In the wake of Pavel Vernikov
These links have been significantly strengthened over the past five years, thanks to her appointment in 2019 as professor at the Haute école de musique de Lausanne (HEMU), Sion site, on the recommendation of her friend Pavel Vernikov – with whom she also shares since this summer the artistic direction of the Sion Festival! “Although I was a little afraid to take the plunge – due to a very busy schedule – I do not regret my decision in the least: this activity gives me an unsuspected balance and the contact with the students enriches substantially my repertoire.” Their profile? “They are curious young people, who work very hard every day… and I think they have no choice but to be that way, because music is a love story, a perpetual quest, a total investment for the public, who expect you to speak to them in the language of emotion and to them alone – otherwise what’s the point?”
The first Mendelssohn with dad
How does Janine Jansen manage to convey this emotion through a concerto like that of Mendelssohn, which she has played (not to say “worn out”) dozens of times? “They are two sides of the same coin. On the one hand, it would be absurd to dare to claim to be capable of showing the same freshness as on the first day when faced with a score that has been with you for more than thirty years. After those of Bach and Mozart, this Concerto in E is in fact the first ‘grand’ that I played in public: it was under the direction of my father, in the very (too?) generous acoustics of Saint-Martin’s Cathedral in Utrecht, where he officiates as organist. On the other hand, constantly putting him back on the job with other conductors allows him to refine his perception of the text, of the music, to see unsuspected aspects of the score revealed, while maintaining this imperative in the foreground. energy, transparency, lyricism, essential to its fair interpretation.”
After those of Bach and Mozart, this Concerto in E is in fact the first ‘big’ one that I played in public.
Play, teach… and program!
Projects? Dreams? “There always are! But this pressure that we are subjected to by constantly having to project ourselves two to three years ahead, beyond the ‘luxury’ that this represents in terms of security, also has something terrifying: a musician must not not above all to be here in the moment when he transmits his art? I still have a lot of territories left to explore, to record: the Second Concerto by Bartók, the complete Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin by Bach. I also like to develop, year after year, the programs of the chamber music festival that I founded in 2003 in Utrecht: it is a repertoire dear to my heart, and I appreciate this programming work. When will there be a Janine Jansen residency in Gstaad?
16.8 Gstaad Festival Orchestra & Jaap van Zweden
Mendelssohn: Concerto in E minor
Bruckner: Symphony No. 7
gstaadmenuhinfestival.ch
68th edition from July 12 to August 31, 2024
