Last week, Joshua Bell returns to the Hong Kong Philharmonic playing Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto under the baton of the Russain conductor Boreyko. We attend the Friday performance.

In his performance, Joshua Bell was clearly trying to tell Tchaikovsky's story rather than Joshua Bell's. Nonetheless, he was telling it in Joshua Bell's own beautiful voice (just listen to his delivery of the Canzonetta). He has not taken this very difficult piece as a demonstration platform for his showmanship though he certainly is not lacking in technical virtuosity. One only has to listen to how he plays the triple and quadruple stoppings in the Cadenza as well as in the Finale.

This performance was one of the most Slavic presentation of the work I have listened to. I could almost sense the influence of alcohol when Boreyko conduct the orchestration to play in the third movement. It is not to suggest that Broreyko was drunk that night but he certainly has liberated the uninhibited emotion of this Russian piece. It is such a far cry from the Brahm's Violin Concerto which was released just a few years before this one.

Joshua Bell seems to have a healthy following in Hong Kong judging from the fans lining up for his autograph during the intermission. It reminds me of the report that he was invited by Washington Post to participate in a small experiment. He played as a street musician in the Metro station in Washington for about forty minutes and virtually nobody took notice. (If you are interested you can click to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html. ) I wonder what will happen if he were to play in our TST pedestrian subway. It is sad to note that we urban people have all but lost our facility to pick up beautiful things in life unless they are packaged or framed. How many people will stop to smell the roses and yet aromatherapy is such a big business.