evening’s recital program features J. S. Bach’s Violin Sonata No. 4 in C Minor, Camille Saint-Saëns’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, and Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Piano. Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk last performed together in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage in February 2008.Joshua Bell and Jeremy Denk have been performing together since 2004 when they first met at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Since then, they have toured throughout the US and Europe with more than 80 performances to date. A Philadelphia reviewer once noted their “equal partnership, with no upstaging.” In 2007, Mr. Bell and Mr. Denk recorded Corigliano’s Violin Sonata for Sony Classical.
Artist Information
For more than two decades, violinist Joshua Bell has enchanted audiences worldwide with his breathtaking virtuosity and tone of rare beauty. Mr. Bell came to national attention at the age of 14 in a highly acclaimed orchestral debut with Riccardo Muti and The Philadelphia Orchestra. A Carnegie Hall debut, the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant, and a recording contract further confirmed his presence in the music world. Today, he is equally at home as a soloist, chamber musician, and orchestra leader.
Highlights of Mr. Bell's 2009–2010 season have included the September 29 release of his first duets CD, At Home With Friends, featuring Chris Botti, Sting, Josh Groban, Kristin Chenoweth, Regina Spektor, Anoushka Shankar, Marvin Hamlisch and Tiempo Libre, among others. Live From Lincoln Center Presents: Joshua Bell with Friends@ the Penthouse, a live performance broadcast from Lincoln Center’s Kaplan Penthouse, will air nationally on PBS stations on January 21. Performance highlights this season include appearances at the Hollywood Bowl; Verbier, Tuscan Sun, Mostly Mozart, Salzburg, Tanglewood, Menuhin, Gstaad and Enescu festivals; and a return to the BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall. Named by Musical America as the 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year, Joshua Bell is an exclusive Sony Classical artist known for his breadth and daring choices of repertoire, who has created a richly varied catalogue of recordings. Recent releases include the soundtracks for Angels & Demons and Defiance, Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, The Red Violin Concerto by John Corigliano, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Berliner Philharmoniker, The Essential Joshua Bell, Voice of the Violin and Romance of the Violin which Billboard named the 2004 Classical CD of the Year, and Joshua Bell the Classical Artist of the Year. He was one of the first classical artists to have a music video air on VH1, and he has been the subject of a BBC Omnibus documentary.
Joshua Bell received a Grammy Award and Mercury Music Prize for his recording of Nicholas Maw’s Violin Concerto with Sir Roger Norrington and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Germany’s Echo Klassik for his recording of concertos by Sibelius and Goldmark with Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He received the Gramophone Award for his recording of the Barber and Walton violin concertos and Bloch’s Baal Shem. He is the recipient of the 2008 Academy of Achievement award for exceptional accomplishment in the arts, and, in 2009, was honored by Education Through Music for his dedication to sharing his love of classical music with disadvantaged youth. In 1989, Mr. Bell received an Artist Diploma in Violin Performance from Indiana University. His alma mater also honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Service Award only two years after his graduation. He has been named an “Indiana Living Legend” and received the Indiana Governor’s Arts Award. In 2005, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame and he is the recipient of the coveted Avery Fisher Prize.
Acclaimed American pianist Jeremy Denk has steadily built a reputation as one of today’s most compelling and persuasive artists with an unusually broad repertoire. During the 2009–2010 season, Mr. Denk will play solo recitals at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center and Washington’s Kennedy Center, and he collaborates with baritone Randall Scarlata in Schubert’s Winterreise in Florida and at Boston’s Gardner Museum. Mr. Denk will give master classes at the Manhattan School of Music and University of Washington this season, and he will also perform Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of John Adams in London and Paris. Mr. Denk will return to Carnegie Hall to perform the Stravinsky on Monday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Zankel Hall with Ensemble ACJW under the baton of composer/conductor John Adams. He makes his Boston Symphony Orchestra debut at Tanglewood and his Mostly Mozart debut in August 2010. Mr. Denk maintains working relationships with a number of living composers and has participated in many premieres, including Jake Heggie’s concerto Cut Time, Libby Larsen’s Collage: Boogie, Kevin Putz’s Alternating Current, and Ned Rorem’s The Unquestioned Answer. In 2002, he recorded Tobias Picker’s Second Piano Concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic conducted by Thomas Sanderling. He also worked closely with composer Leon Kirchner on many of his recent compositions, recording his Sonata No. 2 in 2001. The artist’s widely-read blog, Think Denk, has been praised by colleagues and the music press alike. There, Mr. Denk writes about some of his touring, practicing, and otherwise unrelated experiences, also delving into fairly detailed musical analyses and essays. After graduating from Oberlin College and Conservatory in piano and chemistry, Mr. Denk earned a master’s degree in music from Indiana University as a pupil of György Sebök, and a doctorate in piano performance from The Juilliard School, where he worked with Herbert Stessin.
Program Information
Wednesday, February 24 at 8:00 p.m.
Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage
JOSHUA BELL, Violin
JEREMY DENK, Piano
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH Violin Sonata No. 4 in C Minor, BWV 1017
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS Violin Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, Op. 75
ROBERT SCHUMANN Violin Sonata No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 105
MAURICE RAVEL Sonata for Violin and Piano
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