Joshua Bell At Home With Friends

Posted by mwblogger

October 1, 2009

Yes, it’s finally out, superstar violinist Josh Bell’s new record, At Home With Friends which includes “duets” with some of his pals—and when you are a major world-over music star, your friends are some heavy hitters. Apparently Bell is known for having “musicales” in his Manhattan living room, and this record is the result. He’s gone outside the comfort zone of the classical music community (with a few notable exceptions, including a composer who’s been a century dead) and made an interesting record.

Being a long-standing fan of Sting (the soundtrack of my own childhood was pretty much that of his severing from the Police and going solo) I jumped immediately to “Come Again,” and was very happy to have done so because I loved it. Sting’s voice has matured in a very special way, and aptly suits renaissance music such as this song by John Dowland, and they make fascinating pre-continuo partners. Equally sensitive is the reading, with Josh Groban, of some of Morricone’s score for Cinema Paradiso (and who doesn’t love that music).

And speaking of people impossible not to love: Kristin Chenoweth! What they’ve done, I think, is fascinating, a rather gothic reading of that standard of standards, “My Funny Valentine.” But if you were listening to the track without liner notes, you’d not know it was this song until about three minutes in—does anyone except me remember the opening? And of course, Ms. Chenoweth can really sing and knows her way around a studio. It’s lovely.

I’m new to Regina Spektor, who I think is wonderful and weird and wonderfully weird (akin to Bjork) and writes penetrating, profound pieces; “Left Hand Song” is no exception. Her songs often have involved, complicated and rather present string parts, so having Bell playing along, acting as a kind of shadow voice, makes perfect sense and works well.

To me, though, the most thrilling duet is the on he did with Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is an odd thing to type, and the results border on sepulchral, but through the (complete miracle) of the Zenph re-performance, Bell is able to play with a computerized approximation of the great composer-pianist in a kind of real time. You can feel the ghostly (and smiling) presence of a vanished genius, and through this marvel they make for great duetting partners.