http://www.janinejansen.com/ Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:09:24 +0100 Janine Jansen News en-us http://www.janinejansen.com/images/rrs.gif http://www.janinejansen.com/ http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#81 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#81 Sun, 20 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0100
Warm regards,
Janine]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#80 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#80 Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0100 by David Hurwitz

LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN - Violin Concerto
BENJAMIN BRITTEN- Violin Concerto
Janine Jansen (violin); Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; London Symphony Orchestra; Paavo Järvi
Decca- B0013281-02(CD)

Reference Recording - Britten: Britten (Decca); Beethoven: Heifetz (RCA)

Artistic Quality: 9 / Sound Quality: 9

This unusual coupling works surprisingly well, God only knows why. Perhaps the Britten's neo-classical (or Baroque) leanings and formal freedom sit well next to Beethoven's echt-Classical language, but whatever the reason the performances of both works are extremely fine. Paavo Järvi's expertise in Beethoven with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen is by now well-known, and in Janine Jansen he has a soloist who matches him for vibrancy and freshness. There's no pseudo-profundity here; just excellent playing in the outer movements, an emotionally affecting Larghetto, and a technically confident cadenza.

The Britten is just as fine. Obviously the London Symphony Orchestra knows this magnificent and still shockingly neglected work as well as anyone. Its quiet ending is probably the deal-breaker for most soloists (or concert promoters), but the work's bittersweet lyricism and formal imaginativeness (the movement sequence is moderato, vivace, cadenza, and passacaglia) qualify it as a masterpiece that Jansen clearly relishes. Only a slight thinness of tone under pressure lets us know that Jansen is not quite as fine as the very best of the competition (here or in the Beethoven), but as a practical matter nothing precludes a firm recommendation if the coupling interests you.
]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#78 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#78 Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 by Stephen Pritchard

If you missed Janine Jansen and Itamar Golan's Wigmore Hall lunchtime recital on Radio 3 last Monday, try to hear it on Listen Again – you won't be disappointed. The richly talented young Dutch violinist plays with an innate understanding that both serves and transcends the music. She's intoxicating, and with Golan as a partner, unstoppable. They tore into Bartók's second sonata with furious energy, revelling in its wonky rhythms and earthy folk melodies. Such was their rapport, you hardly noticed that Bartók rarely allows the players to share any of his myriad musical ideas. It's rather as though two rational human beings are conversing, but not quite on the same subject. Naturally, in this duo's hands it all made perfect sense.

An excursion into the sunnier realm of Beethoven's "Spring" sonata allowed a delicious display of perfectly crafted virtuosity from both players. Jansen swept through the sublime adagio with a gorgeous fluid line before jumping with glee on to the jokey opening of the scherzo, where violin and piano skid out of alignment for a few disorienting bars.

After shouts of acclaim for the Beethoven, we were back into the gutsy world of Bartók, this time with the Rhapsody No 1, Jansen climbing the rising scale of its opening Romanian "verbunkos" tune with frightening determination. "Verbunkos" derives from a term for a military recruiter, an occupation often accompanied in the 18th century by strident music-making and dancing. And with a performance as startling as this, Jansen makes a compelling recruiting sergeant for the cause of great 20th-century music.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#79 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#79 Sun, 28 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 by John Allison

...
THE HUNGARIAN muse also shaped Janine Jansen\'s programme for the Wigmore Hall\'s Radio 3 lunchtime concert on Monday. It was standing room only for the young Dutch violinist, who in equal partnership with the pianist Itamar Golan explored all the possibilities of two contrasting Bartok works. His Sonata No 2 is almost atonal yet deeply and distinctively Bartokian, and whether in slow or furiously fast mode these musicians had a questing intensity.

The more obviously folkinflected Rhapsody No 1 received a fiery performance, in which Jansen\'s full-bodied tone was matched by Golan\'s vivid feeling for pianistic colour. In between these two works, Jansen scaled down her sound for a poised yet ultimately predictable account of Beethoven\'s Spring Sonata.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#76 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#76 Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100
Times Online
by Richard Morrison

Wigmore Hall audiences are famously stuffed with connoisseurs. So when you see a long queue waiting for returns at a lunchtime concert, and many punters — not all of them spring chickens — prepared to stand through an hour-long recital, you know that something special is expected.

And Janine Jansen doesn’t disappoint — ever, in my experience. The Dutch violinist has been on the international scene for only about ten years, but her mercurial response to the music, audacious but thought-through interpretations, and — most of all — sublimely silky sound (she seems to be caressing the strings as much as bowing them) have won her a legion of discriminating fans.

Yet one wondered how she would cope with the Bartók programmed here: the Second Sonata and the First Rhapsody. Jansen may have the tall, muscular build and enthusiastic demeanour of a jolly hockey captain, but she seems temperamentally incapable of approaching any music as many virtuosos seem to approach Bartók: like a mad axeman going into battle against a dangerous dog.

Indeed in the sonata’s opening pages one feared that Jansen’s delicate timbres and subtle nuances would be masked, even by a pianist as sensitive and alert as Itamar Golan. But, as this extraordinarily abrasive piece gathered pace and ferocity, so Jansen revealed her own strategy: not aggression, but a kind of resolute impishness imbued with a huge range of colours and fantastic technical resource, especially as those daunting double-stoppings started to pile up. Here, and in the Rhapsody, the violin’s line was spun with such unfettered flexibility that it seemed improvised on the spot. And Golan followed her like a shadow.

That same rapport was evident in Beethoven’s Spring Sonata, as well as an infectious sense of playfulness. Whether the pace should be pulled around quite so much in the first movement is a matter of taste. But who could fail to be charmed, and gripped, by such free spirits?]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#75 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#75 Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 NCH, Dublin

Irish Times
by Michael Dervan

Brahms - Sonata in G, Op 78; Bartók - Sonata No 2; Janacek - Sonata; Beethoven - Spring Sonata
Re-tellings are often more eventful and dramatic-seeming than first tellings. It's as if people need a little bit of exaggeration to feel sure that they can still capture the essence of the original moment.
At her National Concert Hall début on Thursday, Dutch violinist Janine Jansen communicated like someone still in the first flush of experience. She handled everything she played in a way that seemed clear in perception and simple and effective in delivery. It was as if the four sonatas by Brahms, Bartók, Janacek and Beethoven were so immediate to her that she had no need of special pleading. She could just pass things on, as it were, unmodulated.
That's not to say that her music-making was plain or her interpretative approach non-interventionist. Her nuancing even seemed to take her partner at the piano, Itamar Golan, unawares from time to time.
But, from the moment she started playing, with an exceptionally quiet and serene opening to Brahms's G major Sonata, she conveyed a sense of freshness, of wonder almost, in the unfolding of the music, and a willingness to take unexpected routes as if they were the most natural and straightforward of undertakings.
Her tone is smallish and sweet, though there are reserves aplenty of power, and her vibrato fast and light. But unlike many another virtuosi she seemed to make no show of here sound for its own sake.
The things that stood out were the long arches of her phrasing in the Brahms, which often managed to carry her listeners' minds and hearts well beyond their anticipated destinations, the disarming lucidity in the way she treated Bartók's knotty Second Sonata, and the exceptional ease in her blend of comment and afterthought in Janacek's often conversational seeming Sonata. And she capped everything in the spirit-lifting lightness she brought to a joyful account of Beethoven's Spring sonata.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#74 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#74 Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 The moderator received his questions just before the interview!]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#73 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#73 Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100
Times Online
by Geoff Brown

A stomach ailment kept Christoph von Dohnányi from the podium on Tuesday. But at little more than a day’s notice Fabio Luisi flew to the rescue. The former maestro of the Dresden Staatskapelle (he resigned abruptly six weeks ago over management issues) could be mistaken for a rather harassed Italian bank manager. Until, that is, he starts conducting. The fruits of Luisi’s labours were at their tastiest in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, K 364, though the orchestra’s animation and passion quickly had rivals in Janine Jansen’s solo violin and Maxim Rysanov’s viola.

What beautiful music this pair made: contrasting in timbre but never in their ensemble spirit. Jansen’s silvery, thinnish tone proved effortlessly expressive, even when her bow seemed in danger of playing her own hair. Rysanov’s warmer, rounder tones provided the perfect complement: who said the viola was shy and hesitant? Beauty’s high point was scaled in the slow movement, with Jansen dancing in quiet melancholy, light as a feather beside Rysanov’s firmer tread. Phrasing, intonation, emotional pitch: from every angle, this was a performance to treasure.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#72 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#72 Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100 Queen of the download’ Janine Jansen tells why give and take is at the heart of music-making

The Irish Times
by Arminta Wallace

It would be easy to be cynical about Janine Jansen. She arrives wrapped in one of those glossy “female classical violinist” packages which have been delivered so regularly in recent years. Sarah Chang, Vanessa-Mae, Nicola Benedetti – there’s a certain look at work here, and it has as much to do with the catwalk as the concert halls, more bare- shoulders-and-Botox than perfect-fifths-and-pizzicato. Check out the publicity shots for Jansen’s Vivaldi album to get the idea.

But the promotional video for her latest CD on Decca’s website shows the Dutch violinist talking about music with a contagious intensity, not to mention conjuring the quantum complexities of Benjamin Britten’s violin concerto into something so physical it almost sizzles your ears, her skin glowing, her ponytail flying. It’s hard to remain cynical in the face of such youth, vivacity and virtuosity – and when you look at Jansen’s programme for her recital at the National Concert Hall on Thursday, the plus points just keep on ratcheting upwards.

In contrast to those visiting celebrities who offer a slightly sticky bag of crowd-pleasing lollipops, she has opted for a muscular quartet of sonatas by Brahms, Bartok, Janacek and Beethoven. Why did she choose this particular programme?
“Well, of course,” she says, “that’s always the thing about making programmes: how does one make programmes?”

She has her own chamber music festival at home in the Netherlands, so she gets plenty of practice at this particular task.
“I’m more of an intuitive programmer than someone who thinks thematically,” she says. “I feel that these pieces – especially the Brahms and the Bartok in the first half – work very well together.”

Pianist Itamar Golan will be her partner at the NCH. “We’ve been playing together for about seven years,” she says, “ but although we’ve played all these pieces individually, we’ve never performed them in this particular combination. So, for us, it will be an experience – and exploration – also. Itamar is a very exciting musician. It’s great to have somebody next to you who is not only somebody that you can rely on, and is so flexible in making music, but also somebody that really challenges you. We both come with ideas. We both support each other. It’s a very equal partnership.”

For her, she adds, this idea of give and take is at the heart of worthwhile music-making. “For me, it actually doesn’t really matter so much if I play with a big orchestra, or if I play a recital, or in a small chamber music ensemble, because it’s the same way of playing. I mean, I want the same interaction. I want the same communication. And I definitely, always, also look for that when I play with a big symphony orchestra in a solo concerto. Without that communication, there’s not much point, I find.”

Jansen imbibed this open, dynamic approach to music with her breakfast cereal. She grew up in Soest, a town near the Dutch city of Utrecht. Her father is an organist, her mother a singer and choral director; her two older brothers are also musicians. Jansen took up the violin at six.
“When I started to play – just, like, open strings and the horrible scratchy sounds you make when you start – my father was playing wonderful tunes and harmonies under my scratching. Just to have a feeling like ‘we’re making music’. He has always, always been like that. Very supportive. Both of my parents have.”

There was no shortage of music in the Jansen household. “There were lots of rehearsals at home, and I would go to all the concerts that my father was giving. And also there were a lot of baroque influences, because my father is also a harpsichord player. So this has always been a big part of my life.”

She lives in Soest, and music is still a family affair chez Jansen. “Of course, when I’m home, we speak about all the things that have happened in our lives – and a lot of that is music,” she says. “We understand what each of us is doing, and how it is, and what the difficulties are. What the great things about it are.”

Another major influence on her musical life has been the veteran pianist, Menahem Pressler, founder of the now legendary Beaux Arts Trio. “Since I was a little girl I was completely crazy about him,” Jansen declares. “I met him when I was probably about 12 years old. My violin teacher sometimes organised masterclasses – usually, of course, with violinists – but this one time she invited Menahem Pressler to come. I played the Brahms third sonata for him, and it was incredible. He’s such a musician . . . I mean, every word he explains about music, it just makes sense. And you can see it when he’s playing. He never looks at his hands, or at the music. He’s always with his partners, and it’s quite amazing. In the Beaux Arts Trio, he’s the glue that binds everything together. So then when I got this scholarship I called him up and I asked if it’s possible to have lessons with him – and even to play with him. So, not to go with another pianist but to actually work with him. So we did. And this was, yeah, he is pure music.”

Having given her first concert at the age of 10, Jansen emerged from Utrecht Conservatory with formidable skills. One of her first conquests on the concert platform was conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, who proclaimed her the “young woman has everything”. She made her debut on the Decca label in 2003, but it was the following year, with the release of her Vivaldi recording, that she hit the headlines. The album became a hit in an unlikely quarter – iTunes – and gave fresh hope to the struggling classical record business, earning Jansen the title “queen of the download”.

Did her iTunes success come as a surprise? “Well, it did, because I didn’t know anything about iTunes back then,” she says. “The Vivaldi recording was one of the first classical albums that did well – apparently. But that’s quite a few years ago, and things have changed so much. iTunes has become – how should one say? – part of the music industry. And in a way, it’s great. It reaches out to a new audience. It’s easier for people to get in contact with it. But on the other hand, it’s also a shame that the classical music stores are gone, or going.”

It is, in fact, increasingly rare to find any kind of record shop. But this doesn’t truly affect the core of Jansen’s musical activity. “In Utrecht there’s still a little shop,” she says. “When I was studying, I would go there almost every day and look through the recordings, and listen. So times are changing, and it has both positive and, yeah, a few negative sides. I’m happy to be able to make recordings. But in the end, it’s about the live concerts.”

Speaking of changes, how does she feel about the “sex kitten” marketing of female violinists? Is the low-cut photo-shoot something she enjoys, or something she has to do? “Well, actually, both,” she says. “I enjoy it. It’s nice to put so much of your effort and time into making the recording look nice. But of course the whole photo business is such a small part of everything. I mean, it’s basically one or two days a year. But in between are many interviews, and . . .”
We journalists focus too closely on the photographs – is that what’s she telling me? “No, no, no! Well . . .” She laughs. “People talk about it – and I understand why they do. But I cannot say I really find it an interesting subject. And it’s a shame if that subject takes away from music. And what it’s really about.”

Janine Jansen performs as part of the Irish Times Celebrity Concert series at the NCH on Thursday

UNUSUAL TAKES: JANSEN ON RECORDING
It doesn’t hurt that she’s drop-dead gorgeous. It’s clear, however, that a shrewd choice of what to record – and how to record it – has contributed as much to Janine Jansen’s success as her radiant good looks. For the Vivaldi album which made waves on iTunes, she not only used an unusually small chamber reduction of the four famous concerti, she also had her father and brother playing on it.

She followed that with an unusual take on Bach. “I wanted to record a Bach CD, but I didn’t want it to be solo Bach,” she says. “A colleague told me that he was playing the two-voice inventions for viola and oboe, and I was, like, ‘what?’. How does that work? We got the piano score, and we sat together, and we tried, and we went ‘wow’. It’s amazing music, but hardly played on the concert stage. We enjoyed bringing out the different voices on three different instruments but, at the same time, making it sound as one.”

Meanwhile, her latest release, a pairing of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with Benjamin Britten’s, is earning her much praise. “This was my biggest dream, especially the Britten,” she says. “I love that piece. I’m so happy I had a chance to do it – and with a label which has the resources to promote it.”
Her next project will be an album of French repertoire with Itamar Golan, the pianist who will perform with her in Dublin. After that, who knows? “Probably a concerto. But there are so many great pieces of chamber music. Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, that’s one of my favourites; also a fantastic string octet by Enescu; the Korngold sextet.”

In other words, watch this – very svelte – space.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#70 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#70 Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100
Musici van het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest namen enkele weken geleden het initiatief voor een benefiet om de enorme kosten van de behandeling van de zieke Hannah Max te betalen, en zowel Janine Jansen als Yannick Nezet-Seguin zegden daaraan hun steun en medewerking toe. Inmiddels heeft verzekeraar IZA laten weten de kosten van de behandeling alsnog te zullen vergoeden. De opbrengst van het concert zal nu ten goede komen aan een organisatie die kinderen helpt met een gelijkwaardige ernstige aandoening.

Hannah Max is een Rotterdams meisje van 12 jaar oud, dochter van paukenist Randy Max en violiste Rachel Browne (beiden lid van het Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest). Hannah houdt van paarden. Wiskunde is haar lievelingsvak op school. En tragisch genoeg heeft ze ook een dodelijke vorm van kinderkanker. Hannah ondergaat in Amerika een nieuwe medische behandeling die haar levenskansen aanmerkelijk vergroot.

zaterdag 6 maart 2010
20.15 uur
De Doelen, Rotterdam

Kaarten à € 55,- zijn nog verkrijgbaar via: www.dedoelen.nl/concertgebouw
]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#71 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#71 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100 by Allan Kozzin

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Carnegie Hall with Mahler Symphony No. 3 on February 17 and Sibelius Violin Concerto (with Janine Jansen) and Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 on February 16

...
Mr. Jansons’s Mahler made the Sibelius and Rachmaninoff works on the Tuesday program seem like curtain raisers, although on their own those performances had considerable strengths. The Sibelius was puzzling: though the orchestra’s very first notes — the silvery, pianissimo string shimmer that opens the Violin Concerto — offered great promise, the ensemble seemed almost to disappear self-effacingly behind the soloist, Janine Jansen.

Soloists are always the focus in a concerto, of course, and Ms. Jansen was not playing in a vacuum. But the nuanced orchestral writing in this work is too good to be swept aside, as it was in all but a handful of passages here.

That said, Ms. Jansen wrested enough drama from Sibelius’s violin line to make up for the orchestra’s reticence. She animated the music with a fluid, subtle approach to dynamics and an organic sense of tempo. And she expanded her coloristic palette considerably as the work unfolded, moving seamlessly between sweet-toned lyricism, menacingly dark timbres and a gritty, textured sound that gave the solo line an unusual urgency and even, at times, fierceness. As an encore she collaborated with the orchestra’s concertmaster, Vesko Eschkenazy, on a movement from Prokofiev’s Sonata for Two Violins. ]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#67 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#67 Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100
de Volkskrant
door Guido van Oorschot

Het moest er een keer van komen: Janine Jansen, de leading lady van de Nederlandse klassieke muziek, slaat de handen ineen met Mariss Jansons, de Letse maestro die de kwaliteit van het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest bewaakt. Jansen and Jansons: volgende week stapt het duo op het vliegtuig naar Spanje en de VS.
Dit weekend tasten ze elkaar in Amsterdam alvast af. Jean Sibelius levert de noten, met een Vioolconcert dat ook het publiek in Madrid en New York zal kunnen dromen. Zij het, vermoedelijk, niet in een versie waarin de solist zo'n rijk scala aan draden spint, van zijdezacht tot wollig in de laagte, tot gestaald en glinsterend op de hoogste snaar.
Evenmin alledaags is de violiste die zo'n concert aangrijpt om eens fijn van gedachten te wisselen met al die voortreffelijke musici om haar heen. Even aanleunen tegen de klarinet. Kijken of je het op een akkoordje kunt gooien met de cello's. Met de dirigent een pianissimo uitdokteren dat de hoesters en proesters - ze worden steeds brutaler - met stomheid slaat.
Mariss en Janine: ze vinden elkaar in eerlijk musiceren. Daar steekt soms best bravoure in, al is die van het afgepaste soort. Ten minste, zo klonk het donderdagavond met Sibelius als broedende, naarbinnen gekeerde componist aan wie de speelsheid ontbrak. De expressie die Janine in haar Stradivarius zoch, kwam er soms ook liberaal geïntoneerd uit. Anderzijds glommen de verraderlijke fluittonen in het slotdeel perfect.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#68 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#68 Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100 Janine Jansen overrompelt

De Telegraaf
door Frederike Berntsen

Voor het eerst waren ze samen op het podium te zien: stervioliste Janine Jansen en topdirigent Mariss Jansons. De afgelopen dagen speelde Jansen bij het Concertgebouworkest het Vioolconcert van Sibelius. Het nostalgische werk vormde een fraaie combinatie met de al even weemoedige Tweede symfonie van Rachmaninov.

Jansen houdt het publiek volledig in haar ban. Hoe ze het doet? Haar handelsmerk is een vloeiend en bloeiend samengaan van subliem spel en een energieke lichaamstaal. In Sibelius' concert overrompelde ze met verhalende vioolkunst. Jansen liet flageoletten rondsluipen op de grens van iets en niets en dompelde virtuoze passages in donkere tinten. Nu eens was haar toon zachtmoedig, dan weer fors, nergens dweperig en altijd transparant.
Aan Jansons had ze een goede partner. Onder zijn leiding verzorgde het orkest een vitaal ademende en statige begeleiding met een onwaarschijnlijke veelheid aan dynamische contrasten. Zacht, zachter en zachtst maakten werelden van verschil en gaven de voorbijtrekkende nevels en het aardse gegrom telkens een andere kleur. De musici plooiden hun spel als een mantel om de soliste. Het applaus in het uitverkochte Amsterdamse Concertgebouw was dan ook royaal.]]> http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#69 http://www.janinejansen.com/newspressitems.php#69 Sat, 30 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100
Trouw
door Peter van de Lint

Wat een interessante combinatie composities had het Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest donderdagavond op de lessenaars staan. Het Vioolconcert van Jean Sibelius en de Tweede symfonie van Rachmaninov. Het concert van de Fin ontstond in 1902-1905, de symfonie van de Rus in 1906-1907. Muziek uit de twintigste eeuw dus, maar beide ver verwijderd van de moderniteiten die toen wijd en zijd opgeld deden. Hoewel zeer verschillend zijn ze beide über-romantisch te noemen.
Het Vioolconcert van Sibelius markeerde de allereerste samenwerking tussen chef-dirigent Mariss Jansons en de Nederlandse wereldster Janine Jansen. Kaarten waren al weken uitverkocht en op de komende etappeplaatsen Valencia, Madrid, Washington en New York zal het met de kaarten niet anders zijn. Jansen en Jansons zijn hot, zoveel is zeker.
Er werd met zekere spanning uitgekeken naar deze muzikale samenwerking. Hoe zouden de twee topmusici zich tot elkaar verhouden? Het antwoord op deze vraag was nogal verrassend te noemen. Zo verrassend dat Concertgebouwgangers donderdagavond wat in verwarring achterbleven, niet het achterste van hun tong lieten zien bij de toejuichingen na afloop, en er (dus) ook geen toegift van Janine Jansen kwam.
Ondanks de populariteit van Sibelius' concert blijft het na al die jaren nog steeds een grillig, bizar stuk muziek. Door vol in te zetten op die eigengereidheid van Sibelius' noten voerden Jansen en Jansons ons eendrachtig terug naar honderd jaar geleden toen deze muziek wel degelijk als heel modern werd ervaren.
Prachtig hoe beiden het allegro moderato van het eerste deel niet alleen van toepassing lieten zijn op de het tempo, maar ook op de dynamiek. Gemodereerde uitbarstingen dus, en niet de orkestrale kwakken die mindere dirigenten hier meestal bezingen. Je had voortdurend het gevoel dat de vlam in de pan moest slaan, maar de vraag bleef: wanneer? Alsof je in IJsland bij een geiser stond, niet weten wanneer die zijn heet water de lucht in zou spuiten.
Dat gebeurde pas na ruim een half uur in het exuberantere derde deel, maar zelfs daar hielden dirigent en violiste zich in. En dat was mooi. Dus geen hol vertoon of plat effectbejag in deze uitvoering. Jansen speelde met verstilde virtuositeit, etaleerde of epateerde nergens. Het maakte de uitvoering wel cerebraal en daar moet je van houden, maar Sibelius zelf kwam hoegenaamd niets te kort. Mooi om mee te maken hoe goed Jansen en Jansons zich verstonden en hoe ze samen diep groeven naar de schoonheid van dit concert.]]>