Violin lovers have had a sumptuous feast laid out for them in the past couple of weeks courtesy of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra. Not only did Rachel Barton Pine give us an exquisite Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 that few will forget, but Tuesday night brought Joshua Bell to the stage of Popejoy to perform the Bruch Concerto No. 1. Bell you may recall made news earlier in the year by playing incognito as a busker in the Washington D.C. subway as an experiment, making $32.17 for a 45-minute performance. 

While one might have hoped for something more unusual than the rather schmaltzy Bruch, the work serves as an excellent vehicle for hearing Bell at his best. The purity of the very first note signaled a performance of exceptional quality. His tone is clear and shimmering as crystal and its focus razor sharp. He plays the work as an unabashed Romantic. To modern ears such an interpretation may seem overblown sentimentality, yet more than likely that was the way the work was played in its own time. Appropriately Maestro Figueroa followed suit with the orchestra. A more emotionally restrained reading is just as artistically valid, but not necessarily historically accurate.

Continuing in a neo-Romantic vein, Bell and the orchestra included an encore, an arrangement of the song Estrellita by Mexican composer Manuel Ponce. He further followed that with a solo bravura excerpt from the soundtrack to The Red Violin which brought the capacity crowd to its feet loudly cheering.

The first half of the program was all Mozart beginning with ballet music to Idomeneo. Written by the 24-year old composer, Idomeneo is the earliest of his operas to be performed with any regularity. However, the work is long (though conforming to the expected duration of the time) and unfortunately the ballet music is often the first thing to be cut. Consequently, this became a rare opportunity to hear some marvelous but infrequently-played Mozart.

But it was the "Jupiter" Symphony that brought from the orchestra some truly stunning playing. A crisp, clear and powerful opening Allegro vivace, never lost any of the woodwind detail in this most imaginative use of winds up to that time (and indeed, for some time to come). An effective turn to minor in the slow movement and a lively Menuetto set the table for Mozart's most remarkable symphonic movement, the Finale, Molto Allegro. Again and again Mozart all but bursts the seams of 18th century harmony, until Prokofiev-like harmonies leap off the pages in one astounding passage. Theme is layered upon theme but the effect, anything but academic-sounding, is pure joy.

Far from a warmup to the star attraction, this was the orchestra's most effective Mozart playing to date. Bravo NMSO!

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