MPO and Joshua Bell

Ahh… after a futsal and a bath its time to study again, but first a little bit of blog. Futsal was good, discounting the fact that I got hit smack on the mouth by a really fast-moving ball. I thank God that my glasses didn’t get broken though! *phew* And Ken Lin’s ball was a beauty; actually all her tries on goal were great – totally got past me.
But I digress. Let me talk about my recent trip to the MPO. The occasion was my dad’s visit to KL for a conference, but he came earlier to see the MPO and me. After almost getting lost finding our way from KLIA to KL, we finally found the KLCC carpark, and we had dinner a little bit of shopping before going to the hall.
At around 8.15 pm we were ushered into the hall, and nearing 8.30 pm, when the concert was scheduled to start, the loud chatter amplified in the hall subsided into a muted mumble as tension began to build in the air, in anticipation of the night’s performance. And then…
“Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, untuk keselesaan anda semasa menonton persembahan ini, silakan matikan telefon bimbit… Ladies and gentlemen, for your comfort when watching the performance, please switch your cellphones off…”
That was not what I was expecting and it certainly dissipated the tension somewhat, but it was back again as people settled down in their seats after turning any potentially noisy equipment off. (Though some people didn’t comply – an irritating phone rang in the middle of the performance and its owner took ages to switch it off!) The muted mumble dwindled off into a pregnant silence, broken only when a lone musician, then another, and another, began walking onto the stage. We broke into applause, and waited patiently as they tuned up. Watching orchestras tune up always remind me of SONS (Simfoni Orkestra Negeri Sarawak) and how I miss playing with them. *sigh*
Finally the conductor Kees Bakeels walked out and the concert proper began. Our appetizer was a short 3-minute piece – Gymnopedie No. 1, by Erik Satie – a dream-like composition that was a pleasure to listen to, but I was impatient. Where was Joshua Bell?

And out he came, dressed quite casually, to present to us Brahm’s Violin Concerto in D, which is a demanding 3-movement almost-an-hour piece of work. Despite that fact, he performed absolutely wonderfully! It was a joy to watch him play, communicating through the music and his movements onstage with both the orchestra and the audience. He was far from stiff, moving every part of his body to the music, bending his knees and arching his back, swaying to every nuance the music contained. Even his hair, which swished when he moved, seemed to dance with the music. What I liked was the melodrama he put into his starting points – he would take a sharp breath in while straightening his legs and drawing his bow up to the heel, all in one swift motion; then strike down on the strings of his violin with a flourish. He was even cheeky with the orchestra – during a part of the piece when the orchestra broke off before he began, he looked back at the orchestra with a mock-threatening look, as if daring them to play anything and spoil his entry.
He makes violin-playing, with all the double-stopping (the playing of two or more notes on the violin), running notes, harmonics etc. look deceptively easy. His fingers run up, down and across the fingerboard like lightning, jumping wherever they please. He even wrote his own cadenzas (bits in a concerto where the soloists get to show off and strut his stuff)! What’s even more wonderful is that he plays a STRAD!!!! A STRADIVARIUS! More specifically the 1713 Gibson ex Huberman Stradivarius. Oh, I’m so envious!! Yet so grateful that I got to see and listen to a Strad first-hand. *sigh…* With his talent and musicianship, it should be no surprise though.
The best thing is that he looks so young (he's 30+ I think...) and cute!! And he has a nice smile… *heart melts* :>
Later during intermission I queued up to get his autograph on one of his CDs that my dad bought – West Side Story Suite. He autographed both my programme book and the CD sleeve, so they’re quite precious to me right now. Hehe The CD is quite good – more of a Broadway cum 20th century music, though I’d rather have had his latest release “Romance of the Violin” which has one of my favourite Debussy preludes “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair” (La Fille aux Cheveux de lin in French if I’m not wrong…) rearranged for violin. That’s where the net comes in… *wink*
The piece after the Brahms was Bruckner’s Symphony No.4 in E Flat “Romantic”, which paled in comparison with Bell’s performance. It was good, but I felt it lacked direction. Or perhaps I couldn’t follow it, because it was terribly long – a whopping 80 minutes for 4 movements. But my outing to the MPO (and RM60 tickets!) was made worth it by the Grammy Award-winning violinist Joshua Bell. Now that I’ve experienced why he’s so acclaimed internationally, he’s earned my respect and admiration. To play like him is impossible for me, so to listen to talent would be the next best thing. And man does he have talent! I can only dream…
For more on Joshua Bell click here.