Beethoven and Bell

We recently attended a concert with the local talent Joshua Bell accompanied by the Cincinnati orchestra.  It was a gorgeous concert, performed to a packed audience in the big hall.  He played Beethoven's violin concerto.  You can listen to him playing it at another concert here if you feel like hearing the pure genius of both Beethoven and Mr. Bell.  After the concert I received a little lecture from the one dearest and nearest to me.  He tells me Beethoven was so clever, he would incorporate the musical forms of the past and current while innovating far beyond his time.  So much so that people attending debuts of his work couldn't understand what he was trying to do and would give him poor reviews.  This concerto, for example, is far longer than the standard concerto of the time.  The second movement is another from my dad's mixed tape that I've mentioned before - the one we used to listen to on long car journeys.  It was funny that it was so very familiar to me while I didn't really know the first movement at all.  

Mr. Bell is considered local talent here.  He's on the violin teaching faculty, and we know a local who used to babysit him when he was a boy.  Jbird and I recently saw a documentary about an earlier owner of Mr. Bell's violin, Bronislaw Humberman.  The documentary mentions it's disappearing act and subsequent 50 year loss from the green room at Carnegie Hall.  Read here for the full story.