Pandemic restrictions notwithstanding, the great violinist Joshua Bell will finally make his return to Honolulu on Jan. 2 for a concert with the Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra. He has fond memories of his first trip here in the late 1980s.
“I was 18 years old, and it was a special trip for me because I brought my older sister,” said Bell, whose wife, Larisa Martinez, an opera singer, will also perform some songs in the all-American program. “We went from there to Japan, because I was on tour there. We always reminisce about that trip to Hawaii.”
Bell is one of the most acclaimed violinists of his generation, and among American violinists, his 30+ year career unsurpassed in terms of achievement and variety. Praised universally for his rich, vibrant tone (“Mr. Bell is fundamentally incapable of making an unpleasant sound,” wrote New York Times critic Zachary Woolfe), he’s won multiple Grammys, played on Oscar-winning soundtracks, performed for presidents, royalty and Nobel laureates, and been the subject of a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper article about a stint busking in a Washington, D.C., subway station.
Bell was scheduled to open the symphony season in the fall of 2020, but like everyone, his plans came to a screeching halt that spring.
“I came off a huge tour with my orchestra from London (the famed Academy of St. Martin in the Fields), and we’d been in 19 cities in 21 days,” he said. “I’m shocked that I never got COVID, because I was shaking hands and meeting people. We didn’t even have masks.”
He and Martinez took refuge at their home outside New York City — he also keeps an apartment in the city — leaving only for special occasions like a concert at an Air Force base. They worked on repertoire together and streamed performances from home, but otherwise enjoyed the respite from their hectic personal and professional schedules. They had wed in October 2019 and had been constantly performing until the pandemic hit.
“We didn’t have a honeymoon, because I had a concert (her Carnegie Hall debut) four days after our wedding,” said Martinez, who also tours with Andrea Bocelli, the star crossover tenor.
While the pandemic brought tragedy to Bell — a member of his orchestra died and he lost other friends to COVID-19 — the “silver lining” to it was the opportunity to study the music of Bach. He rarely performs it in concert and only one of his 30+ recordings is of Bach.
“Bach is sort of the Bible of violin repertoire,” Bell said. “It’s kind of our foundation, although we don’t get to play it that much. I’m so busy that I can barely keep afloat doing the things I need to do for performances, but suddenly I had this opportunity just to study music for music’s sake and not for a performance. It allowed me to concentrate in a different way on my instrument and on music.”
Martinez began her music career singing a song by her elementary school teacher in her native Puerto Rico and got into classical music as a teenager. Her performances with Bocelli have taken her to sold-out arenas around the U.S.
“It was such a joy to be on that stage,” she said. “The whole thing is so exciting. You prepare for so long to be in that moment and once you’re there, I just tried to be in the moment and do my best.”
Bell will perform Samuel Barber’s “Violin Concerto, Op. 14,” which was criticized in its day as being old-fashioned, — other composers were experimenting with atonality and unusual composition techniques — but has emerged as the most popular American work in the violin concerto repertoire. Bell’s 1988 recording of it earned a Grammy nomination, but he has not performed it in about 10 years. He will tour with it with his orchestra in February, so this performance will be the debut of its revival.
“I think it’s one of the most beautiful pieces written for the violin,” Bell said. “Most casual classical music listeners may know Barber’s ‘Adagio,’ which is used in films and is probably one of the most moving melodies of all time. The slow movement of the Barber Concerto has some elements of the ‘Adagio.’ It has that darker, soulful, melancholy mood, while the first movement has that open-hearted, lush beauty. The third movement almost has that hoe-down feel, which is a lot of fun after all that.”
He will be accompanying Martinez in several vocal works, among them the “Willow Song,” a popular aria by Douglas Moore, which will be new for her, and a song by Florence Price, who is recognized as the first African American woman to compose symphonic music.
HSO artistic director JoAnn Falletta will conduct the program, which features Joan Tower’s “Fanfares for the Uncommon Woman,” Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring” and George Gershwin’s “An American in Paris.” Bell had high praise for the program.
“It’s got great variety but all under umbrella of American music,” he said, “I think it’s going to be a great program, one of the best American music programs I’ve seen put together.”
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>> Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall
>> When: 4 p.m. Jan. 2
>> Cost: $27-$99
>> Info: ticketmaster.com
