Why do we have so many recordings of the same thing? I am listening now to Jansen and it is good. But is it very different than many others?
Il Grande Inquisitor. you have been quoted on radio 3 about the subject of Jansen.

IGI - thanks, will keep the comments coming!

SusanDoris - I think Janine Jansen's partner is Julian Rachlin, must to the chagrin of Lord Byron 

Tommo

A very interesting question, t-p. I think there are always opportunities for new recordings of familiar repertoire if they have something to say. Ironically, the advent of the Compact Disc, which I think initially saw a boost in the number of recordings being made, seems to have brought about the perceived decline in the record industry. Let me explain my theory.

It didn’t take companies too long to realise that many of them were sitting on back catalogues of ‘classic’ recordings that they could cheaply transfer to CD and sell at ‘mid-price’. There was certainly a market for people waiting for their favourite LPs of yesteryear to be released; I know – I always turned to the back pages of ‘The Gramophone’ each month to search, in vain usually, for treasured recordings to make a reappearance! Once they started releasing these, alongside enterprising companies like Naxos making new, digital recordings of core repertoire and selling them at ‘super-bargain’ price, the number of new recordings the like of Decca, DG and EMI could reasonably afford to make was always going to decline. A new recording of a less than well-known opera, Strauss’ ‘Die Frau ohne Schatten’ for example, is never going to recoup its costs, even when they’re recorded live, as new opera recordings often tend to be these days. That is why companies turn to ‘crossover’ artistes they can market aggressively or issue very popular works, like the Mendelssohn/Bruch, to add to the coffers. Now, if they issued the Jansen purely on the basis that she’s an attractive young lady and her looks might sell a few thousand copies then, no, we don’t need another recording. But if the new recording has artistic merit, as I believe this new one does, then it is most welcome. I haven’t investigated Jansen’s other CDs as yet, suspecting it was all a marketing ploy, but I think I shall look out that first recital now as I think she is one of the, thankfully many, young violinists around at the moment whose career may be worth following in the years to come.

t-p,

I think...

...there's an element of expectation (if you are going to be a violinist and record something, then you start with the bruch and mendelssohn, or in recent years with vivaldi)

...even if there isn't much different from other recordings, there's something about making sure 'important' works are in a soloists discography - if only for posterity.  For example, Jansen is obviously a talented violinist and may be remembered in 50 years or so.  If she hadn't recorded the Bruch / Mendelssohn, people would obviously ask "I wonder what her Bruch would have been like" - I guess it's a way of making sure you have a legacy

..Classic FM have got to do something 'new' (in the loosest sense of the word) every now and then.

Actually, I quite liked Jansen on the Radio today.  There's an element of guts in her playing, rather than just effortless technique.  FOr me, somewhere in the playing there needs to be a bit of struggle, not against the violin, but to put tension in the music.  Ideally, I would have liked some more punch from Jansen, but she was fine nonetheless.

I'm sure you can do something 'new' with these works, but it will either require a good pair of ears to detect it, or involve distorting the piece to the extenet that it may appear contrived and tasteless.  For me, the Mendelssohn offers more opportunity for flexibility in tempi and rubato without losing all credibility.

Tommo

Thank you Tommo, Thank you Il Grande Inquisitor. I enjoyed reading your posts. I think you made good points. I can see better now why thinkgs are done this way. It is exciting to see how each performer negotiates difficult well known pieces. Janses is talented violinst, no argument there.

Alfred Campoli is a new name for me.
I don't like when people make something out of music that it is not, or put emotions in it that are not there, rits, ralls etc. Some performances touch me and some not as much.
I am inpired now to listen to different interpretations of music I play too.

Ooops! Sticky key!

Thanks JW

Tommo

Blimey, was he?! I heard him play the Bruch in 1973 so he must have been 67 by then! I'm afraid I was rather a snooty and serious youth who thought I ought to look down on anything as romantic as Bruch, and probably on Campoli as well who was associated in my mind more with Radio 2/Light Programme-ish repertoire by then, not exactly Palm Court Orchestra but heading that way. It was absolutely transfixing though. I would say 'beguiling' but it might set the security klaxons off. His violin tone was perhaps the sweetest I've ever heard. A ravishing sound which suited the piece to perfection. I admit to being completely seduced.