Joshua Bell

There is something about the music of Bach that does transcend.
It really makes you feel alive and it sort of tells you about life
and about the world in a way that nothing else can.

The Chaconne is definitely a journey and you feel it from the outset. 
You know you’re in for something very powerful and amazing.

And then Bach manages to take you through the entire range of human emotion,
through tragedy and discovery and loving and joy and spirituality, ecstasy,
and then resignation and redemption and finally a sort of triumph, you might say. 
Bach’s Chaconne is Bach’s personal story.

Bach's music stimulates the mind and perhaps it imitates life itself.

Scientists are constantly trying to find the basic laws of physics. 
There are only a hundred or so elements
and they make up every single compound in the universe.

Or the DNA only made up of four nucleotides
but those four little things in different combinations make up our entire DNA. 
So I think there’s something very appealing as human beings
when we see this kind of thing happen and that’s what happens in Bach’s music.

I think all of us want to find a connection to something greater than ourselves.
I think scientists find that through the glory of nature. 
And musicians, we find it through music,
and for me, music is my religion.

And when you listen to Bach, it brings you,
it shows you what many people call God,
I would call Truth,
and it sort of tells you about life
and about the world in a way that nothing else can.

The BACH & friends Bonus DVD includes
Joshua Bell's only recorded solo performance of the Chaconne.

Joshua Bell, website

Joshu Bell is an exclusive SONY BMG Masterworks recording artist