by: Jessi Hafer

This short review is dedicated to the airline that lost Joshua Bell's luggage.

If you have time today, and if you can still even get tickets (they may be sold out or almost sold out), you really need to get over to the William Saroyan Theater today (Saturday, November 3) for the 2:30pm concert of the Fresno Philharmonic, featuring Joshua Bell. The whole concert was wonderful, with each half starting with the Philharmonic without their soloist - they played some nice pieces by Mozart and Beethoven. But the pieces featuring Grammy-award winning violinist Joshua Bell completely blew me away (and this amazed me - as a bass player, I'm generally skeptical of violinists!).

For Bell's first piece with the Phil, they played Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, featuring original cadenzas (like jazz solos, only not jazzy) by Bell. To me, it was smooth and playful like ice skating, yet it radiated with warmth. The performance received an enthusiastic standing ovation, which is not something I often see before an intermission.

The second piece with Bell, at the end of the program, was Saraste's Zigeunerweisen for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 20. This piece was both heavy and whimsical. Bell's playing technique is incredible - from his bow digging into the string and launching off like an airplane, to his sneaking in some left hand plucking along the neck of the violin as his fingers sprint and leap across the strings. Bell's hair flies around a bit when he plays, and he's completely into the music. The raw emotion of the pieces will capture you even if you're not the least bit interested in the more technical aspects.

After another long, standing ovation, Bell came out and played a segment from the movie the Red Violin, for which he recorded the soundtrack. The music was amazing, and amusingly, he dedicated it to the airline that lost his luggage, and then casually used his bow to point to his attire, which apparently had been borrowed!

Not only was this one of the best Phil concerts I've seen musically, it was also one of the best, biggest, and most eclectic audiences I've had the privilege to be a part off. Being just one of the many, many sets of hands wildly clapping in standing ovation at the end of the concert was as exciting as being just one of the instruments in the community orchestras I used to play in - even the applause was musical to me!

Even if you can't make today's concert, check out some of the amazing soloists who will be joining the Philharmonic for the rest of this season! The Joshua Bell concert is just a part of the fantastic momentum the Phil is carrying in 2007-2008.