A new-world virtuoso with old-world musicianship: the complete Decca recordings of JOSHUA BELL, capturing the first decade of the violinists career on record.

Decca signed the nineteen-year-old Joshua Bell in 1986 on the basis of privately made concerto tapes. Bell had first picked up a violin at the age of four, but he had been taking the instrument seriously for less than a decade. His musicianship and technical aptitude were nurtured and coached by Josef Gingold, a pupil of Eugne Ysae. He made astonishingly rapid progress. Within months of signing for Decca, he had already made his first three albums, of concertos by Bruch, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Wieniawski, and recital encores.