12 Stradivari Janine Jansen

• Manuel de Falla (1876 - 1946):
• 1 Falla: La vida breve: Danse Espagnole 03:41
• Josef Suk (1874 - 1935):
• 2 Suk: 6 Pieces, Op. 7: 1. Love Song (Arr. Kocián for Violin and Piano) 06:35
• Clara Schumann (1819 - 1896):
• 3 C. Schumann: 3 Romances, Op. 22: 1. Andante molto 03:07
• Robert Schumann (1810 - 1856):
• 4 Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73: 1. Zart und mit Ausdruck 03:06
• Henri Vieuxtemps (1820 - 1881):
• 5 Vieuxtemps: 3 Romances sans paroles, Op. 7: 2. Désespoir 02:36
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893):
• 6 Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, TH 5: Lensky's Aria (Arr. Auer for Violin and Piano) 06:23
• Karol Szymanowski (1882 - 1937):
• 7 Szymanowski: Mythes, Op. 30: 1. La fontaine d'Aréthuse 05:24
• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937):
• 8 Ravel: : Pièce en forme de Habanera, M. 51 (Arr. Catherine for Violin and Piano) 03:03
• Edward Elgar (1857 - 1934):
• 9 Elgar: Sospiri, Op. 70: Sospiri, Op. 70 (Arr. for Violin and Piano) 04:25
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 - 1943):
• 10 Rachmaninoff: Sonata in G Minor, Op. 19: III. Andante (Arr. for Violin and Piano) 05:50
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky:
• 11 Tchaikovsky: Souvenir d'un lieu cher, Op. 42: 3. Mélodie. Moderato con moto (Ed. Auer) 03:44
• Richard Heuberger (1850 - 1914):
• 12 Heuberger: Der Opernball: Midnight Bells (Arr. Kreisler for Violin and Piano) 03:15
• Fritz Kreisler (1875 - 1962):
• 13 Kreisler: : Syncopation 02:18
• 14 Kreisler: : Liebesleid 03:50
• Jerome Kern (1885 - 1945):
• 15 Kern: : Roberta: Yesterdays (Arr. for Violin and Piano) 02:24
• Total Runtime 59:41

Info for 12 Stradivari

An Extraordinary Recording: For the first time in history, 12 of the most wonderful violins ever made by the finest violin maker of all time, Antonio Stradivari (1644–1737), have travelled across the world for a ground-breaking new project with violin superstar Janine Jansen. The resulting album, 12 Stradivari, captures the individual characters of each instrument in specially-curated music accompanied by Sir Antonio Pappano at the piano.

These days Stradivari’s instruments can reach prices well over $20 million and some of the foundations and museums who own them let them out only on rare occasions. This is also why this recording is particularly special: some of these 12 Stradivari have not been played for many decades and, possibly, have never been commercially recorded before. Others belonged to legendary virtuosi including Fritz Kreisler, Nathan Milstein, Ida Haendel and Oscar Shumsky. Janine herself is widely considered to be one of the greatest violinists of our time, and this album is her first release with Decca in 6 years.

The project was devised by Steven Smith, Managing Director of the world’s pre-eminent violin dealers, J&A Beare. Having worked with Stradivari instruments his entire career he wanted to bring 12 of the very best violins together to show their brilliance and also their differences. He also wanted to record for posterity their sounds in one single, unique record and approached Janine and Decca for the extraordinary challenge. Steven Smith knew where in the world the 12 violins for this project were and who owned them. In spite of the numerous logistic challenges of aligning the schedules of all the owners and players at a time when travelling was at its most difficult, he was able to create a two-week period when all violins could be flown to London.

Janine says: “When Steven Smith approached me about this project, I knew it was a once in a lifetime opportunity! It was my chance to experience the magic of these famous instruments and to explore the differences between them, especially bearing in mind that some of them have not been played in many years. I was very fortunate to be able to share this experience with my wonderful collaborator Sir Antonio Pappano."

This unique project is brilliantly captured through an unmissable documentary named Janine Jansen: Falling for Stradivari. The film follows Janine’s unrepeatable experience of discovering each instrument’s individual qualities and immense capabilities. Her working relationship with Sir Antonio Pappano reveals the astounding energy, dedication and abundance of creativity needed to conquer such a formidable challenge. Directed by BAFTA-winning Gerry Fox, Falling for Stradivari will be released in September.

Janine’s recording debut in 2003 achieved epic success within the initial rise of digital sales, and to date she has 850k units sold with Decca and over 100 million streams. She has won numerous prizes, including the Herbert-von-Karajan Preis 2020, the Vermeer Prize 2018 awarded by the Dutch government, five Edison Klassiek Awards, NDR Musikpreis for outstanding artistic achievement, the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs for individual achievement, Bremen MusikFest Award, the Concertgebouw Prize and the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award, to name just a few.

Janine Jansen, violin
Antonio Pappano, 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.

This album contains no booklet.