Janine Jansen

Janine Jansen

One of the most wonderful and harmonious talents I have come across in the last couple of decades.'

This compliment, from legendary pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, is just one of countless Janine Jansen has received since first coming to public attention in her native Holland during the 1990s. She's not only thrilled concert-goers and CD buyers but has also proved a hit on the web, and was dubbed the 'Queen of the Downloads' when her version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons became the top classical instrumental title on iTunes.

But after the relative commercial safety of Vivaldi and her new recording of the Mendelssohn and Bruch concertos, the 28-year-old is pushing her music company to let her record more challenging repertoire. 'The Britten is one of my favourite concertos and it is a big wish to record that. I've been with Decca for four years now and they know about my wish,' she says, exuding full confidence that her wish will soon become Decca's command.

Jansen is also talking to composers about commissions. 'At the moment the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam wants to commission a new violin concerto for me and they basically gave me a free choice as to who I would like to ask. So we are...' She breaks off and when pressed about the candidates replies, 'It's too early to say.'

But she is more specific about another project, which would also involve her boyfriend, violinist and viola player Julian Rachlin. 'It looks like Penderecki will write a double concerto for Julian and me. Julian knows him very well and asked him for a double concerto. He'll play the viola and I will play violin.'

'It's so nice to meet these wonderful composers. I've just met Arvo Pärt.'

She's enthusiastic not only about the music of the 73-year-old Pole, but also about his Estonian contemporary Arvo Pärt and exudes an almost childlike awe as she describes meeting him recently.

'It's so nice to meet these wonderful composers. I've just met Arvo Pärt. I was in Berne, playing the Prokofiev second concerto, and they did the Swiss premiere of a piece of his. So I had dinner with him and we spoke about his Tabula Rasa [a concerto for two violins, prepared piano and orchestra] and that would also be really nice to do with Julian.'

But for the time being her focus is on the core repertoire as she tours the UK, Europe, North America and Japan to play the two concertos on her new recording. What makes the disc noteworthy, apart from Jansen's combination of precision and energy, is that it was recorded in the Leipzig Gewandhaus where the Mendelssohn concerto received its premiere in 1844.

'For me it was very special just to do it there,' she says. 'It was very personal, just being there, visiting the Mendelssohn house and seeing things like a bit of his hair lying there - it makes such an impression and it makes everything more alive and close.'

She enjoyed working with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and its principal conductor Riccardo Chailly, an important influence on the teenage Jansen when he was in charge of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra.

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