Janine Jansen: Concertos & Romance

Janine Jansen has gained a worldwide critical following for her fresh look at the pillars of core violin repertoire and her intense and lyrical approach to the music. After her successful Vivaldi Four Seasons recording, Jansen presents her first major concerto album. This recording, conducted by Riccardo Chailly, has strong historical and musical connections--the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchester was conducted by Mendelssohn for many years and the group premiered his concerto in 1844. This recording also presents a real discovery, the Bruch's Romance for Viola & Orchestra, recorded on disc on viola for the first time. Album Description

Mendelssohn & Bruch V Ctos = warhorses? Not w vital, fresh, committed playing like this

Janine Jansen is making the young adult transition that has to happen as we grow up. In her case, from child prodigy - she played the Bruch first with a youth orchestra at twelve years old in her home country of The Netherlands - to working professional musician. World class, by all accounts, and by the evidence of this disc, too.

Her super audio disc of the Vivaldi Four Seasons persuaded me strongly enough that I started giving out multiple copies as gifts to friends who somehow did not yet have a Four Seasons gracing their music shelves. And that in a crowded music factory warehouse catalogue of very, very, very good performances.

Now Ms Jansen turns her attentions to the nearly trite disc coupling of Mendelssohn's mature violin concerto and the first Bruch. Yawn?

I think not.

First off, note that she is playing the Barrere Strad of 1727, as well as a Guadagnini viola (1780) on loan for the interspersed Bruch viola Romance deftly tucked in the middle of her concert, between the two chestnut standards. You do not get loaned these sorts of stringed instruments unless you know how to handle them, and then some. Just knowing what she has on loan encourages us to open up to the possibilities, she just well may be the real deal, fiddle-wise.

Now my favs in Mendelssohn-Bruch couplings have included Gil Shaham, Ithzak Perlman, and Davis Oistrakh. Well, better to recall Henryk Szeryng. Ms Jansen has that sort of silvery, platinum dancing tone from high to low registers. She has no need to overpower the orchestra going full tilt, but instead manages to float angelically on top of the musical textures. This sort of playing gets under-rated, just as some listeners under-rated Szeryng, because such fiddlers do not need to force their way through, and because such fiddlers typically make the whole effort seem way too easy.

Imagine the growing cross-generational crop of fine women fiddlers we are getting these days. Ginette Neveau blazed a green and thriving trail indeed, early in the past century - if these young women are any indications. Anne Sophie Mutter broke through. Then Kyung Wha Chung. Then Viktoria Mullova. Anne Akiko Meyers. Then suddenly Hilary Hahn, Lara St. John, Leila Josefowitz, and of course, the redoubtable Julia Fisher.

If ever we needed tangible musical evidence that equal opportunity musicianship is natural, the mystical cosmological ways of things with a flourish, these fiddlers are high, bright signs.

Oh yes, by all means, get the Mendelssohn and the first Bruch by whomever your fav fiddler happens to be. You probably cannot go wrong. But when you get around to adding to that top choice recording, do be sure to consider this one with Ms. Jansen. Her way with the Strad is not labored, pedestrian, or boring. Oh no. And that less often recorded viola Romance comes along to add its own special touches. Old Max Bruch is sounding less and less like a dusty museum case display, such glinting lights afire do these readings yield. Reconsider Max Bruch, then. And yes, Mendelssohn is still eternally poised, Olympian, unsullied.

Keep your ears open for more. Highly recommended. Five stars. August 11, 2008

Another gifted beauty

What was I just saying about Mendelsson and a woman's touch? And beautiful young ladies caressing a violin until it cries? I don't know where she popped up from (some of us poor slobs have day jobs), but here she is, and she's great! Compared with Chee Yun, Midori, Sarah Chang? Too close to call. January 21, 2008

Genuinely New; Wholly Her Own

Frankly, were it not for U-Tube I wouldn't know anything about this artist or this album; after all, there are enough existing recordings of these two concerti to last anyone a lifetime, let alone each promise of "new ones" only seem to be marketing ploys to parade the highly competent though thoroughly unimaginative product of the modern, global conservatory system. This one, however, is indeed an exception.

Jansen's sound is robust, her technique and approach are fine examples of innovation and progression in 21st century violin playing. Her interpretations are fresh, and her sensitivity and approach vibrant, multivalent and so alive they force one to rethink everything one knows about these two concerti. Most intriguingly, Jansen has captured performances intelligent and well informed enough to compel one to dust off and revisit every version in one's collection and "discover" new things about these works all over again.
November 26, 2007

Great performer and great pieces

I heard Janine Jansen live performing Mendelssohn's violin concerto with the Detroit Symphony about a week before this album was released. That is what made me buy the album.

The Bruch pieces were a pleasant surprise since I do not particularly care for many of the composers from the late 19th century on. Bruch is definitely the exception to the rule. August 25, 2007

Youthful excitement and Passion fuel Mendelssohn

Janine Jansen is a wonderful young performer who brings a fresh, totally live sound to this favorite.
5 stars! June 26, 2007

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