Joshua Bell leads the Academy of St Martin in the Fields — where he is about to embark on his fifteenth season as Music Director — in Niccolò Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with a new cadenza by Bell. The Grammy Award-winner and honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his services to Music first performed Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 1 at just 13 years old. More than 40 years later, he returns to one of the violin repertoire’s most technically demanding works with the insight and artistry that come from a lifetime of performing. Bell explains: “Just a decade after [the composition of] Beethoven’s iconic Violin Concerto, Paganini pushed the violin’s physical capabilities further than anyone had before. Despite its obvious technical difficulty, this concerto is rich with musical challenges – it is extraordinarily operatic, straight out of The Barber of Seville, full of wit, charm, and drama. As the soloist, you get to play every character! This is not just a ‘showpiece,’ it is a masterpiece in its own way.”  The all-Paganini album includes James Stephenson’s chamber orchestra arrangement of Cantabile and Bell’s recording of Carnival of Venice as a bonus track.