Kids taking violin lessons are often daunted by the fact that you have to hold the damn thing with your chin. Apparently Joshua Bell didn’t mind. He’s called, by some, the best American violinist performing today. Now the Society for the Performing Arts presents Bell and another prodigiously talented young artist, pianist Jeremy Denk, both of whom are in their musical prime (The New York Times called them “well-informed musical athletes”). Bell can play everything from Bach to bluegrass, but today he and Denk will stick to the classics with Janácek’s Sonata for Violin and Piano, Brahms’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor and two other sonatas by Ysaÿe and Franck. Check out classical performance’s vanguard at 8 pm. Jones Hall, 615 Louisiana. For information, call 713-227-4772 or visit www.spahouston.org. $10 to $62.

Fri., Jan. 30, 8 p.m., 2009

This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.