This intriguing album is the brainchild of Steven Smith, Managing Director of J & A Beare, one of the world’s pre-eminent violin dealers. His idea was to bring 12 Stradivari, located throughout the world, to London for two weeks, during which this recording and a documentary were made, to showcase the brilliance and differences between the instruments. Smith’s invitation to violinist Janine Jansen to participate was quickly accepted, and the documentary is also scheduled to debut in the next few weeks.
Making this happen during normal times would be extraordinarily challenging. Many of the foundations, museums and private owners have never allowed these instruments to travel before. The liner notes (which I wish spent more print on discussions of the music) suggest that a few of the instruments have not been played for decades. Others have never been commercially recorded. Yet Smith made it happen, despite several of the home countries being in Covid lockdown. This backstory undoubtedly inspired Jansen and Pappano because their performances are uniformly thrilling.
The program opens with a fiery reading of the Spanish dance from Falla’s “La vida breve.” Jansen, well partnered by Pappano, exults in the music’s technical fireworks. She brings vibrantly lush colors to the Tchaikovsky selections, while her performance of a transcription of the slow movement from Rachmaninoff’s “Cello Sonata” extracts the music’s brooding melancholy. In Ravel’s “Pièce en forme de Habanera” (track 8) there is a perfect balance of fire and ice, whereas the reading of Clara Schumann’s “Romance” (track 3) has an especially touching poignancy.
Related Classical Music Reviews
- Review: “City Lights” – Lisa Batiashvili, Violin
- Review: “Paris” – Hilary Hahn, Violin
- Review: Beethoven – Violin Concerto, Romances – Midori
Another highpoint is Elgar’s “Sospiri” (track 9) which might be more familiar to some listeners in the composer’s string orchestra version. Played by a full complement of strings, the music’s pain has a more universal and objective quality, but here Jansen and Pappano make the grief tangible and personal. Drawing a wide range of colors and weight from the instrument (and fully matched by the piano), Jansen builds to a agonizing cry of pain at 1’53”, before turning inward, her tone whittled down to almost nothing to convey a mood one of desperate fragility.
How much the success of these performances is due to the instruments themselves is for the individual listener to decide. Surely Jansen felt like a kid in a candy store, thrilled to taste all the best candies. Her readings have a freshness and excitement that suggest as much. But while there is an undeniable frisson in hearing Kreisler’s “Syncopation” and “Liebesleid” (tracks 13 and 14) performed on the instrument he played, it is surely even more what Jansen and Pappano bring to these performances that makes them so moving. A unique and intriguing project, to stimulate the mind and gladden the heart.
12 Stradivari
Janine Jansen – Violin
Antonio Pappano – Piano
Decca Classics, CD 4851605
Related Albums
Read more classical music reviews or visit The Classic Review Amazon store
Follow Us and Comment:
Get our periodic classical music newsletter with our recent reviews, news and beginners guides.
We respect your privacy.
