Czech Chamber Music Society • Janine Jansen

César Franck (1822–1890), a composer of German Belgian origin, lived in Paris from his youth and was known for many years primarily as a church musician and organist in several churches there, especially at St. Clotilde, and as the professor of organ and improvisation at the conservatoire. It was not widely known that besides writing music for organ, harmonium, and piano, he was composing orchestral works, operas, oratorios, and chamber music. Only during the last two decades of his life did he win recognition (Legion of Honour, president of the Société Nationale de Musique) as well as the respect of the general public for some of his late works. After the premiere of his Violin Sonata in A major, the critic Ernest Reyer remarked: “It’s not a sonata, but it’s fiendishly beautiful.” The year was 1886, the piece was a hot new sensation and doubly pleasing: Franck had dedicated it to his friend, the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, as a wedding gift.

The cyclical Sonata in A major offers a rare balance of the tradition of classical forms, the chromatic harmony of Late Romanticism, contrapuntal erudition, and songful melody. The main theme of the first movement also appears in a variety of transformations in the other movements as the work’s “motto”. An opening prologue is followed by a contrasting second movement and a lyrical third. The final movement captivates us both for its canonic voice leading and its melodiousness. The unusual difficulty of the piano part reveals how skilled an organist (and pianist) César Franck was. Thanks to its compositional mastery, its warmth of expression, and the composer’s peculiar wisdom that an attentive listener senses in the music, the Sonata in A major has become one of the most popular compositions of its genre.

Born to a musical family in the Netherlands, she was introduced to music at an early age by her parents who were professional musicians. She sang in a church choir, and at the age of six she began playing the violin under the tutelage of the famed pedagogue Coosje Wijzenbeek. She was then able to make music with her father and her brothers. She witnessed rehearsals of early music ensembles, and she was herself playing with a Baroque bow at one time, but ultimately she decided to go down the “traditional” path and to honour historically informed interpretation in a different way, for example by her phrasing. She studied under Philipp Hirschhorn and Boris Belkin, and after her debut at Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw, she launched her international career. In 2003 she began recording for the Decca Classics label, winning acclaim for her recording of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, made with a chamber ensemble including her father and brother.

Today, she is collaborating regularly with the world’s top orchestras like the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. As the Artist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic for the 2025/2026 season, she has appeared with Kirill Petrenko and Sir Simon Rattle as well as on chamber music programmes.

Artistic partnerships in chamber music are important to Janine Jansen—she works closely with the pianists Denis Kozhukhin and Suwook Kim, and she plays in an established trio with Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky. In 2003 she established the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, which has continued for more than 20 seasons. Since November 2023, she has been the professor of violin at the prestigious academy in Kronberg. With Sir Antonio Pappano at the piano, she recorded an album titled 12 Stradivari, selecting compositions for the twelve rare violins to bring out the unique voice of each instrument. This meant that Kreisler’s Liebesleid, for example, could be played on a violin that once belonged to the composer himself. To mark the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death, Janine Jansen is curating a Beethoven festival at the Concertgebouw, at which she will perform all of his violin sonatas.

She has been collaborating with the Czech Philharmonic since 2007, when she made her debut with the orchestra in Heidelberg, Kiel, and Hamburg. In 2016 she played Bruch’s First Violin Concerto in Prague with Semyon Bychkov, and at the Velvet Revolution Concert in November 2023, she performed Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor under the baton of Sir Antonio Pappano. Her appointment as Artist-in-Residence for the 2026/2027 season will mark another chapter in this long-standing partnership.

Janine Jansen plays the “Shumsky-Rode” violin made by Antonio Stradivari in 1715.