A poet at the piano and a virtuoso violinist

Following the decision in 2016 to operate without a principal conductor from then on, CAMERATA Salzburg regularly seeks to collaborate with leading artists, particularly soloists. Rather than the usual conductor-orchestra-soloist triangle, the focus is on a musical unity comprising the soloist and the orchestra musicians. Ideally, such collaboration develops over the course of a long-term artistic process. Not least for this reason, from the 2023/24 season onwards, CAMERATA will be entering into artistic partnerships with two artists: the French pianist Hélène Grimaud and the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen. 

Even the *Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung* noted, following a guest concert by the CAMERATA with Hélène Grimaud in Germany, the “perfect harmony” between the orchestra – which plays with “melodious sound and chamber-music sensitivity” – and the “pianist brimming with energy”. When Grimaud and the CAMERATA then delighted their home audience in Salzburg in February 2023 with concerts of Mozart and Schumann, they had truly reached “piano heaven”, as the online newspaper “DrehpunktKultur” noted. The pianist and the CAMERATA, led by concertmaster Giovanni Guzzo, were perceived as “one heart and one soul”; Grimaud “was audibly at home within the intimacy of the chamber orchestra formation”.   

Immediately following this successful concert at the Mozarteum, which was celebrated by the audience with a standing ovation, the CAMERATA and Hélène Grimaud signed a contract for an artistic partnership. For the French pianist, this is a first, as never before in her career spanning more than three decades has she entered into such a long-term collaboration with an ensemble. What does she expect from this partnership? “Depth, freedom, adventure, enthusiasm, courage!” The CAMERATA and Grimaud first got to know each other well three years ago during a joint CD project for Deutsche Grammophon featuring works by Mozart and Silvestrov. CAMERATA concertmaster Giovanni Guzzo described making music together with the exceptional pianist as “magical” from the very first seconds. “From the very start, there was a natural trust between Grimaud and us,” says Guzzo, who expects “fireworks” from the artistic partnership with her, alluding to the mutually electrifying musical energy. For Grimaud, in turn, it is “a dream” to be able to perform together with the CAMERATA and Guzzo. “They play with so much soul and spirit; I feel it is a gift to make music with musicians of this calibre,” the pianist remarks. The collaboration will extend beyond Mozart and Schumann to include Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, and even works of classical modernism.   

The artistic partnership, now finalised with the Dutch violinist Janine Jansen, has already been preceded by a number of delightful joint performances in recent years. Her ‘connection’ to the CAMERATA initially took the form of chamber music on international concert stages with CAMERATA concertmaster Gregory Ahss. For her in-depth exploration of Mozart’s concert repertoire, Janine Jansen then found her ideal ensemble partner in the CAMERATA from Mozart’s hometown. International concert tours have garnered enthusiastic audience responses and rave reviews from the press. According to the newspaper *Die Welt*, the CAMERATA is the ideal “sensitive partner for this enchanting violinist” and “her simultaneously delicate and forceful approach to her Stradivarius”. Janine Jansen’s violin playing is described as a “living synthesis of intellect and sensuality”. “Her violin tone possesses an unimagined complexity. It has honey-sweet colours that are as beguiling as they are austere.” 

The partnership between Jansen and the CAMERATA will focus in the coming years primarily on performances of all of Mozart’s concertos for violin and orchestra composed in Salzburg, with CD recordings also planned. Furthermore, together with Jansen, the wider repertoire of major solo concertos is to be explored through the inspiring collaboration between soloist and orchestra without a conductor. Next on the programme for CAMERATA and their exquisite violin partner is the quintessential Romantic violin concerto: that of Mendelssohn.