The email from the pastor was the first I had heard of this. Since my last full-time teaching appointment ended in 1984, apart from a few presentations in the year or two after, I have been entirely apart from the world of music. The email described the music in amateur, not musical, terms, and it was clear that the reference to one of the pieces was the Ciaccona, so I assumed the “six pieces” must refer to the entire Sei Solo, usually called Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin in English. That work is six pieces in the sense that it is a group of three sonate each followed by a partita — a sonata and a partita themselves having sub-pieces. The Ciaccona is the last piece in the second partita, often played all by itself.

The account of this event by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post won the Pulitzer for feature article writing in 2008. Resurrecting some old habits, which unlike 1984 can now be employed right at home on my laptop via the Internet, I found you can read Mr Weingarten’s article, “Pearls Before Breakfast”, at the following link, which also contains a link to hear Mr Bell’s entire performance that morning, which was 12 January 2007.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp

The man was Joshua Bell, among the top concert violinists in the world, the music was the Sei Solo, aka Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin by JS Bach, one of the defining pillars of violin repertoire, the Ciaccona in particular one of if not the most difficult piece for the instrument, ever, his immediate prior performance being a sell-out in Boston with tickets averaging $100.

The event was arranged by the Washington Post as a study in perception, taste and prioities.