Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Janine Jansen

Track Listings

1. Concerto No.1 La Primavera (Spring) Rv269

2. Concerto No.2 L'estate (Summer) Rv315

3. Concerto No.3 L'autunno (Autumm) Rv293

4. Concerto No.4 L'inverno (Winter) Rv297

Editorial Reviews
Album Details
Janine Jansen Follows her First Decca Album of Violin Favorites with this High-energy Account of Vivaldi's Four Violin Concertos, Known and Loved as 'the Four Seasons'. The Dutch Violinist Leads her Specially Selected Group of Soloists in a Fresh Look at the Most Loved of all Classical Works. What Gives this Recording Its Tremendous Freshness and Sparkle is Janine's Use of Just One Player Per Part. Gone is the Heavy Orchestral Sound which is So Familiar, this is a Four Seasons which Sparkles with New Life and Energy, Like a Freshly Cleaned Old Painting Revealed in Its True Colors.

Tracks:

Allegro
Largo
Allegro
Allegro Non Molto
Adagio/Presto
Presto
Allegro
Adagio Molto
Allegro
Allegro Non Molto
Largo
Allegro

Customer Reviews:

A good recording, but lacks a little presence.......2007-07-16

Almost anything sounds great in SACD and this performance is no exception, but if you're used to a 100 piece orchestra strumming violins to this score, you might be slighly disappointed. If you are looking for a different take on the four seasons and would appreciate the distinctive sound of a just a few instruments, this is for you

Accessible and enjoyable Vivaldi.......2006-03-19

Vivaldi is practically as synonymous with virtuosic violin arrangements as McDonalds is with fat. Practically. Janine Jansen's arrangements for Vivaldi's Four Seasons is stark, graceful, and engaging- she assigns only one musician per part. The sometimes overwhleming grandeur of fully orchestrated arrangements is appreciatively mellowed, allowing the ear to really hear each musician and their expected "virtuosic" and precise talent. Though mellowed to nearly Starbucks ambiance, the arrangements manage to retain the energy and excitement of Vivaldi in a fresh and accessible new form.

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Janine Jansen

Average customer rating:

A wonderful revelation
OOOO-WEEEEE!
Good work, sensitive playing but shortcomings galore
It's OK I suppose --- if you like Romantic Era chamber music
Vivaldi in the computer-age

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons - Janine Jansen
Janine Jansen , and Antonio Vivaldi (Composer)
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Classical | Styles | Music

General | Chamber Music | Classical | Styles | Music

The Decca Records Store | Specialty Stores | Music
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ASIN: B0007ZIYM4
Release Date: 2005-10-11

Tracks:

Concerto No.1 La Primavera (Spring) Rv269
Concerto No.2 L'estate (Summer) Rv315
Concerto No.3 L'autunno (Autumm) Rv293
Concerto No.4 L'inverno (Winter) Rv297

Album Details

Janine Jansen Follows her First Decca Album of Violin Favorites with this High-energy Account of Vivaldi's Four Violin Concertos, Known and Loved as 'the Four Seasons'. The Dutch Violinist Leads her Specially Selected Group of Soloists in a Fresh Look at the Most Loved of all Classical Works. What Gives this Recording Its Tremendous Freshness and Sparkle is Janine's Use of Just One Player Per Part. Gone is the Heavy Orchestral Sound which is So Familiar, this is a Four Seasons which Sparkles with New Life and Energy, Like a Freshly Cleaned Old Painting Revealed in Its True Colors.

Customer Reviews:

A wonderful revelation.......2006-07-01

This performance is like hearing what you thought was a familiar piece for the first time. The clarity provided by having one instrument per part is enlightening. And the performances are outstanding. Highly recommended for any Four Seasons lover.

OOOO-WEEEEE!.......2006-06-03

The Janine Jansen recording of that old Vivaldi standard "The Four Seasons" (which itself is bordering on being hackneyed through over-use) just arrived. As one review I read somewhere noted, it is indeed probably not for most folks. Only eight instruments are used: 2 violins (Jansen plays a Strad.), viola, cello, double bass, box organ, theorbo(!!), and harpsichord.
This one DEMANDS that you pay attention to it; it is absolutely chock-full of subtlety and nuance that the casual listener would probably fail to appreciate, if not find downright grating in places. If you seek background music for your garden party, there are dozens of excellent recordings of this work that fit that bill.

I've heard things in the score I've never heard in other recordings, even discounting a bit of improvisational embellishment. The excessive voluptuousness of full string orchestra often mooshes everything out into an easily digestible pablum for public consumption.

She handles both serene and frenetic passages with the ability one would expect from the temporary custodian of a Stradivarius. Her tempi (and transitions) are often surprising, as are the dynamics. There are times when one feels the instruments are being pushed right to their limits, (occasionally sounding like it verges on instrument abuse) thus generating tonal qualities seldom heard in this piece. I am mightily impressed.

Good work, sensitive playing but shortcomings galore.......2006-05-25

Janine Jansen is a young Hollander that's making a name for herself beyond the shores of her native land. This CD of Vivaldi's chestnut, "Four Seasons", is helping build her international reputation.

Jansen is a young woman that plays a 1727 Stradivarius and that fact alone has set a lot of musicologists atwitter. She plays with a senstivity and syle in keeping with the way performers do the "Four Seasons" today. Jansen is abetted here by a band of seven -- two violins, viola, cello, double bass, theorbo and either harpsichord of box organ (played by one Jan Jansen, probably a relative but not identified in the notes or at Ms. Jansen's Web site.) This octet performance eschewing the full string band also set some critics atwitter.

Musically, these performances are warm, virtuosic and mainstream with a few touches that show the players and soloist have something to say about the music. Note Janine's free use of rubato in the opening of "Spring" and her free portamento in its second movement. Right away the listener knows this group has an idea about the music. Janine closes "Spring" with phrasing beginning with sforzando and going from PP to FF in a matter of notes or bars. Her tendency to close movements quietly and peacefully begins here, also.

From the beginning the soloist and group are aided by a recorded sound that is deep, clear and natural with orchestral depth and definition. This is DDD but not SACD although it sounds close to the latter.

While the first two were also well done, I thought the closing pair of concertos were the better ones on the CD. "Autumn" has a notable stream of consciousness approach in its adagio molto with the solo violin and harpsichord obligato sharing the spotlight. The concluding "Winter" concerto begins high exqiusite techinque by the soloist and fury from everyone. Its following largo is a lot like a Mravinsky largo (more like allegro) and the concluding allegro offers an exhibition of counterpoint between the soloist and cellist. Again, each concerto concludes quietly and peacefully.

Musically, I thought this performance was interesting and it is certainly well-recorded. However, since that performance way back when by steel-fingered I Musici, the bar has been set impossibly high on recordings of this music. Anything that's going to come along in 2006 and compete must have a great deal going for it musically, must have some extramusical interest, and, perhaps most important, must have something on the recording to keep us interested beyong the warhourse quartet of concertos.

While the musical values of this recording are good and the recording is exceptional, it fails to meet any of the other criteria. Any full price CD in the new century (this one has a list price of $18 even though BMG is marketing it for $14) must have more than the puny 40 minutes here dedicated to the "Four Seasons." With a capacity for 80 minutes on a CD, London has left half the loaf unbaked but is asking you to pay for the whole thing.

Extramusically, this recording has little else going for it. The notes are not enthralling. They don't tell you how old is Ms. Jansen or whom is Jan Jansen. You get three paragraphs about the music and a half-dozen artful gold-laced photos of the soloist with not a single word about any of the other performers.

I think this CD is probably directed to crossover listeners with money to burn and no interest in any of these things. It is good musicmaking inside but otherwise doesn't hold much interest for serious collectors or those that want to know more about this warhorse set of concertos or the players. A nice notch in the bedpost, then, for Ms. Jansen but nothing special otherwise.

It's OK I suppose --- if you like Romantic Era chamber music.......2006-05-12

In the interest of full disclosure, I can't say that the chances are good that I would be thrilled by ANY new recording of The Four Seasons. It would seem that the previous 8 billion recordings of this warhouse would have explored just about anything possible in what Vivaldi wrote. Nor, I must confess, am I much of a fan of Vivaldi in the first place.

Still, I found the stripped down ensemble on this recording to be fairly effective, and Janine Jansen certainly does have a lovely tone. This recording is a pleasant enough confection.

However, any similarities to Baroque music are purely coincidental, because Jansen seems to embrace the 19th-century approach towards playing Baroque music. From the occasional slurpy shifts and rubato run amok, after a certain point this begins to sound like chamber music from the late Romantic period. When it does sound Baroque, it reminds me more of the French Baroque of Leclair than it does of Vivaldi.

In any case, this clearly is a "eye of the beholder" situation. It certainly isn't an ugly recording, by any means. However, if you are wanting something that actually sounds Baroque, you might want to take a pass on this.

Vivaldi in the computer-age.......2006-04-17

As Vivaldi's 'the four seasons' doesn't need any introduction, the value of this CD must be judged by the way its music is performed.

This is done by Janine Jansen (born in Holland, 1978), in an attractive today's youngster-style. As Janine explains in the accompanying booklet, she selects her musicians in the smallest number possible. By doing so she is sharply aware that their style harmonizes with the way she herself plays her Stradivarius-violin.

By emphasizing on basics in this way, Janine allows every musician a great deal of freedom in how to play his or her instrument. The overall result is a remarkably transparant & lively interpretation of Vivaldi's 'the four seasons'.

In December 2003 I attended Janine Jansen's performance of Vivaldi's 'seasons' in the Dutch town of Utrecht. This CD sounds as an exact copy of what I heard then.

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1. Concerto No.1 La Primavera (Spring) Rv269
2. Concerto No.2 L'estate (Summer) Rv315
3. Concerto No.3 L'autunno (Autumm) Rv293
4. Concerto No.4 L'inverno (Winter) Rv297