Album

The Essential Joshua Bell is really more a snapshot of Bell's 1990s recordings that attempts to capture the essence of his playing than a "must-have" album. These are all from his days at Decca, before he moved to Sony Classical and started doing more crossover recordings, so the selections are standard violin repertoire items, many familiar—such as the Mendelssohn and Brahms concertos—a few less so. What is nice about the excerpts here are that they are not all flash and no substance. Therefore, it does give a good picture of Bell's skills, predominantly the way he has of always finding some joy or beauty in a piece, no matter how serious or dark it is, even more than his virtuosity. The disc also has a good mixture of concertos and chamber music, including a movement from Chausson's Concert pour piano, violon et quatuor à cordes, Op. 21. There is an Adagio from a Mozart concerto, but the music is primarily from the Romantic era, with the Prokofiev and Bloch thrown in to represent the modern era. The sound quality is generally very good, although there is a noticeable and unflattering difference between the Kreisler tracks, from a 1996 album with pianist Paul Coker, and the Grasse Waves at Play, from Bell's first album, 1988's Presenting Joshua Bell with pianist Samuel Sanders. There are probably good programatic reasons for the ordering of the works, but swapping the placement of the Grasse and the Prokofiev would have eliminated that difference. This collection is a much better introduction to the skills of Bell than that first album. The only problem is that the single-movement excerpts of larger works will leave listeners wanting more.

© Patsy Morita, All Music Guide

CD 1
Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Composer Violin Concerto in E-, Op.64 Work Recorded 1986 Joshua Bell Violin, Sir Neville Marriner Conductor, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields Orchestra
1	1.Allegro molto appassionato	13:49			$2.49
Ernest Chausson Composer Concerto in D, for piano, violin, and string quartet, Op.21 Work Recorded 1989 Joshua Bell Violin, Takács String Quartet String Quartet, Jean-Yves Thibaudet Piano
2	2.Sicilienne	4:07			$0.99
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Composer Violin Concerto No.3 in G, K.216 Work Recorded 1991 English Chamber Orchestra Orchestra, Joshua Bell Violin, Peter Maag Conductor
3	2.Adagio	8:10			$1.49
Gabriel Fauré Composer Violin Sonata No.1 in A, Op.13 Work Recorded 1988 Joshua Bell Violin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet Piano
4	4.Allegro quasi presto	5:24			$0.99
Johannes Brahms Composer Violin Concerto in D, Op.77 Work Recorded 1994 Cleveland Orchestra Orchestra, Joshua Bell Violin, Christoph von Dohnányi Conductor
5	3.Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo vivace	8:04			$1.49
Fritz Kreisler Composer Caprice viennois, Op.2 Work Recorded 1995 Joshua Bell Violin, Paul Coker Piano
6	Caprice viennois, Op.2	4:39			$0.99
Fritz Kreisler Composer March of the Toy Soldiers Work Recorded 1995 Joshua Bell Violin, Paul Coker Piano
7	March of the Toy Soldiers	1:51			$0.49
Edwin Grasse Composer Waves at Play (Wellenspiel), for violin and piano Work Recorded 1986 Samuel Sanders Piano, Joshua Bell Violin
8	Waves at Play (Wellenspiel), for violin and piano	1:44			$0.49
Sergey Prokofiev Composer Violin Concerto No.2 in G-, Op.63 Work Recorded 1992 Montréal Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, Joshua Bell Violin, Charles Dutoit Conductor
9	2.Andante assai	9:41			$1.49
Fritz Kreisler Composer Danse espagnole (transcr. of de Falla's Danse espagnole, from 'La Vida breve') Work Recorded 1986 Samuel Sanders Piano, Joshua Bell Violin
10	Danse espagnole (transcr. of de Falla's Danse espagnole, from 'La Vida breve')	3:40			$0.99
Ernest Bloch Composer Baal Shem: 3 Pictures of Hassidic life, for violin and piano Work Recorded 1996 Joshua Bell Violin, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Orchestra, David Zinman Conductor
11	2.Nigun (Improvisation)	6:30			$0.99
Pablo de Sarasate Composer Zigeunerweisen ('Gypsy Air'), Op.20 Work Recorded 1991 Andrew Litton Conductor, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Orchestra, Joshua Bell Violin
12	Zigeunerweisen ('Gypsy Air'), Op.20	9:03			$1.49