There were two major highlights to last weekend’s classical series concerts with the Oregon Symphony: Joshua Bell and our brass section. Due to changes in his calendar, Bell dropped the Shostakovich First Violin Concerto for the Brahms Violin Concerto. Basically, he was to perform the piece publicly for the first time this season, but several of his other engagements had dropped that piece, and he was left with only one performance, which must not have made it worthwhile to get up to performance shape – as Bell himself said in an interview with the Oregonian‘s James McQuillen: