Still the spittin' image of a Wunderkind although he's now pushing 40, Bell released his latest disc, "Voice of the Violin," last September. The CD takes pieces written for the human voice — opera, classical songs — and makes them sing instead from the strings of Bell's nearly 300-year-old Gibson Stradivarius.

 

"Voice" follows Bell's wildly successful "Romance of the Violin," which stayed at No. 1 on Billboard's Traditional Classical for 12 weeks and in 2003 was named Billboard's top Classical Album of the Year.

Expect Bell to play some of the "Voice of the Violin" pieces Friday at the Union. But which ones? It's anyone's guess — including Bell's.

"I like to leave a little room for spontaneity and see how I feel — maybe play a showpiece or two," he said on a recent phone interview from his home in New York. "The real meat and potatoes of the program is the Schumann (Sonata No. 1 for Violin and Piano in A Minor) and the Beethoven (Sonata No. 10 for Violin and Piano in G major). I've never done those two together before, but I thought they'd work well.

"Of course Schumann and Beethoven are related in a lot of ways, both being great German composers and Schumann admiring Beethoven," he said. "But they're so different. The Schumann is incredibly impetuous and dramatic. This last Beethoven sonata is so poetic, and in such an ethereal realm, that it's a great contrast to the heart-on-sleeve nature of the Schumann.

"The Beethoven is my favorite of the Beethoven sonatas," said Bell. "The 10th is just so meaningful — it's the kind of piece I could probably play a hundred times in a season and not get tired of it, because you're always trying to get at that core."

Bell will also play living composer John Corigliano's 1963 concerto for violin and piano. That work "is definitely lighter and more fun," he said. "He wrote it when he was in his 20s, and it's extremely exciting and beautiful. It reminds me a lot of Bernstein. It's fun also for me because lately I've been doing so much of Corigliano's music," including the Oscar-winning soundtrack to the 1999 film "The Red Violin" and a new concerto written for Bell. "It's interesting to see where that music comes from."

Bell, who's done his share of conducting/performing recently and hopes to continue moving in that direction, will share the Union stage with Jeremy Denk, a chamber pianist (and fellow former student at Indiana University) whose own star is fast on the rise. Bell invited Denk to tour with him after the two shared the stage at a Spoleto Festival in Charleston, S.C.; this is their third tour together.

"I feel lucky that he's still setting aside the time to do it this year," said Bell. "I don't know how much longer he'll be able to do it, because his solo career is taking off. He's a remarkable artist. And he's a real performer. I feed off that energy, and it's really exciting to do that night after night."

Bell, a superstar since his teens, inspired his parents to buy him a violin when, around age 4, he began stringing the knobs of his bedroom dresser with rubber bands and plucking them to make music. Decades later, he still loves to tour, he said.

"You often hear artists complain of the grind after traveling for many years. I still really love traveling and the variety of locations, food and people. Every time I walk into a hotel room, I still get excited about the possibilities of being in a new place.

"It's less scary than when I was 18 and getting in front of an orchestra where they didn't know me at all, and I had to prove myself," he said. "Although in some ways, maybe it's even more pressure when you've already proved yourself and you still have to show that you can do it."

 

Who: Joshua Bell with pianist Jeremy Denk

Where: Wisconsin Union Theater, Memorial Union, 800 Langdon St.

When: 8 p.m. Friday.

Tickets: Sold out. A few tickets may become available Friday night. Call 262-2201 for information.