Academy of St Martin in the Fields/Joshua Bell at the Adrienne Arsht Center

Barber
Adagio for Strings, Op.11a
Mendelssohn
Piano Trio No.1 in D-minor, Op.49
Infelice – Ah, ritorna età dell’oro
Hérold
Le pré aux clercs – Jours de mon enfance [arr. Stephenson]
Villa-Lobos
Bachianas brasileiras No.5 – Aria (Cantilena)
Barber
Violin Concerto, Op.14

Larisa Martinez (soprano)
Zlatomir Fung (cello)
Marina Radiushina (piano)

Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Joshua Bell (violin)

Daybreak [world premiere]
Taylor Naturkas & Andrei Chagas (dancers); Pontus Lidberg – Choreographer; John Hall – Lighting Designer

The Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Joshua Bell concluded their ten-day Miami residency with an eclectic collaborative concert with Miami Chamber Music Society and Miami City Ballet. During their residency, the Academy’s musicians interacted with these and other Miami-area institutions, including the New World Symphony, University of Miami Frost School of Music, and Lynn Conservatory of Music.

This concert also served as a showcase for Bell, which began with a powerfully intense performance of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings. As Bell directed from the concertmaster’s chair, Taylor Naturkas and Andrei Chagas danced Daybreak, in which Pontus Lidberg’s choreography and John Hall’s evocative lighting created a romantic aura more optimistic than the somber occasions with which this music has often been associated. Recurring motifs included Naturkas repeatedly stepping over Chagas’s extended arm or falling backward into his arms. but the highlights were lifts in which Naturkas assumed a different posture each time she was held high overhead. In the drama depicted in the dance, Naturkas runs away from and is pursued by Chagas, but returns to him as the strings reprise the music’s opening strains. 

For Mendelssohn’s D-minor Piano Trio, Bell was joined by Marina Radiushina and Zlatomir Fung. Mendelssohn has the cello introduce several gorgeous melodies, and Fung took full advantage of the opportunity to show off a lustrous tone and superb phrasing. All three collaborated magnificently, Radiushina demonstrating dexterity in rapid staccato passages, and Bell’s Stradivarius singing out sweetly.

Following intermission Larisa Martinez joined the orchestra for two bel canto arias, each accompanied by Bell’s obbligato violin. ‘Ah, ritorna età dell’oro’, a cavatina from Mendelssohn’s opera Infelice, begins with the violin’s exposition of the principal melody, after which singer and violinist seem to soar into the stratosphere together as the pace quickens and slows, culminating in a soft, sustained note. The violin also leads the way into Hérold’s ‘Jours de mon enfance’ from his comic opera Le Pré aux clercs, its virtuosic turns presaging Martinez’s spectacular coloraturasinging. Later, Bell introduced a sprightly tune that Martinez echoed brilliantly, and after exchanging melodic material with a flute, Martinez capped off the scena by ascending to a spectacular sustained final note.

In the only work in which Bell did not participate, Martinez was accompanied by an ensemble of eight cellos – half from the Academy and the rest (including Fung) from MCMS – in the ‘Aria’ from Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachianas brasileiras No.5. The contrapuntal accompaniment reflects inspiration drawn from J. S. Bach. The Academy’s Caroline Dale contributed superb solos echoing the soprano’s vocal line. Martinez’s voice soared in the vocalise and was rapturous in ‘Ruth V’, Corrêa’s poetry depicting moonrise, ending with a reprise of the vocalise, sung, as directed, “bocca chiusa” (with mouth closed), producing an incredibly lovely pianissimo effect. The program ended with Barber’s Violin Concerto, rich with infectious melodies. Bell demonstrated his superb musicianship and the magnificent sound of his ‘Gibson ex Huberman’ Stradivarius. A gorgeous oboe solo by John Roberts introduced the rhapsodic second-movement Andante, the theme equally lovely when sung out by Bell’s violin. While Bell was engaged as soloist, Harvey de Souza used his bow to conduct. The Finale, marked Presto in moto perpetuo, is a tour de forcefor the soloist, who is called upon to play rapid figures continuously, with only two brief respites. Bell carried this off with virtuosity and style.