoy.

Laurie, wonderful interview, simply wonderful.

Joshua, thank you so much for taking the time to meet with Laurie. You've presented a very refreshing perspective on the role of music in life (and life in music!), on the importance of the human element. After all, for what other purpose does music exist?

Thank you so much for interviewing Mr. Bell. He is one of my favorite violinists, and I find his approach to music very unique, though very diligent and honest.

Sweet, he'll be coming out with a Romance of the Violin compilation! I am looking forward to that.

Laurie - wonderful interview. I especially enjoyed your comments in the beginning. Nah, I enjoyed it all! A thank you to Joshua Bell, as well, for taking the time to let you speak with him. Excellent work, Laurie. The links are a great addition. Many thanks to Mr. Bell for his time, insight and artistry. Great interview. By the way, I don't know whether it's been mentioned anywhere on this site, but Laurie has a print article in the current issue of The Strad. Congrats on that, too, Laurie. This is so cool, Laurie! What an opportunity, and what a great article! Enjoyed your writing and Maestro Bell's playing.
Thank you. Sweet. Thank you Laurie and Joshua. Loved it. Thank you, Laurie. You've done it just great. Wonderful! Great questions and answers Laurie and Joshua. Thanks! Thank you so much for this interview with Joshua Bell. I have enjoyed, and have been deeply moved by, his playing for years, both on cd, as well as in live performance (for instance, in the early '80's at Tanglewood!). As a composer (my page here has one sound clip), I was interested in something I read a year ago about his recent interest in composing larger works (in addition to cadenzas). If there were a follow-up from him to Laurie's excellent live interview, perhaps it might be possible to hear how he feels about this idea at this point? Thanks for all of the great information and links on this site, by the way! alright, i nominate laurie for VP.

outstanding interviews from laurie is almost a given so not noteworthy anymore. what i find impressive is the first 2 paragraphs where she laid out the undercurrents leading to the interview, with confidence, class, style and fairness. to me, that is leadership and management.

Thank you Laurie for getting this interview, and to Joshua for giving it! I doubt that I'll be quick to critisize anyone after reading this interview, but look at all the angles and search to expirience the performers viewpoint and LEARN from it! I am a bit disappointed.
First Laurie forget to ask when Joshua will be in the Show of Oprah Winfrey. (to make Sydney happy)

2th reason. My well known point:
Why does this warhorseinterpret has no rarities on his repertoirelist like Rachel Barton.
He did not know that Ysaye had written a violinconcerto and for the rest he has a quite poor repertoireknowledge and did not knew the violinconcerto's I gave him in Arnhem, Netherlands.
For me Joshua Bell is just another
commercial middle of the road violinist with a safe and rather dull repertoirelist (not even on his website), perhaps a little better than other violinists, but I am not waiting for his 4seasons and I won't listen to his interpretation, because I know the piece too well.
Perhaps Laurie can interview soon ALbrecht Breuninger, Vilmos Szabadi, Aaron Rosand, Olivier Charlier, Gerard Poulet, Philippe Graffin, who have all recorded rarities and are much more worth for the violincommunity to archive this great unknown music on cd.

Laurie, thanks for sharing an incredible interview!

When Joshua said listening to Heifetz always inspires him to play better,
it struck a chord with me. I listen to Joshua Bell to play better! I
wonder if Joshua ever thought he would be in that position
himself...serving as someone else's inspiration? Perhaps a question for
next time. :)

Great interview, Laurie! I thoroughly enjoyed it! Laurie, thanks so much for your detailed and enlightening interview with Joshua Bell. Thank you, Josh, for sharing so many great insights.

I like Josh's comments on using vibrato as an ornament, not a constant. While listening to his recordings, I have noticed that he sometimes plays with no vibrato and that when he does use vibrato, he makes the most of it. He varies its properties to help communicate his own understanding of the music. I agree that art is more important than authenticity. I've been thinking about these issues a lot lately, as I am going back to some Bach pieces that I haven't played in years.

I like his perspective about conducting as a form of teaching. The conductor I have enjoyed playing with the most is one who is a very good teacher. I've learned so much about music from the inside this way.

I like the fact that Josh writes some cadenzas. I'm not sure whether I prefer his to the traditional ones, but I like the idea that he broke a barrier and started doing some things his own way. I hope other musicians will follow suit.

I agree with Al Ku about the first two paragraphs, where Laurie wrote with great professional integrity about the undercurrents leading up to the interview.

Insightful and very interesting interview. Congratulations to you for having had the opportunity to do so and thank you for posting. I liked the idea about becoming a soloist. If you're thinking how great your are and how you can get into the music better than everyone else, your never going to do it. That's a very humble attitude and Mr. Gingold was alot like that.It's also good know that it's not just about making lots of CD's, playing alot of concerts, making sure everyone knows who you are. Thoughtful interview. Thanks Hi,

Thank you very much Laurie for this wonderful interview. I enjoyed reading Mr. Bell's take on many things. I agree with his rant - and I always love the fact that the higher up a violinist is, the more respect they have for their colleagues and differences between artistic approaches.

Thanks again and all the best!

Christian

Thanks for all your wonderful responses! Also, thank you to everyone who submitted questions, including Brian Hong, Karin Lin, Todd Carlsen, Michael Divino, Tommy Atkinson, Eitan Silkoff, Terry Hsu, Jenny Fischer, okay you ALL gave me great ideas for interview questions, I can't name everybody! As always, Violinist.com is a community effort.

Sydney, I should have asked about Oprah. I'm sorry!

Many thanks to Joshua as well, for your time, patience and thoughtful interaction with this community. :)

Haha! That poor guy has been pestered about Oprah enough from me. ;) Great Interview, flecked with so many great side subjects and added information.

As a violin teacher, Joshua B. is a wonderful example to use as a variant of classic posture...The angle of his neck/head aren't for everyone. Much like Perlman's left thumb, and bow grip. When assessing a student's posture one has to be prudent about what to change and what to allow. Like tennis player, R. Nadal, his uncle and coach had him play left-handed even though he is a natural rightie....seems to have been a beneficial change, but not for everyone. If a beginning adult violinist tried to play with J's posture, certainly suggestions would be offered.

Again, one of your best interviews...and it's good to see Joshua getting deserved recognition. As for the complainant about his stale repertoire, I'm sure there'll be folks unhappy in heaven !