Janine Jansen!
I was “Blown away” this morning when I happened to tune in to the San Francisco music channel and I saw/heard Janine Jansen perform the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso by Saint- Saens. I was just delighted: What a musical, lyrical and passionate performance that was! It was particularly effective because I noticed that Ms. Jansen’s entire body swayed with the music and breathed this music as she performed. For me this was not just for show; It telegraphed the performer’s feeling about this music!
Yes… this is a “war-horse” in the violin performance repertoire. However, it needs to be played in such a way that the listener is engaged in the passion, and Jansen made that happen for me.
Janine Jansen was born on January 7, 1978 in the Netherlands. She began to study the violin at age 6. She appeared as soloist with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in 2001, where she performed the Brahms Violin Concerto. She opened the BBC Proms in 2005. In live concerts, she has received standing ovations from enthusiastic audiences, such as in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 2006 concert in Berlin’s Waldbühne Amphitheater, with a full attendance of 25,000, and in Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008 to a sold out audience.
Jansen’s violin is the famous “Barrere” Stradivarius, created by the master in Cremona in 1727. Seven years ago, the instrument was acquired for her by the Elise Mathilde Foundation of Holland.
Here is the video of the Saint – Saens that I mentioned at the beginning of this Post.
Did you like that? OK… here’s an encore: Haendel, Passacaille, Suite Nº 7 HWV 432