Violin Favourites & Virtuoso Showpieces

Joshua Bell started his recording career with DECCA in 1986 at the age of 19 and remained a DECCA artist for ten years. During that time he made over a dozen CDs of music ranging from Mozart Concertos to chamber works by Shostakovich and Ravel. He recorded with major conductors such as Ashkenazy, Dohnányi, Dutoit and Marriner, and with them recorded some of the cornerstones of the violin concerto repertory.

The recent release of The Romantic Violin in which Joshua Bell played a selection of popular pieces and movements from concertos proved very successful and prompted requests for many of his recordings to be made available again.

This 2-CD set showcases Joshua Bell in a selection of violin favourites and virtuoso showpieces and includes his first solo recital for Decca and a Kreisler recital from near the end of his ten-year association with Decca. Originally entitled "Presenting Joshua Bell", his first recital was made in December 1986 at the same time as his first concerto album - Mendelssohn & Bruch Concertos - when he was just 19 years old. The brilliance of technique and innate musicianship is much in evidence in this first album of showpieces which includes original violin works and arrangements. The second disc in this set is is devoted entirely to pieces by one of the great violinists of an earlier era - Fritz Kreisler - and includes pieces both familiar and less familiar.

"As readily shown by the opening Praeludium & Allegro, Joshua Bell refuses to treat this music as trivial, and there is a total absence of schmalz ... what lightness of touch in Schön Rosmarin, what elegance of style in the Caprice viennoise, what panache in the paired Liebesfreud and Liebesleid ... the recording is completely realistic."
The Penguin Guide to Comoact Discs 2002