Bell Tone Violinist’s life fortissimo and allegro

In the three decades that Joshua Bell has been playing violin professionally, he’s had heaps of awards conferred upon him.

He was named an “Indiana Living Legend” by his native state. He was awarded 2010 Instrumentalist of the Year by Musical America. He has won a Grammy Award, a Mercury Music Prize, a German Echo Klassik award and performed on the Oscar-winning soundtrack of the movie “The Red Violin.” He was also named to People magazine’s list of the 50 Most Beautiful People in 2000. And he’s only 43.

The awards are nice, but that’s not what keeps him moving forward.

“I put pressure on myself,” Bell says by phone during a conference call with journalists from the United States and Canada. “You have to be your own worst critic. You have to set your standards higher.”

Bell says that if he wanted to, he could probably perform for the rest of his life on the reputation he has already earned.

“I could get away with churning out performances in the way I have been playing,” he says. “I never want to play that way.”

So it is armed with pieces he rarely plays and a new accompanist that Bell will travel the country for a new tour that includes Fayetteville’s Walton Arts Center on Jan. 28. He will be playing on a very old violin, however. Bell uses a Stradivarius that was made in 1731. Reports say Bell paid about $4 million for the instrument and was forced to sell the Stradivarius he owned at the time to come up with the funds for the purchase.

Bell is generally featured with orchestras, and he’s played with some of the best of them, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he made his debut at 14. His 2009-10 season included performances at several European festivals and appearances with the New York Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra.

The current 30-city tour is one of the highlights of the year, Bell says, because it gives him opportunity to create his own program and take chances through those pieces.

Taking chances has been a hallmark of Bell’s career, and he gained an added layer of notoriety when he, incognito, played his Stradivarius violin for passers-by at a Washington, D.C.-area metro station. A newspaper article written by Gene Weingarten for The Washington Post about Bell’s busking experience - and those who walked past Bell, unknowing - earned the longtime journalist a Pulitzer Prize.

While onstage at the Walton Arts Center, Bell will challenge himself and pianist Sam Haywood with Shubert’s Fantasy in C Major, Brahms’ Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in A Major and Grieg’s Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano in G Major.

He calls the sonatas “masterpieces” and says the Shubert piece is among the most technically advanced that he plays. That doesn’t mean it isn’t emotive, however.

He first heard the piece in elementary school, and it immediately struck him.

Bell has been on quite a trip himself, from child virtuoso to one of the world’s most sought after violinists. Even so, he will remain his biggest critic.

“All the great works, I feel like I’m getting close, but there is still room to grow,” he says.

Whats Up, Pages 13 on 01/21/2011

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