Janine Jansen - Vivaldi: The Four Seasons (2004) [SACD]

‘Music is, just like nature, surprising, inexhaustible, endless and breathtaking. It is by far my largest source of inspiration.' So says Janine Jansen, the brilliant young Dutch violinist. ‘For me making music is a way to express my feelings and that is why I approach every piece as freshly and spontaneously as possible. While trying to be faithful to each score, emotion and passion are very important to me in a performance. Technique has to be there, of course, but it should never be the main thing. I have always felt that a concert performed with deep engagement of the artist, even with some risk, and a wrong note played but with the right intention, is much to be preferred than the right note performed with no soul.'

There's not much chance of soul lacking in a Janine Jansen performance, however. After she performed the Tchaikovsky Concerto with conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, he said, ‘I think she is one of the most wonderful and harmonious talents I have come across in the last couple of decades. In my opinion this young woman has everything - complete mastery of the instrument, warmth and understanding, and an uninhibited power of communication.' And in The Guardian Tom Service wrote of the same performance, ‘Her complete command of the technical difficulties of the score was matched by her musical insight.'

This recording took place in Amsterdam in June 2004 at the Beurs van Berlage hall, a venue with special associations for Jansen. ‘I used to play there when I was studying at the Conservatory of Utrecht,' she says. ‘So I really knew the acoustic of the hall well.' The recording sessions were also a lot of fun. ‘Of course I thought long and hard about getting the right people to play in such a small ensemble, since I knew it had to be the right mix. The result is a superb group of players that includes my brother Maarten on the cello, and my father Jan on harpsichord. The recording itself was very intense, but very enjoyable too.'

Had she listened to a lot of recordings of The Four Seasons? ‘Yes, but I haven't listened to anything for quite a while. I wanted to approach the piece with a clean slate, and not be too influenced by other people.' And was she worried about tackling one of the most often-recorded pieces of music on the planet? ‘No, not really. If you start worrying about that, and what other people are doing, then it stops being music. I'm so grateful to be given the chance to record this wonderful piece.'

Perhaps unsurprisingly for someone who has pared her Vivaldi orchestra down to solo string textures, chamber music plays an important role in Jansen's life. ‘It's such a big part of what I love,' she says, ‘and such a big part of my life.' In December 2003 she decided to set up her own international chamber music festival, a four-day affair in between Christmas and New Year, in Utrecht. She attracted musicians like cellist Mischa Maisky, pianist Itamar Golan and violinist Julian Rachlin (who plays viola on this Vivaldi recording). The whole festival was an enormous success, and there are plans to make it an annual event.
‘I believe Janine Jansen will soon be important on an international level,' said Valery Gergiev in 2003 after conducting a concerto performance by Jansen. It seems his prophecy has come true sooner than even he could have expected.