Janine Jansen plays Prokofiev
Janine Jansen has been a top-performing artist since her debut recording in 2004. A major star in Europe, especially the Netherlands, Jansen has frequently topped the classical charts. Ms. Jansen is also one of my very favorite violinists.
For this release, Jansen is accompanied in the concerto by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under its Russian-born Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski. When she played the work with the LPO in London as part of its 2012 “Prokofiev: Man of the People” festival, The Times hailed her as “a violinist who is right now on matchless form … a player that you follow wherever she leads”
Prokofiev:
- Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski
- Sonata for Two Violins in C Major, Op. 56
with Boris Brovtsyn (violin)
- Violin Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 80
Itamar Golan (piano)
Performed by Janine Jansen (violin)
Composed in the mid1930s, Prokofiev’s much-loved Violin Concerto No.2 boasts the same accessible tunefulness and emotional directness as his popular ballet Romeo and Juliet, whose love music is ravishingly recalled in the soaring, song-like lyricism of the concerto’s slow central movement.
For contrast the concerto is coupled with two chamber works conceived in the same decade: the stark yet expressive Sonata for Two Violins (1932) and the darkly tragic Violin Sonata No.1 (1938–46), which constitutes the composer’s covert memorial to those many friends and colleagues lost during the World War.
The Times wrote on the 5th of October, 2012:
“her silvery tone and searching musicianship ensure maximum intelligence and beauty…[Golan and Brovtsyn] play with Jansen as if joined at the hip. Whether the music’s fiery or delicate, this superb disc, gorgeously recorded, should give lasting pleasure.”
Here is Janine Jansen in Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 63 in G-minor
And next, here is Ms. Jansen talking about music:
Tags: Janine Jansen, Prokofiev, violin concerto #2