Violinist Joshua Bell brings his “effortless virtuosity” (The New York Times) to Mozart’s spirited Fifth Violin Concerto, performed with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Then, experience Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony, depicting the Austrian countryside’s rustic beauty. Listen for the sounds of a babbling brook, the delicate call of the nightingale, and for the warm sun breaking through the clouds after a mighty storm.
Program
Overture for Violin and Orchestra
Symphony No. 6, Pastoral
Violin Concerto No. 4
Presenting Sponsor
Great Performers Series
Beethoven's Symphony No. 6
Leader and Violin
With a career spanning almost four decades, Grammy Award–winning violinist Joshua Bell has performed with virtually every major orchestra in the world, and continues to maintain engagements as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor, and music director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Mr. Bell’s highlights this season include an international tour of his newly-commissioned project, The Elements, featuring works by living composers. The work receives its premiere with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Hong Kong Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, and Seattle Symphony. Last summer he released his new album on Sony Classical, Butterfly Lovers. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut in 1991 as a Shenson Young Artist.
Mr. Bell has been nominated for six Grammy Awards, was named Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America, deemed a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, received the Avery Fisher Prize, and was named an Indiana Living Legend. He has performed for three American presidents and the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. He also participated in Barack Obama’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities’ mission to Cuba on an Emmy-nominated PBS Live from Lincoln Center special, “Joshua Bell: Seasons of Cuba,” celebrating renewed cultural diplomacy between Cuba and the United States.
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