Janine Jansen

“Her completely relaxed interpretation of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, more lyric than dramatic, created an amazing spectrum of sound.  It was, overall, a delicate performance with well-calculated emotional high points.” (Harald Budweg, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 2013)

“Janine Jansen’s dazzling performance of Prokofiev’s second violin concerto is a sensational start to a thoughtfully planned disc.”  ***** (five stars). (Michael Kennedy, The Sunday Telegraph, January 2013)

"With Jansen, there seems to be no such thing as a technical difficulty. Her legato (so crucial to this dreamy piece) was out of this world. Her sure-footedness high up on the E string (where so much of the work lies) was a marvel." (The Arts Desk, September 2012)

 “Jansen’s silvery tone and searching musicianship ensure maximum intelligence and beauty. Simple, unaffected magic…Jansen takes the gold.” (Geoff Brown, The Times, September 2012)

“This was a performance to last long years in the mind” (Martin Kettle, The Guardian, May 2012)

“Jansen responds beautifully…  Brahms would have hugged her.” (Jack Buckley, Seen and Heard, March 2012)

“Jansen, minutely attuned to every resinous contribution from the orchestra, played it on the edge, its wisps of melody amplified into elegiac fervour, as if every phrase was just about to drain away into nothingness” (Neil Fisher, The Times, February 2012)

"This was the very best of Jansen: her performance was a tour de force not only of technical prowess, but of a highly stimulated and fiery imagination. She, Vänskä and the players worked at fever pitch; she probing the darkest and deepest corners of every phrase, and they fired up by Vänskä to touch every nerve and respond to every step in her vividly choreographed performance." (The Times, November 2011)

"This was a stunning display of sustained intensity. What can seem a sprawling, indulgent work took on an uncommon tautness, and the seams where Tchaikovsky stitches his melodies together didn't show one bit. Jansen's playing was full of personality – and, under Osmo Vänskä's meticulous direction, the orchestra matched her at every step, from the soft-grained string opening, through the whispered slow-movement accompaniments, to the colourful wind solos in the finale. (The Guardian, November 2011)

"...But the orchestra’s neat colours faded away under the burning torrents of notes emanating from Janine Jansen’s violin. Looming above the orchestra like the Shard at London Bridge, Jansen made us her devoted slaves right from her curling opening phrases and her gorgeously hushed treatment of Tchaikovsky’s main theme. Is there any violinist extant with a more ravishing pianissimo, who lets the notes sing with such flowing magic and sunshine caress? Not on Wednesday night, anyway. (The Arts Desk, November 2011)

"Jansen’s commandingly beautiful tone dignifies everything she plays" (The Independent, April 2011)

Passionate but precise, always at the music’s service, Jansen showered us with her superlative art. Dark sorrowing sighs; cadenza virtuosity; mincing mockery: every effect and emotion required was hit in the bull’s eye. The audience sat spellbound. (The Times, April 2011)