Prokofiev: Works for Violin Janine Jansen

• Violin Concerto No.2 in G minor, Op.63
• 11. Allegro moderato10:51
• 22. Andante assai09:47
• 33. Allegro, ben marcato06:24
• Sonata in C major for 2 Violins, Op.56
• 41. Andante cantabile02:51
• 52. Allegro03:16
• 63. Commodo (quasi allegretto)04:29
• 74. Allegro con brio05:53
• Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in F minor, Op.80
• 81. Andante assai07:20
• 92. Allegro brusco07:03
• 103. Andante07:41
• 114. Allegrissimo07:22
• Total Runtime01:12:57

Info for Prokofiev: Works for Violin

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”

Janine Jansen has been a top-selling artist since her debut recording in 2004 for Decca sold 300,000 records. A major star in Europe, especially the Netherlands, Jansen has frequently topped the classical charts and featured in the pop charts.

Composed in the mid1930s, on the eve of his return to the USSR, Prokofiev’s much-loved Violin Concerto No.2 boasts the same accessible tunefulness and emotional directness as his enduringly popular ballet Romeo and Juliet, whose love music is ravishingly recalled in the soaring, songlike 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 Stalin’s Great Terror and the subsequent World War.

". . . her silvery tone and searching musicianship ensure maximum intelligence and beauty . . . simple, unaffected magic . . . [Concerto]: splendidly played by a soloist in happy harness with the London Philharmonic and Vladimir Jurowski, a conductor who understands Prokofiev's changing moods better than most . . . equally gripping accounts of the Sonata for Two Violins of 1932 and the dark and worried Sonata for Violin and Piano . . . Itamar Golan (piano) and Boris Brovtsyn (violin) 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. (Geoff Brown, The Times London)

Janine Jansen, violin
London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor

Additional musicians:

Boris Brovtsyn, violin
Amihai Grosz, viola
Thorleif Thedéen, cello
Jens Peter Maintz, cello

Itamar Golan, piano



Janine Jansen
is internationally recognised as one of the great violinists and a truly exciting and versatile artist. Her London debut in November 2002, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, was quickly followed by invitations from some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony and Mahler Chamber orchestras, as well as the Chicago Symphony, The Philadelphia, Cleveland and NHK Symphony orchestras. She has worked with such eminent conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Neeme and Paavo Järvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Edo de Waart, Gustavo Dudamel and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Jansen has an exclusive recording contract with Decca (Universal Music). Her most recent release is a French recital disc entitled Beau Soir with pianist Itamar Golan. Each one of her previous five albums has been awarded a Platinum Disc for sales in The Netherlands. Renowned for her success on iTunes, her recordings have reached number one on the digital charts on a number of occasions.

Highlights of the 2010/11 season include performances with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Symphony orchestras and the Orchestre de Paris. Janine Jansen will be touring this season with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. She also toured Japan with Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. In the 2009/10 season Janine Jansen curated her own ‘Carte Blanche’ series at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and this year is Artist-in-Residence for the hr-Sinfonieorchester, which includes a number of projects as well as a European Tour.

In addition to her concerto performances, Janine is a devoted performer of chamber music and is performing a number of recitals featuring the music from her latest album with Itamar Golan; cities include Paris, London, Dortmund, Brussels and Frankfurt. She established and curates the annual International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht, and since 1998 she has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin, an important chamber music series in the Berlin Philharmonie. Her chamber partners include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Mischa Maisky, Julian Rachlin, Itamar Golan, Martin Fröst, Khatia Buniatishvili, Leif Ove Andsnes and Torleif Thedéen.

A former BBC New Generation Artist, Janine studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn and Boris Belkin. In September 2003, Janine received the Dutch Music Prize from the Ministry of Culture – the highest distinction an artist can receive in The Netherlands. She has received numerous other awards including the Edison Klassiek Public Award three times, three Echo awards for her Vivaldi recording in 2006, her Mendelssohn/Bruch album in 2007 and her Beethoven & Britten Violin Concertos disc in 2010, which was awarded top prize in the Concerto Recording of the Year category (for 20th and 21st Century music), as well as the NDR Musikpreis for outstanding artistic achievement in 2007. In 2008 she was given the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs for individual achievement, in May 2009 she received the RPS Instrumentalist Award for performances in the UK and in February 2010 an Edison Award followed for her Beethoven/Britten CD, in the “Concerts” category. In the same month the recording also won a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Booklet for Prokofiev: Works for Violin