15th March 2008
A Classical Violinist Makes Her Mark Online
ROBERT J. HUGHES
The Wall Street Journal

Dutch classical violinist Janine Jansen is trying to hold her own against the onslaught of pop music where it counts nowadays: online. Her 2005 recording of Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" broke into the U.S. top 20 of all albums sold on iTunes, and was among that year's top-selling digital classical albums. The recording made 76% of its sales through downloads, compared to the 10% to 15% that most albums achieve, according to her record company, Decca.

This gained the 30-year-old Ms. Jansen notice at iTunes, which last year commissioned her to create an exclusive recording for its Live Session series, which usually features pop artists. The iTunes site will release her digital EP on Tuesday, for $4.99. It's part of an all-Bach program called Live Session: Bach. Ms. Jansen is the first musician to record a classical piece for Live Session, which gives a musician a spotlight on the popular site. "It gives me a chance to reach a bigger audience," Ms. Jansen says.

Ms. Jansen chose Bach chamber music, believing that genre works well in downloaded form because of its intimacy over earbuds. A listener can feel like he or she is in the room with the musicians playing a chamber work, she says, more so than with a recording featuring a large orchestra.

14th December 2007
Bach
Inventions and Partita
The Sunday Times

The Partita here is the D minor work, BMV 1004, for solo violin, culminating in that great chaconne. The Dutch virtuoso Jansen plays it beautifully and intelligently, ensuring the arch-shaped architecture doesn�t feel, as it sometimes can, unevenly weighted in favour of its famous finale. Surrounding it with Bach�s keyboard inventions in two and three parts was a stroke of genius. Exhibiting the arcane art of invertible counterpoint, they translate well for melodic instruments. Jansen is joined Maxim Rysanov, then by Torleif Thed�en, too. Their take on this music is elegant and the sound lovely; their inflections, if sometimes slightly idiosyncratic, are often exquisite.

16th November 2007
Bach Review
The Times

The young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen seems incapable of making an ordinary CD. Even when the material is familiar enough to have collected mould, she makes the music clean and fresh. Her Mendelssohn Violin Concerto and her chamber-sized Vivaldi Four Seasons, dancing with intimacy, proved that in spaces. This latest release sticks with the all-star composers, this time Bach. But she has ferreted out one of the catalogue�s more arcane corners: his Inventions in two and three parts, written for keyboards with pedagogic intent � played here on violin, viola and, and when needed, cello.

Isn�t all this, the sceptic asks, rather a heap of dust? No it�s not: in their miniature ways, the 30 Inventions offered by Jansen and her excellent team-mates Maxim Rysanov and Torleif Thedeen offer as intense a thrill as any big-boned concerto. Jansen is the queen of sensitively woven and singing line, and of myriad subtleties in expression; she�s ideal for chamber music. She�s especially magnificent playing sotto voce, husking through the beauties with Rysanov�s viola in the fifth and ninth two-part Inventions.

The instruments used are from the 18th century � Jansen�s is a precious Stradivarius. But they are not using guy strings. Stylistically, Jansen adopts a compromise: she cherishes the clarity and forward thrust associated with period instruments, but avoids rhythmic asperity. Her tone veers towards sweet, not sour. She applies vibrato when and if the moment calls; you hear lyricism, not mathematics.

Her partners are equally humane. If you don�t grin at Thedeen�s plucked cello in the ninth three-part Invention, you must have rigor mortis. Throughout, the threesome play as friends, as much in love with each other�s company as with Bach�s music.

And Jansen still has her solo fling, in the D minor partita for solo violin, BWV 1004, crowned with its might chaconne. The strength of her line is formidable. Yes there�s nothing glassy or remote; she long ago left behind mere technical display. She gives the music heart, and plays like a child of nature � like the Jansen we find in the more sensible of Felix Broede�s CD booklet portraits, where she squats prettily in the long grass, lost in thought.

7th May 2007
Leader Of the Pack
JAY NORDLINGER
NEW YORK SUN

The world is awash in violinists - in young, excellent ones. It seems like every other night throws up a twenty-something fiddler who is both virtuosic and artistically mature. Saturday night saw another one, when Janine Jansen played with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra in Carnegie Hall.

Ms. Jansen is a Dutchwoman who gets starrier by the day. Recently, she recorded the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, conducted by Riccardo Chailly (on Decca). (Bruch wrote three violin concertos, but when we say "the Bruch Concerto," we know what we mean - the First, in G minor.) The Mendelssohn and the Bruch are a longtime pairing, a couple of warhorses. But Ms. Jansen makes them gallop beautifully, sleekly, and winningly.

It was the Mendelssohn that she played with the chamber orchestra on Saturday night. In an interview published in the Orpheus program, here's what she had to say about the piece: It is "one of the most fresh violin concertos" ever written. "It is such a genius piece, so lively. It has a certain pureness to it, and it is unpretentious."

Quite so. And Ms. Jansen played it much this way.

» Click here to read the full review

6th May 2007
Vivaldi Arrives Fashionably Late
By ALEX WILLIAMS
NEW YORK TIMES

In fashion, everything old eventually becomes new again. No matter how old.

Still, it was surprising to see about 85 of the fashion world's young tastemakers turn out on Thursday not to see Lily Allen or Arcade Fire, but the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. The private recital wasn't at Carnegie Hall, that Midtown stalwart that is probably more foreign to many of those in attendance than Paris or Milan, and where she was scheduled to play two days later. Instead, it took place at one of their more familiar stomping grounds: Milk Studios on West 15th Street in Manhattan, one of New York's best known fashion photography studios.

The idea, ostensibly, was not just to turn the world's finest musicians into mere theme-party props to impress jaded scenesters, insisted Mazdack Rassi, a partner in Milk Studios - himself, a scenester of the first order, though he sounded far from jaded on this evening.

"Our purpose is to expose these top-class artists to a new group of people who are more downtown - trendsetters, fashion people - in hopes of spreading classical music to a new generation," said the dapper Mr. Rassi, explaining the concept behind this quarterly classical-music recital series, titled Milk Salon.

... Following Ms. Jansen's scintillating encore of Vivaldi's "Summer" at the event, Maxwell, the R&B musician, leaped to his feet in a spirited standing ovation. Afterward, he launched into an animated air-violin performance of his own for a smiling companion.

Despite the warm reception, Ms. Jansen admitted that she felt more nervous before a roomful of fashion elites than she would in front of a packed house at the Royal Albert Hall.

"Maybe part of it is knowing that this is not what they would usually listen to," she said.

Perhaps she need not have worried. She looked, well, fashionable enough in her embroidered, red Escada top.

5th May 2007
A Violinist to Listen to, Maybe After a Download
By STEVE SMITH
NEW YORK TIMES

One question is sure to arise in any interview with the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen: What's on your iPod? Readers are presumed to be curious about what musicians listen to during their downtime.

Janine Jansen's sales include many download purchases.
But in Ms. Jansen's case, the query has more to do with the sales phenomenon that attended her recording of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," issued on Decca in 2004. According to Billboard magazine, download purchases accounted for 73 percent of the record's sales. A London newspaper called her "queen of the download."

Ms. Jansen, 29, actually does own an iPod, which she received as a gift. But confronted with a performance schedule that has steadily intensified over the last few seasons, she has simply been too busy to fill it. Still, its workings are no longer the mystery they were when her "Four Seasons" took off.

"Since then, I did buy a MacBook, which was a really big step for me," she said, comfortably embedded in an armchair in a Philadelphia hotel suite one recent afternoon. "And I'm totally addicted to Skype," she added, referring to a popular Internet telephone network. "In these last two years, so much has happened, and I guess I know a little bit more about it."

Ms. Jansen spoke in fluent, idiomatic English, punctuated with robust laughter throughout the conversation. Her casual shirt set and baggy cargo pants were a far cry from the gauzy sensuality of the photographs that adorned her "Four Seasons."

Her latest disc, issued in January, featured Romantic war horses: Mendelssohn's Concerto in E minor and Bruch's Concerto No. 1, recorded with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. On April 19 Ms. Jansen made her Philadelphia Orchestra debut with the Bruch piece. A repeat performance confirmed her knack for reinvigorating familiar repertory with her lithe, energetic, seemingly spontaneous playing.

» Click here to read the full story

June 2006
Waldbuhne Open Air Concert with Berliner Philharmoniker
Christiane Tewinkel
Tagesspiegel

The real sensation of the evening came after the interval when the party atmosphere turned a little more serious. Enter the young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. Wearing bright red. Whatever she was wearing, Jansen seemed to be the only one to take this concert seriously. One could say the only one to have practised. She began Massenet’s Meditation softly and gently, taking care with every note, only gradually gaining pace. In Camille Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso op. 28, she showed just how interesting this kind of bravura piece can be when the soloist refuses to indulge in the predictable, clichéd gypsy violin sound that typifies so many virtuoso performances. Jansen’s playing can be impish, sharp, almost electric. In the rondo theme her tone colours became increasingly strident and she seemed to accept the risk that here and there this level of intensity might not quite work. Wild applause and huge enthusiasm at the Waldbühne. June 2006
Waldbuhne Open Air Concert with Berliner Philharmoniker
Berliner Morgenpost

Tumultuous applause greeted Janine Jansen’s arrival. Like Thais, the priestess of Venus, she bewitched the audience with the Meditation from Massenet’s opera of the same name. She went all out to produce a breathtaking bravura performance of Saint-Saëns’s Introduction and Rondo capriccioso. The piece made few demands on her musical intelligence but splendidly combined her crystal-clear technique with her will-o’-the-wisp temperament. A long overdue debut with the Philharmonic for the internationally acclaimed Dutch artist. 24th July 2005
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, BBC Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra, c. Norrington
Sunday Telegraph

There was even more transparency in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto: Norrington's lean accompaniment blended with the exquisitely imagined solo performance of Janine Jansen, who played with sweet tone right from her feather-light first entry. This young Dutch player is worthy of all the fuss being made about her. 19th July 2005
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, BBC Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra, c. Norrington
The Independent

The Mendelssohn Violin Concerto was lithe and exact....the transparency of the final movement was something to relish. 19th July 2005
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, BBC Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra, c. Norrington
The Financial Times

The young and glamorous Janine Jansen joined Norrington to woo the television cameras and the listening audience in a magically skittish performance of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. How did Jansen dare to play so very quietly in this huge arena? Risky, but captivating. 16th July 2005
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, BBC Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra, c. Norrington
The Times

Earlier there had been nothing but lightness, delicacy and enchanting grace from the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. When she reduced the slow movement of Mendelssohn's Concerto to the merest wisp of a pianissimo, 5,000 people scarcely dared to breathe. It was an astonishingly audacious thing for a young soloist playing live in front of millions to do (this part of the concert was also broadcast live on BBC1). But with Jansen you never feel any effect is contrived. Her interpretations seem to flow as naturally from the heart of the music as water from a spring. 16th July 2005
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, BBC Proms
BBC Symphony Orchestra, c. Norrington
The Guardian

The highlight of the first half was hearing the young violinist bring a welcome sense of freshness to Mendelssohn's familiar Violin Concerto. 26th February 2006
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Mark Swed
Los Angeles Times

Aural histories, the next gen
Exuberant and just plain dazzling
It might seem sheer folly for young artists to make new recordings of well-known concertos. They are competing with the great soloists of the past 100 years in a marketplace glutted with standard repertory. Vivaldi's "Four Seasons," to take but one example, has been recorded more than 200 times. Still, we count on each new crop of musicians to keep music alive.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Janine Jansen, violin and conductor. (Decca)* * * 1/2

VIVALDI is a composer for the young, and here are two sensational soloists with the infectious energy, glamorous technique and musical sophistication and pizazz to prove it. Decca would like you to pick up the Jansen for her sex appeal, or so suggest the photos in the shamelessly provocative CD booklet. But close your eyes and Vivaldi's four chestnuts, played with just a few terrific friends who share a taste for period style mixed with Romantic exuberance, are a complete musical joy for even the jaded. For his part, Pahud, seconded by the riotously electric Australians, produces delightfully dazzling fireworks in his generous selection of flute concertos.

July 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
BBC Music Magazine

Janine Jansen [marries] traditional expressive values with the textural vitality and bracing inventiveness of authenticity. Jansen possesses the ideal combination of intonational purity and tonal allure, and is beguilingly responsive to the music’s shifting moods, creating the uncanny impression of a series of vividly drawn characters passing before our eyes as we listen. The all-star ensemble responds to her every whim and caprice with a ravishing sequence of captivating sonorities that grow naturally out of the music rather than being superimposed on it. The recording possesses a seductive autumnal glow…With this exemplary release, the benchmark has been raised just that bit higher. July 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
The Gramophone

The absence of a ripieno string group doesn’t make the performance small-scale. Janine Jansen and her colleagues play with splendid vigour in the outer movements, and Jansen herself weaves a line of great beauty in the Largos and the Adagio. The dialogue between violin and organ continuo in the ‘cuckoo’ section of ‘Summer’ is a delight…Jansen is a brilliant player. July 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
Classic FM

This version is different, with the orchestra pared down to single instruments and the solo part played stunningly well by this wonderful young Dutch violinist. The result is a zesty, vivid and colourful performance of great individuality and distinction. 8th May 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
The Sunday Times

The catalogue teems with versions of Vivaldi’s four most popular violin concertos, so any new one must have something special to offer. This one does. The young Dutch player dispenses with a string orchestra in favour of a chamber complesso comprising seven family members and friends (her brother Maarten is the cellist; her father Jan the organ and harpsichord continuo player). The transparency of texture Jansen achieves is unique among modern-instrument versions, and her playing and direction of the ensemble demonstrate rare imagination: her boyfriend, Julian Rachlin, a violin virtuoso in his own right, has his chance to make himself heard as the barking dog in the slow movement of Spring, while Jansen unleashes a torrential downpour of descending scales in the storm from Summer. Her autumnal adagio molto has the feel of an improvisatory, languid Indian-summer reverie, while she evokes the trilling shivers and icy fingers of Winter so effectively, I almost felt cold. It may not be one for baroque purists, but if you think you are Four-Seasoned-out, it is fresh enough to titillate the taste buds. February 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
The Strad

For sceptics who think that Jansen is just another pretty face with an excessive marketing budget….think again. Surrounded by a small ensemble of friends and family, Jansen has the space to improvise and explore to her heart’s content. …Jansen goes for buoyancy and subtlety. Her willingness to take dynamic risks generates a particularly haunting Adagio molto in Autumn….Vibrato comes and goes in a natural blending of attentive string playing in which the accent is on sound colour rather than authentic detail…a recording that draws attention to the pastoral beauty of Vivaldi’s musical sonnets. February 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
www.crotchet.co.uk

The Four Seasons - but not as you've heard it before. What gives this recording its tremendous freshness is Dutch violin star Janine Jansen's use of just one player per part. Gone is the heavy orchestral sound - this is a Four Seasons which sparkles with new life and energy - like a freshly cleaned old painting revealed in its true colours. February 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
NRC Handelsblad

Janine's Vivaldi takes us on a journey through the year which is intimate, lively and full of contrast and impact, her playing is elegant and playful. February 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
De Telegraaf

The sublime interpretation of Janine Jansen fully deserves to be captured on CD. February 2005
Vivaldi: The Four Seasons
De Volkskrant

Although there are already innumerable recordings of Vivaldi's celebrated concerti, Jansen's performance really enriches the catalogue. 25th May 2005
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, c. Jac van Steen
South Wales Evening Post

Violinist Janine Jansen took the Brangwyn Hall by storm with a breathtaking performance of Tchakiovsky’s Violin Concerto in D. Her technique was flawless and her control of the complex passages in this towering work was exemplary. 23rd May 2005
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, c. Jac van Steen
The Guardian

Her command of the bravura element of the work was always convincing; more impressive still was her integration of the virtuosity into an interpretation characterised by an emotional freshness and warmth. The sound of the lower register of Jansen’s violin is particularly beautiful and, in allowing it to sing with the natural expressivity of a mezzosoprano, she underlined the lyrical genius of Tchaikovsky, the canzonetta eloquent yet heart-wrenching in its simplicity. In the finale…[she] was fiery and exhilarating and Russian to the core. 22nd October 2004
Brahms Violin Concerto
BBC National Orchestra of Wales, c. Richard Hickox
The Guardian

Dutch violinist Janine Jansen was the soloist in the Brahms, technically very much in command and at her most convincing in the robustly stirring material of the first movement, and the wild abandon of the Gypsy finale. 18th October 2004
Brahms Violin Concerto
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, c. Joseph Swenson
Express and Star

She gave a dynamic yet profound performance of the Brahms Violin Concerto, her vivid approach and astonishingly mature technique breathing new life into one of the most popular works in the repertoire [and] demonstrating the extraordinary intensity she brings to all her work. 15th October 2004
Brahms Violin Concerto
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, c. Joseph Swenson
The Times

If one had to evoke the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen in a word, it would be energy. It fizzes through her playing as she galvanizes an old warhorse such as Brahms’s Violin Concerto, just as it seems to pulse through her whole frame. She sometimes looks as if she is wrestling with the music’s very soul. Jansen is the most multifaceted of young performers. She has everything the Brahms needs: surging power for the double-octaves, fire in the fingers for the heroic passagework, but also the poetic sensibility and confidence sometimes to be the still, small voice in the whirlwind. 15th October 2004
Brahms Violin Concerto
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, c. Joseph Swenson
Coventry Telegraph

The music world is right to be so excited about the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. She is a remarkable young talent, and this was a dazzling performance. It was brimming with passion, but at the same time every note was crystal clear. She was bold and confident in the opening allegro, serene in the slow movement, and then delivered a thrilling, dancing finale to rightly rapturous applause. Janine is an immensely attractive performer. She appears totally uninhibited, playing from the heart and loving every minute of it. Her freshness and enthusiasm are infectious; she held the audience in the palm of her hand. 14th October 2004
Brahms Violin Concerto
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, c. Joseph Swenson
Birmingham Post

This was one of those performances where stunning technique wedded perfectly with sublime musicianship. Jansen seemed completely transfixed, swaying with the music even when she was not playing, and when she was, producing a tone of eye-watering beauty and richness. Rarely has the long first movement sounded so electrifying (the hurdles of Brahms’ gipsy rondo finale were even more exciting) while the elegiac Adagio provided an oasis of lovely melody. 1st September 2004
Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E-minor
Weimar Staatskapelle, c. Jac van Steen

Janine Jansen was definitely the star of the Weimar Staatskapelle's first concert of the new season...Playing with a youthful and fiery temperament, she breathed with the phrasing and conquered the octaves with passionately convincing tone. The orchestra had to rise to the challenge to match such richly expressive and musically flexible playing. And this success should not be attributed to her Stradivarius, but rather to the artistry of an exceptional violinist. The Bach encore proved both that she already possesses a substantial artistic maturity, and showed what we can look forward to in the future. Here is a player of the calibre of Menuhin, Oistrakh, Tibor Varga and Isaac Stern! 28th July 2004
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Orchestre National de Belgique, c. Mikko Franck
La libre Belgique

Her entry in the first movement was so beautiful, so sensual, so caressing that even the most jaded listeners had tears in their eyes. Janine Jansen knows that Tchaikovsky venerated Mozart and it was with the same simplicity generally applied to the latter that she approached this concerto of champions. Of course the romanticism and the passion were there, but within a soundworld rarely encountered in this repertoire. What did we learn? Janine's father is an organist and harpsichordist, she grew up in the world of the baroque; without denying the richness of her beloved Stradivarius she knows how to make it speak clearly. The audience understood her as if she was addressing them each individually, and during the Bach prelude (from the G minor sonata) she offered as an encore, they continued to savour her musical confidence in a prolonged and deafening silence, finally broken by a long ovation. 17th April 2004
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Orq. SinfÓnica del Principado de Asturias, c. Maximiano ValdÉs
La Nueva EspaÑa

Her interpretation was volcanic - what a cadenza! - and her approach was fresh and innovative (always faithful to the music), thus reconciling the music lover with a repertoire so often performed live in a routine fashion. 16th April 2004
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Orq. SinfÓnica del Principado de Asturias, c. Maximiano ValdÉs
La Voz de Asturias

This piece presents great difficulties for the soloist, who bears all its weight. Janine Jansen's performance was impeccable. Her technique is excellent and she masters all the fundamental aspects of interpretation. She has a strong stage presence and a very personal style. Her tuning is unbeatable even in the most extreme registers; her playing is incredibly agile and she proved her expressive and dramatic strengths in this performance of the piece. 26th March 2004
Bruch Violin Concerto
Philharmonia, c. Yakov Kreizberg
The Times

[Kreizberg] shared the platform with an artist livelier, fresher and more intuitive: the young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. Tension and yearning were spun into every note of her opening phrase in Bruch's concerto; her second phrase, effortlessly spanning the dynamic spectrum in a single breath, proved just as electrifying. The main theme itself quickly burst into flames, helped along by its moments of punchy double-stopping and aggressively dotted rhythms. Here was no hollow virtuoso display, either: she was feeling this well-worn music deep in her heart. It was always Jansen's violin, rather than Kreizberg's baton, that gave this performance its soulful ebb and flow. In the second section, the adagio melody throbbed with hushed expectation before easing magically into balm. In the gypsy finale fingers flew, the knees bent, and at times she risked bowing her hair: but the outcome was dance and joy. March 2004
Bruch Violin Concerto
Philharmonia, c. Yakov Kreizberg
The Classical Source

If concerts were described in culinary terms, this popular programme might qualify as meat and two veg. The paprika in the mix was the welcome return of Janine Jansen. It would be a hard heart indeed which did not respond to Jansen's way with the Bruch, which came across with all the intensity of first love and rekindled one's affection for a piece which can sound hackneyed. Jansen commands a big sound - which given Kreizberg's no-holds-barred accompaniment, she needed - and which still manages to fall easily on the ear. What was particularly notable was her variety of tone and vibrato - otherwise-excellent violinists can offer unvaried all-purpose high-pressure intensity - and Jansen is never afraid to colour her tone. This performance was as memorable for whispered half-tones as for high-jinks. There was also a wonderful sense of interplay with the orchestra. 14 February 2004
Britten Violin concerto
BBC Philharmonic Tour of Spain, c. Gianandrea Noseda
El Pais

The Britten concerto made us discover an amazing violinist, Janine Jansen, only in her early twenties, prematurely mature, astoundingly virtuosic and admirably musical. The piece presents many and varied difficulties, but Jansen seemed to overcome them with a natural ease that can be described as the last step towards perfection. She made a prodigy out of the variations of the last Passacaglia, played the Moderato with lyricism and passion, in contrast with the lively final fragment. 14th February 2004
Britten Violin concerto
BBC Philharmonic Tour of Spain, c. Gianandrea Noseda
La RazÓn

We then discovered an extraordinary soloist, Janine Jansen, one of the latest violinist phenomena, who offered an exquisite version of Britten's Concerto, a piece of great originality... 2nd February 2004
Bruch Violin concerto
RSNO, c. Miguel Harth-Bedoya
The Telegraph

Hers was a characteristically crisp and salty account, boldly punctuated, with gleaming top notes and urgent, sinewy legato lines. 24th January 2004
Bernstein Serenade
Munich Chamber Orchestra, c. Alexander Liebreich
SÜddeutsche Zeitung

Janine Jansen did not present herself merely as a soloist in front of an orchestral background, but understood her role as one equal to that of the other musicians. She established an attentive and spirited dialogue with the orchestral players, picking up on their themes, developing and returning them, and yet in no way compromising or concealing her own highly virtuosic talents. The result was a performance full of energy and colour. November 2003
Janine Jansen
Julian Haylock
The Strad

If Elisabeth Batiashvilli is arguably the most gifted player of her generation in the central classics, for a combination of compelling individuality and tonal luxuriance in the late-romantic repertoire, Janine Jansen takes some beating. Even when matched against the two most sensational prodigies of the second half of the twentieth century-Michael Rabin and Itzhak Perlman - in the Saint-Saëns and Ravel war-horses she compares very favourably. She may not quite possess their incomparable technical facility, but she consistently compels with vibrantly expressive and charismatic playing and in Tzigane she is rather more flexible and sensitive to the work's occasionally abrupt changes in mood and atmosphere. In the smaller works Jansen proves no less enticing. She throws off the tricky little Russian dance from Swan Lake with seductive warmth and golden tone, even if she (understandably) shies away from the flying up-bow spiccato as played by the dashing Mincho Minchev in Richard Bonynge's complete recording of the ballet on Decca.

In John William's haunting theme to Schindler's List Jansen soars aloft, exerting irresistible pressure on the tear ducts, although even she can't rescue Shostakovich's frankly dire Romance from his otherwise enchanting music to the Gadlfy. The Lark Ascending is merciless in showing up any chinks in a violinist's legato armoury, but once again Jansen's unerring sense of phrasing and timing leave one weak with admiration. Barry Wordsworth and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra provide sterling support and the recording is out of Decca's top drawer. A remarkable debut disc by any standards.

26th August 2003
Edinburgh Festival 2003
recital with Kathryn Stott - Mozart, FaurÉ, Prokofiev
The Scotsman

Violinist Janine Jansen and pianist Kathryn Stott made Mozart's game of musical tag wonderfully elusive.Janine's playing was pristine, with notes dancing on top of the piano phrases. Jansen can let rip when she wants to, but it is always done out of necessity; her brilliance and exuberance comes completely without spin. There was urgency in the opening theme of Fauré's First Violin Sonata that was all-consuming: Jansen lit a fire under the music and set it ablaze. Her musical acuity and phenomenal technique were well displayed in Prokofiev's mercurial Second Violin Sonata. It helped to have an accompanist responsive to the musical chicanery, and together they ignited at all the work's flash points. 21st July 2003
BBC Proms Concert
Richard Morrison
The Times

The concert’s best moments, however, were supplied by Janine Jansen in Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending. Beautifully controlled, supple, and gentle, her performance seemed so quintessentially English in spirit you felt as if all the birds of Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire would suddenly burst out singing. The nation's favourite young Dutch violinist? She can count on my vote. 16th July 2003
Janine Jansen
Geoff Brown
The Times

"The Nation's Favourite Prom" presents another young artist on the rise. She's Janine Jansen, aged 25, from The Netherlands, one of Radio 3's New Generation artists. You'll find her on stage, becomingly dressed, soaring high in Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending with her fabulously sweet-toned Strad. The Vaughan Williams is included in her debut recital on Decca (475 011-2), released this week.

She plays popular favourites, ably supported by the Royal Philharmonic, conductor Barry Wordsworth, and a gratifyingly full recording. John William's Schindler's List lets the music's quality dip, but Jansen rarely falters. The hairs on my neck stood up during her fiery scamperings in the Danse Russe from Swan Lake. She has a wicked pianissimo, too: try her quiet song in Saint-Saëns Havanaise, or the focused beauty in his Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso. Warmth is Jansen's key quality. But an open, friendly personality also plays a part. There's an emotional commitment that cannot be faked; no fetish is made of dazzling technique. For Schindler's List she applies just enough vibrato to touch the heart; for the Vaughan Williams she flies radiant and sweet. A succulent recital disc.

4th May 2003
HallÉ/Minczuk, The Bridgewater Hall
Michael Kennedy
The Sunday Telegraph

On the following evening in the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, the Hallé had a new guest conductor in Roberto Minczuk, recently appointed associate conductor of the New York Philharmonic and a former horn-player. He was an attentive accompanist to the young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen in Sibelius's concerto. She gave a lithe, athletic performance of this immensely difficult work. Ideally a bigger tone is required for total domination of the stormy parts of the first movement and the hectic rhythms of the finale, but in lyrical passages and in the slow movement she provided the appropriate dark and impassioned sound. 3rd May 2003
HallÉ/Minczuk, The Bridgewater Hall
Pauline Fairclough
The Guardian

Already acclaimed as an artist of international stature, the young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen is without doubt one of the most exciting and powerful musical personalities of her generation. One of the first things you notice about her playing is its intimate, even visionary quality. Listening to her play the opening of Sibelius's Violin Concerto felt like an intrusion into a private moment, her hushed, searching phrases coloured by the sparest orchestral texture. Jansen's probing, introspective style is matched by a vivid musical imagination and intelligence that suffuses every bar: absolutely nothing is taken for granted. 3rd May 2003
HallÉ/Minczuk, The Bridgewater Hall
Robert Beale
Manchester Evening News

Janine Jansen, the young Dutch violinist, is clearly something very special, even in the competitive world of solo violin-playing.

Her account of the Sibelius concerto last night was unforgettable, and distinguished as much by the beauty of her playing in the slow movement as the brilliance of her technique in the others.

From the very opening, this was clearly to be a haunting and engaging experience, as well as showing that she has all the bravura and panache needed.

There was everything the score prescribes, and then some: a very impressive appearance, indeed.

17th April 2003
Janine Jansen
De Volkskrant

Sowieso een goed begin
Door Anne van Driel

De gezwinde opmars van violist Janine Jansen

Ze weet dat het snel is gegaan, maar 'het vóelt als heel geleidelijk'. Violist Janine Jansen is de enige solist in Nederland die onder een exclusief contract staat bij Decca, de maatschappij van Riccardo Chailly en Cecilia Bartoli. 'Hé mam. Ja, het ging goed.'

'Hij is rood, joh! Hij is knalrood. En niet een beetje, hè? Niet alleen maar hier of daar of zo. Maar echt van top tot teen. De hele jurk. Róód.'
Gisteren moest Janine Jansen (25) er nog om proesten. Het idéé: zij, tijdens het Bevrijdingsdagconcert, op een podium in een van de Amsterdamse grachten. Vioolspelen voor duizenden mensen. In een onmiskenbare rode jurk.
Of ze zou durven? 'Ach, nou ja.'
Vandaag staat ze in de haute couture salon van Mart Visser (bezoek alleen op afspraak), aan de Paulus Potterstraat in Amsterdam. Een tikje opgelaten, de schouders licht naar voren gebogen. Midden in een lichte lege ruimte; alleen de creaties van Mart Visser vullen de lange wand.
Met de afstandsbediening tovert een medewerkster een kleedkamer te voorschijn; een coupeuse helpt Jansen in de robe van helderrode satin duchesse. De veters over haar blote rug worden aangesnoerd, de wijde rok met sleep wordt uitgelegd. Het meisje van zonet (paardenstaartje, grijs vest, dito broek, geen make up) verandert voor de spiegel in een klassieke femme fatale.
Jansen strijkt voorzichtig over de stof. 'Hij is prachtig, maar niet zo praktisch', zegt ze verontschuldigend. Wil ze tijdens het concert niet struikelen, dan moet er van die sleep geheid twintig centimeter af. Grinnikend: 'Als ik vioolspeel, beweeg ik soms nogal.'
Dan, zichzelf kritisch keurend: 'Het kan wel hè, dat rood? Het publiek zit natuurlijk nogal op afstand. En van een afstand oogt het niet zo extreem.'
Op het podium is alles anders - Jansen weet het ook eigenlijk wel. Dan verdwijnt het vioolmeisje dat 'kleren kopen een crime' vindt, en liever niet te veel wil opvallen. Jansen: 'Tijdens een concert is het anders.' Het geeft een 'kick' om voor een orkest te staan. 'En voor grote zalen.' Ze verwijst naar de glamoureuze publiciteitsfoto's die Erwin Olaf van haar maakte. Jansen, zwaar opgemaakt, in sexy jurk met glimmende bustière. 'Kijk, daar ben ik dus niet vies van.' Op het podium wordt ze iemand anders. Of, misschien wel 'meer mezelf'.
Ze staat er al zo goed als haar hele leven. Zes was ze, toen ze haar eerste viool kreeg; tien toen ze de Iordens Viooldagen won; vijftien toen ze als jongste deelneemster aan het Oskar Back Concours de derde prijs in de wacht sleepte. Al tijdens haar studie aan het Utrechtse conservatorium (waar ze op haar zestiende begon en vier jaar later met een tien afstudeerde) gold ze als dé rijzende ster onder de Nederlandse violisten. Geroemd om haar technische trefzekerheid, muzikale bravoure en, niet in de laatste plaats, haar opvallende podiumpersoonlijkheid. Tijdens concerten levert Jansen zich zichtbaar en hoorbaar uit aan haar Stradivarius-viool. Laat haar lichaam en mimiek ongeremd op de muziek mee bewegen.
Sinds een jaar of drie is haar carrière in een stroomversnelling geraakt. Ze werd als soliste uitgenodigd door vermaarde dirigenten als Valeri Gergjev en Vladimir Ashkenazy; speelde van Berlijn tot Tokio en in de legendarische Carnegie Hall ('De kleine zaal, hoor'). En heeft sinds dit jaar als enige Nederlandse solomuzikant een exclusief contract bij Decca, de platenmaatschappij van musici als Riccardo Chailly en Cecilia Bartoli.
Wereldwijd wordt haar cd uitgebracht. Te beginnen in Nederland, waar de presentatie gisteren plaatsvond. En dus was het 'best wel druk', de week daaraan voorafgaand. Maandag stapte ze in de trein naar Schweinfurt - 'zo'n zes uur lang: overstappen, vertraging, stréssen' - om te soleren bij de Weimarer Staatskapelle. Woensdag staat ze met dat zelfde orkest in Keulen, maar veel tijd om met de musici op te trekken is er niet: de middag gaat goeddeels op aan een interview en de cameraploeg van 2 Vandaag.
's Avonds het concert na de pauze bijwonen is er nu niet bij. Kort nadat Jansen opus 77 van het vioolconcert van Brahms heeft gespeeld, stapt ze in de auto van haar manager - die het op een plankgas zet en haar 's nachts voor haar huis in Soest-Zuid aflevert. Morgen is het weer vroeg dag: jurk passen in Amsterdam.
'Ik wéét dat het de laatste jaren sneller met me is gegaan', zegt Jansen. 'Maar het vóelt als heel geleidelijk. Ik heb geen moment gedacht: nu moet ik oppassen, nu gaan de dingen met me op de loop. Nee, het voelt wel als natuurlijk toch.'
In de artiestenfoyer van de Keulse Philharmonie zit Jansen achter een kantinetafeltje. Ineengedoken in haar grijze vest, de handen om een beker thee geslagen. Ze spreekt spontaan, dan weer bedachtzaam. Schaterlacht om de suggestie dat haar cd wel eens haar definitieve internationale doorbraak kan gaan betekenen: 'Ik laat het allemaal maar een beetje over me heen komen eigenlijk. Het is altijd mijn manier geweest om niet heel erg veel over dat soort dingen na te denken. Ik heb ook nooit over mijn carrière gedacht: nu moet ik dat bereikt hebben, of nu ga ik hiervoor.'
Dat zij als klein meisje iets met muziek zou gaan doen, dat was 'niet meer dan logisch'. Vader Jansen is organist van de Utrechtse Domkerk, moeder zingt, haar twee oudere broers zijn inmiddels professionele musici. 'Er klonk altijd wel muziek bij ons thuis.' En Jansen wilde meedoen.
Natuurlijk, ze is wel nagejoeld, als ze op school weer eens een paar lessen oversloeg, omdat ze vioolles moest volgen: 'Heb je die Jansen weer, met haar viool!' En om in 4 vwo de school te verlaten, om naar het conservatorium te gaan - 'dat was best wel heftig'. Maar een buitenbeentje? Nee. 'Alleen in de zin dat ¯?k al heel vroeg wist wat ik wilde worden.'
Zeven was ze dus, toen ze voor negen jaar in de leer ging bij Coosje Wijzenbeek, de vioolpedagoge die als 'streng' bekend staat. Opnieuw die schaterlach: 'Dat wordt altijd over haar gezegd inderdaad. En ja, ik heb het soms ook wel meegemaakt. Als Coosje erachter kwam dat je stukken niet uit je hoofd kende! Poeh! Ik herinner me ook nog dat na de Iordens Viooldagen in een interview in de krant stond dat ik tweeëneenhalf uur per dag studeerde, en andere kinderen zeiden: ''Oh? Ik studeer vier, vijf uur.'' Coosje wilde dat interview lezen. Toen heb ik met potlood die ''tweeëneenhalf'' heel dik weggestreept.
'Maar dat zijn dingen. . .' Jansen haalt haar schouders op. Waarom zou ze er moeilijk over doen? Coosje was góed ('Van haar heb ik leren spelen. Techniek, basisdingen, álles'). Of waarom zou ze dik doen over de Grote Namen met wie ze het podium deelde? Het zijn mensen die ze bewondert, van wie ze 'zo ontzettend veel' heeft geleerd.
Zoals van Menahem Pressler, de 79-jarige meesterpianist, bij wie Jansen een masterclass volgde: 'Elk woord van hem heb ik opgezogen. Hij dwingt je echt goed naar andere mensen in een ensemble te luisteren. Dan denk je: túúrlijk hoor ik dat, ik luister toch! Maar opeens gaan je oren dan toch op een andere manier open.'
Of zoals van Valeri Gergjev, de bevlogen dirigent van het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest ('Die man is een en al muziek en beweging. Temperamentvol. Daar hou ik van'). Met Gergjev ging ze op tournee door Japan. En Gergjev vroeg haar te soleren op zijn eigen festival. Een maand voor haar concert moest Jansen uit de krant lezen dat ze daar niet Prokofjev, maar Tsjaikovski moest spelen - een stuk dat ze niet paraat had. 'Ik dacht: ja, dat kun je niet afzeggen! Ik bedoel, dat is zó gaaf! Dan maar studeren. Paniek? Nee, in eerste instantie niet.'
Goed, over Gergjev wil ze best bekennen: 'De eerste keer dat ik met hem speelde, echt náást hem stond: doodeng! We begonnen. En ik wist niet meer wat ik moest spelen. Gergjev keek alleen maar even opzij. Zei: ''Okaaay. Let's start again!'''
Grinnikend: 'Ik was denk ik overdonderd.'
De musici van de Weimarer Staatskapelle vullen langzaamaan de gangen van de Philharmonie. Hoornisten blazen hun instrumenten warm voor de doorlooprepetitie, als de concertorganisator tussen neus en lippen door bij Jansen komt informeren: 'Haben Sie schon ein bisschen geübt?'
'Jaaa', grijnst Jansen: 'Ein bisschen.'
Twee uur, drie uur, 'niet veel meer' studeert Jansen op een dag wanneer zij geen concert heeft. Ze slaat 'vrij makkelijk' informatie in zich op. 'En ze kan zich in korte tijd concenteren', zegt haar manager Niels Veenhuijzen, al een aantal jaren impressario van klassieke musici, voorheen zakelijk leider van het Nederlands Jeugd Strijkorkest en zelf cellist. Laatst nog, bij een recital met Menahem Pressler: 'Die man repeteert tot vlak aan het concert door. En ook in de kleedkamer was nauwelijks tijd om even tot jezelf te komen. Ik heb soms de indruk dat Janine dan op het podium tot rust komt, dáár haar batterijen oplaadt.'
's Avonds, tijdens het vioolconcert van Brahms, en ook die middag bij de repetitie, lijkt dat inderdaad te gebeuren. Dirigent Jac van Steen heft zijn stokje. Jansen tuurt naar de grond, in opperste concentratie, de punt van de haar strijkstok tegen de kin. Dan, als de violen de klanken stuwend doen aanzwellen, gaat haar neus de lucht in. Siddert haar lichaam.
Haar solo speelt ze vol overgave. Fronsend bij de tere passages, ineengekrompen bij de meer dramatische. Jansen neigt voorover, zet grote ogen op naar de tweede violen, zwiert haar viool naar achter voor de inzet van de klarinettist.
Ze is een violist van het intu¯Øtieve slag, beaamt ze. De legendarische violist Isaac Stern heeft haar daar in een masterclass nog om bespot; zei dat ze te veel bewoog, en zich vooraf eens wat meer in de muziek moest verdiepen. Jansen verliet huilend de zaal.
Het heeft haar sterker gemaakt, zegt ze. Al is haar standpunt geen millimeter gewijzigd. 'Uiteraard moet je de theorie van een muziekstuk bestuderen, maar je moet het daarna ook durven loslaten. Ik vind het belangrijker dat je speelt vanuit je gevoel.'
Vervloeien met het orkest wil ze. Dialogen aangaan, verbindingen leggen. Als in de kamermuziekensembles waarin ze speelde, voordat ze ging soleren. 'In een ensemble is dat makkelijker, je bent met een kleinere club. Maar toch wil ik ook met een orkest uitersten zoeken - soms te veel, wordt wel gezegd. Zo zacht mogelijk spelen, en proberen het orkest daarin mee te krijgen. Dat risico te nemen. Het gaat soms wel eens helemaal mis, maar ja. Het is zo'n machtig gevoel een orkest, dat enorme schip, op stoom te brengen.'
Natuurlijk helpt daarbij haar Stradivarius die ze drie jaar geleden in bruikleen kreeg aangeboden. 'Ja, dat is zo'n raar verhaal. Ik had in die tijd een instrument te leen dat ik opeens moest teruggeven, echt binnen twee weken. Een paar dagen nadat ik dat gehoord had, speelde ik in Amsterdam in het Zondagochtendconcert. Presentator Hans van den Boom kondigde toen op de radio aan: ''Als iemand nog een viool op zolder heeft liggen, Janine Jansen heeft er een nodig.'' Die middag kwam na afloop van een ander concert een meneer van het Elise Mathilde Fonds op me af. Of we eens konden praten.'
Het werd een Barrere uit 1727 - 'een fantastisch instrument, het klikte direct goed' - met een warm, rijk klankbeeld. 'Helder, maar niet penetrant.' Ze leert hem nog elke dag beter kennen, en 'hij' - hij reageert steeds beter op haar manier van spelen. Het vioolconcert van Alban Berg zou ze er graag eens op willen spelen. En binnenkort: de Tweede van Prokofjiev, de Eerste van Sjostakovitsj. Sibelius.
Serieuze vioolconcerten waarmee ze zich als soliste op het orkestpodium kan profileren. Stukken die nauwelijks op haar eerste cd staan. Die bestaat, buiten Ravels Tzigane en twee werken van Saint-Saëns, vooral uit het lichtere genre: een deel uit Het Zwanenmeer van Tsjaikovski of zelfs John Williams' filmmuziek bij Schindler's List. Jansen: 'Nou ja, Schindler's List, dat is gewoon een mooi stuk. En die andere korte stukken op de cd, de Katsjatoerian of Sjostakovitsj' The Gadfly, die kende ik zelf niet, ik vond het wel mooi ze over het voetlicht te brengen.'
Bij het zoeken naar geschikt repertoire, zegt Jansen, hebben zowel Decca als zijzelf voorstellen gedaan. 'En iedereen weet hoe het met de platenindustrie gaat. Natuurlijk zoekt die stukken waarvan verwacht wordt dat ze bij een groot publiek aanslaan. Ik kan me er wel in vinden. Ik denk dat het voor een eerste cd een goed begin is.'
En 'sowieso', ze wil zich nog nergens op vastpinnen. Zich zo breed mogelijk ontwikkelen: klassiek, maar ook hedendaags. Volgend jaar speelt ze een nieuw stuk van Henri Dutilleux, geschreven voor violist Anne-Sophie Mutter. En ook kamermuziek wil ze regelmatig blijven doen. 'Kamermuziek is intiemer. Letterlijk en figuurlijk. Het nadeel van soleren bij vreemde orkesten is toch dat je de mensen niet kent, eenzaam kunt zijn, in het buitenland.'
Tegen die kant van het solistenbestaan ziet ze soms op. Minder dan vroeger, maar toch: 'Het lijkt me heel erg moelijk om steeds onderweg te zijn.' Van de zomer op een festival in Noorwegen heeft ze er met een aantal jonge musici over gesproken. 'Dat was fijn. Ik ben toch een beetje een huisbeest. Thuis voel ik me het meest op mijn gemak.'
Terug naar Soest-Zuid, zit Jansen vrolijk op de achterbank, haar arm om haar vioolkist geslagen. De Volvo van manager Veenhuijzen heeft dolby surround system; door de speakers schalt Shirley Bassey. James Bond-fanaat Jansen ('vooral de vroege films') zingt luidkeels Goldfinger mee. Ze is moe ja. Maar zolang ze een beetje kan kletsen en geiten, zegt ze, gaat het wel.
Het Keulse publiek applaudisseerde langdurig; vier keer moest ze op het podium terugkomen. Voor de draaiende camera's van 2 Vandaag gaf Jansen een eerste reactie, friemelend aan haar vingers. 'Hhm, wel lekker gespeeld.'
In de auto gaat 's avonds haar mobieltje af. Een sms-je van dirigent Van Steen. 'Ha Janine, je was super!' Een half uurtje later belt haar moeder. 'Hé mam. Ja, het ging goed.'