Janine's Bach Festival
'Bach is the highest mountain peak'
Bach's music is perfect, thinks Janine Jansen. During Janine's Bach Festival, the violinist fills four evenings with the composer she has carried with her all her life.
'I came to maturity with Bach in my singing mother's womb. My father, Jan Jansen, was organist of the Utrecht Cathedral, where my maternal grandfather was also cantor. As a little girl, I went with my father when he played Saturday afternoon concerts, which is how I got to know the organ and choral works. Sometimes I sang along in the church choir, or played in the orchestra with my brothers. My mother, Christine Kooij, is a soprano. She did not choose a professional career like my uncle Peter Kooij who is a well-known Bach singer. But when I married Swedish cellist and conductor Daniel Blendulf in 2012, she sang. Bach, of course, along with the rest of the family.'
With Bach, you spend your whole life
'With Bach you spend your whole life. His music is perfect, everything is right, down to the smallest detail. You don't see that anywhere else, except in nature. I love the Swiss mountains, I used to go there as a child. These days I live there and teach at the conservatoire in Sion. Maybe that's why I compare Bach to the highest mountain peak. Every smaller mountain peak brings you closer to that summit, to perfection. But the summit itself, that is unattainable; I am not a climber. And maybe that summit should also remain unattainable, and elusive. Something to dream and fantasise about, to find inspiration in.'
From my father I learned a lot about Bach
'From my father I learned a lot about Bach. I used to play the sonatas for violin and harpsichord with him at home, among other Baroque repertoire. And even now we still do that with some regularity. I am very happy that he is joining us for the opening night in the Recital Hall, together with my husband Daniel on cello and viola player Timothy Ridout. With Daniel and Timothy, I will play the Goldberg Variations a day later in the Main Hall, in Dmitry Sitkovetsky's arrangement for three strings.'
'Conductor Iván Fischer put together a new passion for the Budapest Festival Orchestra, including parts of Bach's St Matthew Passion alongside works by himself and traditional music. I will give a small guest performance that evening.'
Janine Jansen and Amsterdam Sinfonietta in the Main Hall © Eduardus Lee
'During the final concert, I will play Bach concertos with Amsterdam Sinfonietta. The cooperation with the string orchestra and violinist and artistic director Candida Thompson has been going on for about 20 years, we know each other through and through. Working with them is always a joy. There is a lot of room for experimentation, some ideas arise on stage. The mutual trust forms the basis for making music freely.'
There is no such thing as the ultimate performance. It's a quest that never ends
'The ultimate performance doesn't exist. It is a quest that never ends. That applies to all composers, but to Bach in particular. You constantly develop as a person. A new instrument, for instance, can be very decisive. For a few years now, I have been playing the 1715 Shumsky-Rode-Stradivarius, a violin with enormous depth. Suddenly, things sound different. It inspires me to discover new timbres.'
I feel a strong connection with the history of The Concertgebouw, with its acoustics
'The Concertgebouw is like coming home for me. I feel a strong connection with the history of the place, with the acoustics. It creates a velvet edge around every tone. Whether you play with a large orchestra or, as now with Bach, a small ensemble, it works. The enormous hall suddenly takes on something small, something intimate. Bach's genius music, on that great stage, surrounded by dear partners and the warm, familiar audience - I am incredibly looking forward to it.'