Romance of the Violin

Joshua Bell (Composer), Giacomo Puccini (Composer), Claude Debussy (Composer), Fryderyk Chopin (Composer), Camille Saint-Saens (Composer), Franz Schubert (Composer), Vincenzo Bellini (Composer), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Composer), Christoph Willibald Gluck (Composer), Alexander Borodin (Composer), Antonin Dvorak (Composer), Claudio Monteverdi (Conductor), Jules Massenet (Performer), Robert Schumann (Performer), Michael Stern (Performer), Craig Ogden (Performer), Gregory Knowles (Performer), John Constable (Artist), Jacob Heringman (Artist), Stephen Orton (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Performer: Jules Massenet, Robert Schumann, Michael Stern, Craig Ogden, Gregory Knowles
• Conductor: Claudio Monteverdi
• Composer: Joshua Bell, Giacomo Puccini, Claude Debussy, Fryderyk Chopin, Camille Saint-Saens, et al.
• Audio CD (October 28, 2003)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000DG06L
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,621 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #2 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Historical Periods > Romantic (c.1820-1910)
  • #3 in Music > Classical > Opera & Vocal > Historical Periods > Modern & 20th Century
  • #3 in Music > Classical > Forms & Genres > Short Forms > Nocturnes

Track Listings

1. O mio babbino caro (from 'Gianni Schicchi')

2. The Girl With Flaxen Hair (from Preludes, Book I; La fille aux cheveux delin: Prelude for Piano L 117/8)

3. Nocturne in C sharp minor (Op Post)

4. The Swan (from Carnival of the Animals)

5. Serenade (from 'Schwanengesang' song cycle for voice and piano, D 957

6. Casta Diva (from 'Norma')

7. Andante from Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major K. 467

8. Nocturne from Quartet for Strings No. 2 in D Major: 3rd movement

9. Dance of the Blessed Spirits (from 'Orfeo ed Euridice')

10. Songs My Mother Taught Me, song for voice and piano B104/4 Op 55/4

11. Pur ti Miro (from 'L'incoronazione di Poppea')

12. Elegie (Elegie 'O doux printemps d'autrefois' for voice and piano)

13. Traumerei ('Kinderszenen' for piano, Op 15, No. 7 'Dreaming')

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

120 of 123 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Romance of the Highest Order, October 28, 2003

By 

M. Baker (Fort Worth, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Romance of the Violin (Audio CD)

Violinist Joshua Bell's latest offering, Romance of the Violin, captures the dreamy abandon of an intimate visit. Bell infuses Craig Leon's lush arrangements with a sensitive lyricism that results in sumptuous readings without the slightest trace of sentimentality or self-consciousness. Each timeless, classic melody has been recast to lend itself not only to the breadth and depth of the violin in general, but to the unique pointed, glistening nuance of this violinist in particular. Bell conveys the breathless anticipation of a rendezvous with a lover who greets his adored with a serenade before climbing up the trellis to embrace her. This recording calls to mind those moments when time stands still: catching a glimpse of fire-streaked clouds at sunset or falling under the gaze of one's beloved. Absolutely Joshua Bell at his finest. Heavenly.

72 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Art Of Joshua Bell's Romantic Violin, February 27, 2004

By 

Rudy Avila "Saint Seiya" (Lennox, Ca United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Romance of the Violin (Audio CD)

Joshua Bell is one of the leading violinists of our time. Still only in his 30's, he enjoys immense success and popularity in every recital and concert hall here in the States and around the world. He is blessed with the gift of using romantic inflection in his mastership of the violin. And so what if some people find his playing overly sentimental, sweet or overwhelmingly romantic. The violin is itself a romantic instrument. In fact, it's meant to be played romantically in the largo, adagio and andante movements as well as played at a pianissimo range. The rich melody and lyric sweetness of the strings is what most people think about when they consider a violin sound. The exception would be if the violin is being played very rapidly and loudly, where it sounds more dramatic and intense. On this recording, Joshua Bell treats us with mostly gentle music, romantic music and this is why it's perfect for a romantic evening at home (candlelight dinner) or for Valentines Day as another reviewer suggested.

The album opens with a violin version of the soprano aria "O Mio Babbino Caro" from Puccini's opera, "Gianni Schicchi." It's highly suited for a violin, since a violin is a instrumental soprano. The soprano female voice and the sound of the violin seem to match perfectly in pitch and tone, while also capable of flexible shifts and leaps, remaining silvery and resonant in the lower registers and glowing at the top. This album uses other soprano arias from opera, including "Casta Diva" from Bellini's Norma. This aria is considered virtuosic, spiritually tender as well as dramatic and only a few tessitura sopranos could handle both the long flowing vocal line as well as the heavy dramatic vocal crescendo. On the violin, the aria sounds heavenly.

Debussy's "The Girl With The Flaxen Hair" sounds soulful and even melancholic, appropriately Impressionistic and subtle as Debussy was famous for. The same goes for the violin version of Gluck's "Dance Of The Blessed Spirits" from the opera "Orpheus and Eurydice." A real treat is Mozart's Piano Concerto 21 Andante. This music was featured in the romantically tragic foreign film "Elvira Madigan". The adagio was originally written for piano and string orchestra but as a a violin solo it's divinely romantic and beautiful to listen to. It's like Mozart himself would have approved of the change. Under Joshua Bell's bow, the music is extraordinary. Saint Saen's The Swan is lyric and gorgeous as well and the rest of the compilation has great tunes. So get yourself this cd, put it on and get ready to take a romantic trip with the violin.

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful album, May 23, 2004

By 

Maria (Hong Kong) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Romance of the Violin (Audio CD)

It's demanding a lot, but if you take a leap of faith and look past the frankly dubious cover picture and title, Joshua Bell's latest offering is just as innovative and refreshing as his earlier works like The Kreisler Album and The Red Violin soundtrack.

It takes guts to pick some of the best-loved pieces of classical music and opera from the last five centuries and to arrange them for the violin, but that's exactly what Bell and producer Craig Leon have done.

Rich yet tremulous, a lush arrangement of Puccini's O Mio Babbino Caro opens the album, followed by two standards for the piano: Debussy's The Girl With The Flaxen Hair and a rendition of Chopin's Nocturne In C-Sharp Minor. The latter starts off almost baroque in feel, but when Bell's violin kicks in with its haunting and mournful refrain, it almost hurts to be confronted with such an exquisite melody.

Originally a cello piece, Saint-Saën's The Swan has been transported by the violin's brighter, higher tones into a relatively insubstantial, blink-or-you'll-miss-it flight of fancy. Schubert's Serenade is equally joyous, and in lieu of the original vocals, Bell's violin meets the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields in a pleasing rendezvous.

Skipping forward several decades to the Romantic period, Songs My Mother Taught Me is appropriately dreamy and nostalgic but it isn't as good as the final track, a lilting and fluid version of Schumann's Träumerai.

Bell's 290-year-old Strad imbues each note with tantalising hints of untold depths: it sings, it screams and at times it seems to have a voice and soul of its own. Bell may merely be the 'translator', but he interprets each note from the heart and it shows.