Violinist Joshua Bell loves playing chamber music. When performing in a trio, his regular partners are pianist Jeremy Denk and cellist Stephen Isserlis. On April 30th, the three men will reunite, albeit remotely, for Joshua Bell: Live with Carnegie Hall at 2 PM EDT/11 AM PDT on Carnegie Hall’s website, Facebook and Instagram pages.
If you caught any of the recent Live with Carnegie Hall events (with Tituss Burgess, Ute Lemper, Emanuel Ax, Angélique Kidjo) you know that each event has a combination of conversation and performance. You also know that even if you miss the live stream, you can always catch the videos on the Live with Carnegie Hall page approximately 90 minutes after they conclude.
These three men have been performing together for years. There will be both an ease of performance and perhaps most importantly, an ease in conversation.
When I spoke to Bell last October, he told me what he finds appealing about performing chamber music versus his appearances as a soloist.
“Going in and playing Mendelsson is enjoyable, but you are there for 30 minutes and you leave and you usually have one or two rehearsals with the orchestra, but it doesn’t allow for the level of depth of rehearsal that chamber music does. I love that we can work hours and hours exploring the music and going on a tour and performing night after night and each time we work to see what we can improve.“
Bell first appeared at Carnegie Hall as a soloist with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in 1985. Denk had his first solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 2008. Isserlis first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1993 where he gave the New York premiere performance of The Protecting Veil by Sir John Tavener. The trio first performed at Carnegie Hall together in 2006.
The current crisis obviously makes the opportunity to perform live for an audience impossible right now. So this live stream of Joshua Bell: Live with Carnegie Hall joined by Jeremy Denk and Stephen Isserlis should be quite entertaining for fans of chamber music.
Photo of Joshua Bell by Shervin Lainez/Courtesy of Carnegie Hall