Voice of the Violin JOSHUA BELL, violin Orchestra of St. Luke's MICHAEL STERN, conductor
01 GEORGES BIZET: Je crois entendre encore (I still can hear) 02 CARL ORFF:In trutina (In the balance) from Carmina Burana 03 FELIX MENDELSSOHN:May Breezes from Songs without Words 04 CLAUDE DEBUSSY: Beau soir (Beautiful evening) 05 MANUEL PONCE: Estrellita (My little star) 06 MANUEL DE FALLA: Nana from Seven Popular Spanish Songs 07 RICHARD STRAUSS: Morgen! (Tomorrow) featuring Anna Netrebko, soprano
While there will always be people who prefer to listen to music in its originally intended form, I hope many listeners will appreciate this tribute to the voice and get a kick out of hearing my take on these timeless classics. My heroes, legendary violinists Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz, loved to celebrate music that was not originally written for the violin in this way, and so it is a particular pleasure to have come up with these arrangements with the help of my composer friend J.A.C. Redford.
I will forever be inspired by singers, and working with the lovely Anna Netrebko in Strauss's "Morgen!" was a privilege and a fitting way to close this album. In the end, playing these pieces compelled me to think like a singer - to breathe with the musical line, to articulate each note as I would utter the syllable attached it, and finally, with the help of my 1713 Stradivarius violin, to discover the very human-like voice of the violin. ----Joshua Bell
