Bell was modest and direct, and apologised for changing the originally planned time for the meeting. Then he patiently told his story, which he had probably done many times before.
Bell received his first violin as a child after plucking out a melody he had heard his mother play on the piano on stretched out rubber bands. Though Bell was a child prodigy, he did not play in international competitions and he did not go to Juilliard. He studied under Josef Gingold and at the University of Indiana's Jacobs School of Music.
Bell recalled a recent stunt he carried out in an underground station in Washington: playing incognito as a street busker, he managed to peform for more than a thousand passer-bys and just one recognised him. "I'm still surprised people are talking about that," he said.
Asked about the colourful history of his violin, a Stradivarius made in 1713, during Antonio Stradivari's "Golden Era", Bell said the instrument was "priceless" and told how it had been stolen from its previous owner Bronislaw Huberman. In 1936, Huberman played a concert at Carnegie Hall and left the violin in the dressing room for the first half while he performed on another violin. When he came for the Stradivarius at intermission, the case was empty. The instrument was never discovered in Huberman's lifetime, but the thief - who had played with the priceless instrument in cafés and other venues -- confessed to his crime on his deathbed in the 1980s. Bell paid about four million dollars for the red Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius, using the proceeds from the sale of his Tom Taylor Stradivarius to cover part of the price.
Bell noted that every instrument has a unique personality, and one can't say that the Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius is better than the Tom Taylor, just like one can't say a new wife is better than the old one, only that they are different. The sound of the Gibson ex Huberman is magnificently balanced, Bell said, though he conceded that sometimes he missed older instruments and could imagine buying another violin some day.
Bell is famous for writing many of his own cadenzas, but he said he had not written one for the Tchaikovsky concerto.
"I admit that I didn't think the changes to the Mendelssohn cadenza were such sacrilege, but the Tchaikovsky cadenza is so exemplary, perfect and well known that I couldn't touch it," he said.
Speaking about the future, Bell said he would not discount the possibility of directing or composing, but called it all a question of time. Currently, he is performing an annual 120 concerts and he is booked for years in advanced.
Bell said he would like to play more Bartók and Shostakovich, adding that many people think he does not perform enough contemporary works. "I am very cautious with contemporary works," he added.
Bell recounted playing recently for US president Barack Obama on a violin that was in an orchestra player's hand in Ford's Theatre the night Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. He said playing for the president for the first time in his life was an extraordinary experience, and one he wanted to repeat.
Author: Gergely Zöldi / Photo: usm.edu
