Enjoying the violin
After I bought the Ladies in Lavender I had to buy Johuas Bell music.
I heard him play the Brahms violinconcert april 2003 and became a fan.
One period in my life I almost hated violin music maybe because I was
playing the piano with my brother violin. Later I heard the Busch quartet
play , and later I heard Isac Stern and Menuhin play in concerts.
The music Johua plays in wonderful and he plays beutifully.

A splendid piece of work...
I am a classical singer, my mother plays the violin, so I know how closely they are related. Joshua Bell has chosen some beautifu selections. Some of my favorite pieces on this compilation are pieces I have actually sung. One of the most beautiful is Dvorak's Song To the Moon, the way he plays it is so warm and elegant, it is one of the most beautiful pieces ever written and with him playing it, it sounds even better. Estrellita is another song that I have sung, and I absolutely love , the same with Mozart's Laudate Dominum.His violin gives the music such a soul that it almost is better the hearing someone sing it. The only regret I have about this CD is it does not have him playing O mio Babbino caro, guess I will have to buy his other CD for that.

Joshua Bell
What a master on the violin!!! I appreciate being able to get this CD quickly at an affordable price. It is a treasure.

Voice of the Violin
This CD has brought a lot of enjoyment to me and my family. I play this for background music and never grow tired of it. It is so relaxing. And since my father was called "the String Man" where we live, and he hand- made violins, guitars, mandolins, banjos, and other instruments, I have been listening to violin music, and other stringed instruments, since my childhood days. This is one of my most loved CD's.

Conjuring up an uncanny feeling.
This album sounds beautiful. The violin playing is superb, the effect highly lyrical and pleasing. BUT as it progresses track after track, having listened almost to the last, I have an uncanny feeling that the violin here is simply competing with the human voice for want of repertoire.
On the one hand we have super singers like Cecilia Bartoli singing almost all the difficult arias with her coloraturas that should better have been reserved for strings - violas, violins, but were composed to test the limits of the human voice. Here, the exact opposite happens. What technical challenge is there for the violin in these basically soprano arias and songs?
Fine that music is NOT just about pyrotechnique. Any music lover and student knows that the violin is the instrument that resembles most closely the soprano human voice. It is more expressive in that its owns a much wider range than the normal human voice. Otherwise it lacks the human warmth and any slight imperfections of intonation. Musical repertoires have evolved along this line. Fine again that musical instruments may 'cross-over', but the feeling conjured in this CD's otherwise beautiful music leaves one feeling emotionally incomplete and deprived, until the human voice of Anna Netrebko appears at the last track.
Honestly don't think that this is a successful cross-over attempt.