What was unique about Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields' concert in San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall was its depth and delivery of life. It was not only lively it was alive. From the first downbeat, we were happily caught in – and by – the present. There was the music, happening right before us, with Bell standing face-front au central of the orchestra. Flight of Moving Days by Vince Mendoza was given only its fourth performance, with jazz percussionist Douglas Marriner, grandson of the ASMF’s founder, Sir Neville Marriner. The new work, derived in part from Philip Larkin’s poem Days, was notable for its juxtaposition of drum and violin against the backdrop of the post-romantic sized-orchestra. Larkin wrote, “What are days for?/Days are where we live” and so the improvisational music unfolding around us throughout was particularly apt.
Mendelssohn's much beloved Violin Concerto in E minor showed how seasoned Bell’s violin playing has become, even more lucid, energetic and compelling. He is a whole-body violinist, his legs and torso flexing in an animated yet unexaggerated way. The first movement introduces its gorgeous melody just a few bars in, something new when Mendelssohn composed. Its passionate tone immediately created the intimacy that characterized the whole concerto, while Bell's brisk tempo kept it free from melodrama. Articulation remained crisp and clean, the pianissimi pierced the air yet melted midst his mid full-volumed intensity. Bell executed his mastery with ever special sweetness.
Each orchestral section followed suit and together they played with a fluid quality, overflowing with powerful emotions, the woodwinds superb throughout. The brass brightened the tone further and the ample strings thickened the texture with precision. It was as if the music expanded as it unfolded, and we were elasticized by it, ready to go wherever it led. Bell and the orchestra in perfect tandem, Bell’s playing itself becoming the conductor as he plied his bow, and when he pointed it intermittently towards the orchestra, it seemed somewhat arbitrary.
Mendelssohn himself conducted the premiere of Robert Schumann’s Second Symphony in 1846, a work that was borne from rejuvenated creativity despite multiple setbacks. Bell directed it from within the string section. This took us further from the usual concert hierarchy into communal music-making. The opening movement moved quickly from somber to lively Allegro, almost an Allegro vivace rather than non troppo. This was well-accented by the timpanist. The Scherzo evinced plenty of vitality with deft woodwinds, ever energetic and vigorous and the Adagio ached with beauty. Clearly, the ASMF is a vibrant, living unit, each section tightly connected to its counterparts.
The oboe intoned with haunting timbre as brass and strings accelerated to the Finale with fervor. The coda also uses motifs from the introduction, emphasizing the symphony’s organic quality, with Schumann's vivid musical language brought to life by Bell and his orchestra.
