ON THIS SUNNY New York afternoon, Joshua Bell isn't using his Grammy-winning hands to draw out a lyrical line in a Brahms concerto. He's pounding a stubborn bottle of tomato sauce to drown his hamburger and French fries. It's typical. This is a man who's as happy talking about golf ('the swing looks so simple, but it's so complicated, like drawing a sound out of an instrument'), cars (the latest in his collection is a Porsche 911) and computer games (he was a champion as a youngster) with as much enthusiasm as he does Beethoven and Bach. Bell travels at least 200 days a year - he'll be performing in Hong Kong this weekend - has played with every major orchestra in the world, and records extensively. His virtuoso work on John Corigliano's The Red Violin soundtrack, crossover recordings with jazz musician Wynton Marsalis, collaborations with bluegrass performers - not to mention his athletic good looks - have made him a household name in the US. Bell doesn't shun contemporary music and has had several pieces written for him by the likes of Corigliano, Nicholas Maw and Aaron Jay Kermis. For his concerts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic this weekend, he'll share the bill with the world premiere of Hong Kong composer Clarence Mak Wai-chu's Voice of the Harbour. Bell will also play a small work of his own. He is, perhaps, the only concert violinist who regularly composes his own cadenzas - reviving an 18th-century practice whereby performers would improvise their own solos in the middle of concertos to show off their skills. By Beethoven's time, composers had taken over writing the cadenzas. 'One day, I was fooling around with the Brahms concerto and a few themes began to form,' Bell says. 'I thought to myself, 'I almost have a cadenza. Why not go for it?' So I wrote this for the Brahms, and later for Mozart, Haydn, Gershwin, Bernstein. I simply enjoy writing it and playing it. I'm simply sparked by the piece. This doesn't mean I'm a composer - yet.' Bell was born in Bloomington, Indiana, in 1967. His parents were both psychologists. At the age of four, he was given his first violin. 'As a child, I took the violin for granted,' he says. 'The same as I took eating and sleeping and sports for granted. It was part of my life, nothing more. About the age of 11, I went to summer camp and heard recordings of Jascha Heifitz. That's when I realised that violin playing had a deeper meaning than merely enjoying the sounds. So, I decided to make it part of my life.' At the age of 14, Bell gave his first concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra. But even then he wasn't completely committed. He was also a computer-game champion and tennis champion, and was considering a career in computer engineering. A meeting with Josef Gingold changed all that. Bell says their relationship went far beyond that of professor and student. 'He was less a teacher than a guide,' he says. 'Josef didn't want a carbon copy of himself. His whole life was the violin, and he had known everybody and performed with everybody. So he gave me the tools. But he strove for a beauty of sound that I think got in my ear. That sound is incredibly sweet - almost sugary. I also picked up his sense of intimacy with the music, drawing the audience in, instead of belting it out. He was like a parent in a way - but because he was part of the old European school, he was something of a grandparent, as well. Hopefully, some of that will have rubbed off on me.' It certainly seesm to have, given the way Bell talks about his music and his performances - which bodes well for this weekend's performance. 'I don't want to play to show off any virtuosity or play as fast as I can to impress people,' Bell says. 'Music must be organic. It must breathe. When they leave, I don't want people to say, 'What a good performance.' I want them to be drawn in, so they say, 'What a beautiful piece of music'.' Bell is in the process of re-recording some of his earlier works (he made his first solo album when he was barely 19) - partly because of what he feels is a greater maturity and understanding of what he's playing. 'As a teenager, I would think what I was playing was natural,' he says. 'Now, I want to know why I do things. Then I can bring these moments out, making my performances even better.' He says some of his earlier works were made too quickly, under pressure from record companies. 'I was exhausted,' he says of his first recording. 'But I was immediately brought into the studio to meet Sir Neville Marriner to record the concertos by Mendelssohn and Bruch. We had no rehearsals, no concerts. We hardly worked at all. We got together and did it.' Bell feels the same way about a recording with the Cleveland Orchestra under Vladimir Ashkenazy. Two concertos, by Tchaikovsky and Wienawski, were recorded in four hours. Next year, Bell will give three live performances in London of the Tchaikovsky, with conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and choose the best for a new recording. But long before then, there's the Hong Kong performance - for which he'll almost certainly bring his 1732 'Huberman' Stradivarius. It's his second Stradivarius and it cost him 'millions' (he won't be specific). Clearly, Bell thinks the sound is worth the money. 'It's well-balanced, with a deep low register and a brilliant high register,' he says. 'The sound is clear and penetrating. It has a sheen - the kind of sheen that makes a great violin for the audience. With some violins, each note has to be played in a different way for maximum effect. With this, I don't have to fight the instrument. It works for me.' Bell has finished his hamburger now, and is ready to head off. Before he goes, I remind him of a comment he once made that good music 'must change one's life'. 'Did I say that?' he asks, with a laugh. 'Well, I don't mean a religious conversion. But for me, good music is pretty simple. It strikes my emotions. It touches me. It's like a person you care about.' His master's voice, indeed. Hong Kong Philharmonic performs Clarence Mak's Voice of the Harbour, Brahms' Symphony No3 and Brahms' Violin Concerto, with Joshua Bell. Samuel Wong conducts. Fri-Sat, Cultural Centre Concert Hall, $140, $240, $360, $480 Urbtix. Inquiries: www.hkpo.com
