MENDELSSOHN & BRUCH: VIOLIN CONCERTOS
475 769-2
Also available as digital download with bonus track - (Mendelssohn Violin Concertp min D Minor Op. posth: III Allegro)
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Album Details
Two favourite Mendelssohn and Bruch Violin Concertos:
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26
Bruch: Romance in F major for viola and orchestra, Op. 85
Artists
Janine Jansen (Violin)
Gewandhausorchester
Riccardo Chailly
Tracklist
Felix Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64
I Allegro molto appassionato
II Andante
III Allegretto non troppo
Max Bruch: Romance for Viola and Orchestra in F Major, Op. 85
Max Bruch: Concert for Violin and Orchestra in G Minor, Op. 26
I Allegro
II Adagio molto
III Allegro
About the Album
From Los Angeles to Berlin, Janine Jansen has impressed critics with her performances. From the Mendelssohn concerto with which she opened the BBC Proms in London in 2005, to her Decca recording of Vivaldi's Four Seasons for which she received rave reviews and became known as the 'queen of the iPod' for massive download sales, the remarkable Dutch star has the rare ability to bring a freshness and spontaneity to even the most familiar works.
The Mendelssohn and Bruch violin concertos became musical bed-fellows with the advent of the LP back in the 1950s and now, half a century on, that liaison has become more like a long and trusted marriage. For the young Dutch violinist Janine Jansen it's still a pairing that makes sense, but also has some other, more personal resonances. They've both been in her repertoire for many years and they're both works she clearly loves playing. “My first encounter with the Mendelssohn was when I was 15. My father, who is the organist at the cathedral in Utrecht, assembled a group of students from the conservatory there and we played it in the cathedral with him conducting.”
The new Leipzig Gewandhaus, in which this recording was made, was opened in 1981. It stands very close to the site of the original hall, where the Mendelssohn concerto received its premiere with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and Ferdinand David as soloist, in the late summer of 1844. It is a fact not lost on Janine Jansen who is delighted with her collaborators - Riccardo Chailly stands just 14 principal conductors away in the line of succession from Mendelssohn in an illustrious list including Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert Blomstedt. “It seemed appropriate to record the work with Mendelssohn's own orchestra - the ensemble who had also premiered the concerto - but also conducted by someone who has played an important part in my musical upbringing. During my teenage years, Maestro Chailly was principal conductor of Amsterdam's renowned Concertgebouw Orchestra and I was introduced to an extraordinary variety of music through his concerts.”
Max Bruch's First Violin Concerto has been part of Jansen's life for even longer than the Mendelssohn. “I was first asked to play it with a youth orchestra after winning a competition in Holland when I was 12 and I've been playing it ever since. Obviously it's one of the most popular violin concertos in the repertory and though it has that wonderful introduction and exciting finale, I've always felt that the heart of it is the second movement. It's surely one of the most beautiful slow movements of the entire violin concerto repertoire.”
The city of Leipzig provides a link between the two concertos and key to that connection is Ferdinand David. As a 20 year old, Max Bruch studied in Leipzig, a city still dominated by the joint musical influence of Mendelssohn and Schumann, where he met David. A close friendship developed and when Bruch wrote his Op 5 Piano Trio the dedication was made jointly to David and the Gewandhaus Orchestra's principal cellist, Friedrich Grützmacher. The Bruch concerto was premiered in its revised version by Joseph Joachim, but quickly made its way into the repertoires of other leading violinists of the day including David. (Bruch, incidentally, sold the rights of his Violin Concerto for a one-off payment - and never received a penny more for it during his life.)
Unusually - and generously - Janine Jansen has turned the Mendelssohn/Bruch coupling into a menage à trois with the addition of an extra work. 'The third work on the disc is also by Bruch, the Romance for Viola. (When I was young I wanted to play the cello so I reckon this is the closest I'm going to get to that childhood dream!). Although not that well known, it is a gorgeous piece. Luckily when I suggested to Maestro Chailly that we add it to the two concertos on the disc he was immediately enthusiastic. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.”
Reviews
"If one had to evoke the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen in a word, it would be energy."
The Times (UK)
"[Jansen's] interpretations seem to flow as naturally from the heart of the music as water from a spring."
The Times (UK)
"...fresh, energetic, thoughtful musicmaking..."
The New York Times
"Jansen displays singing gestures, breathing, emphasizing, articulating, as though an imaginary poem is to be given a contour."
Leipziger Volkszeitung
