Joshua Bell is one of today’s most successful violinists. Right from the beginning of his career this world-famous artist has been in the spotlight of attention with his recordings and concerts. One January morning in 2007 in one of Washington’s busiest metro stations, wearing old jeans, a T-shirt and baseball cap, for 43 minutes he played his fabulously expensive violin as a street musician. He played six difficult and demanding classical works as 1097 people, mainly middle-class government officials, walked past him. Most of them did not even stop or notice the extremely high artistic quality unusual in a pedestrian passage. Only a few people paused to listen to the music for a few minutes, seven people gave money and just over 32 dollars accumulated in the violin case. Only one woman recognised Joshua Bell. As far as we know Joshua Bell is not planning to appear in 2009 in Blaha Lujza Square so we can enjoy his performance of Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto in a concert hall with considerably better acoustics. The excellent Camerata Salzburg, no stranger to the Budapest public, will be conducted by the leading French conductor Louis Langrée.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvlTuBnpKpc

http://www.joshuabell.com/