Reviewer: Mark DeWolf-Ott
Venue: The Temple Theatre
Saginaw must really like classical music. They support The Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra year after year. Then there was Itzhak Purlman, and Yo Yo Ma. Last night it was Joshua Bell and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
It was a grand night indeed. The concert opened with Charles Ives variations on “America” the Beautiful. Might seem like and odd choice but it also happens to be the same tune for “God Save the Queen” and since the orchestra was from London, that was pretty clever.
The orchestra is led by the music director Joshua Bell, from Bloomington Indiana. That’s quite an accomplishment. Then Bell plays as the soloist as well as conductor. If you are familiar with Andrea Rieu from Amsterdam and the PBS fundraising specials, you get the idea. Although Bell does not talk and joke with the audience like Rieu.
Bell showed his talent with his solo in the Cammille St. Saens piece. One could hardly keep up watching his hands fly over his 300-year-old Stradivarius valued at 3.5 million dollars. It’s said to be one of the finest instruments in the world today. He began playing at the age of four. Bell is known for his large recording catalog but is mostly identified for his movie soundtracks of Angels and Demons, Ladies in Lavender, and The Red Violin.
You might have heard of the “Red Violin” itself. It was played three times in Saginaw by renown American classical artist Elizabeth Pitcarin with the Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra.
Bell also participated in a Washington Post experiment. The newspaper placed him in a Washington DC subway station playing a difficult Bach piece on his expensive violin during the morning commute in 2007. He played for about 45 minutes and earned about $35.
The evening was completed with a four movement Dvorak symphony in G major which presented the talent of the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields orchestra. Their talent was outstanding (“in their field”, a little Dad joke). The sound from the 50-member group was amazing!
Both halves of the show were complimented with standing ovations that included with whoops and hollers.