"May the man who watches over Berlin’s music scene retain Marek Janowski in the city for a long time to come. He is utterly irreplaceable.” Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Berlin, Berliner Morgenpost
Marek Janowski has been Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 2002 and in 2005 he was also appointed Musical Director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva. He is in demand as a guest conductor throughout the world, working on a regular basis in the USA with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (where he holds the Otto Klemperer Guest Conducting Chair), the Boston and San Francisco Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in Europe with the Orchestre de Paris, the Orchester der Tonhalle Zürich, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra in Copenhagen and the NDR-Sinfonieorchester Hamburg.
Born in 1939 in Warsaw and educated in Germany, Marek Janowski’s artistic path led him from Assistant positions in Aachen, Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg to his appointment as General Music Director in Freiburg im Breisgau (1973-75) and Dortmund (1975-79). Whilst in Dortmund, his reputation grew rapidly and he became greatly involved in the international opera scene. There is not one world-renowned opera house where he has not been a regular guest since the late ‘70s, from the Metropolitan Opera New York to the Bayerischer Staatsoper Munich; from Chicago and San Francisco to Hamburg; from Vienna and Berlin to Paris.
Marek Janowski stepped back from the opera scene in the 1990’s in order to concentrate on orchestral work and was thus able to continue the great German conducting tradition in the symphonic repertoire. He now enjoys an outstanding reputation amongst the great orchestras of Europe and North America. He is recognised for his ability to create orchestras of international standing as well as for his innovative programmes and for bringing a fresh and individual interpretation to familiar repertoire.
Between 1984 and 2000, as Musical Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Marek Janowski led the orchestra to international fame as the leading orchestra in France. From 1986 to 1990, in addition to his work in France, Janowski held the position of Chief Conductor of the Gürzenich-Orchester in Cologne, and between1997 and 1999 he was also First Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. From 2000 to 2005 Janowski served as Music Director of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, and from 2001 to 2003 he also held the position of Chief Conductor with the Dresdner Philharmonie.
Marek Janowski has made many recordings over the past 30 years, including many complete operas and symphonic cycles, many of which have been awarded international prizes. To this day, his recording of Richard Wagner’s complete tetralogy The Ring Cycle with the Staatskapelle Dresden (1980-83) remains one of the most distinguished and musically interesting recordings that has been made of this work.
Marek Janowski is represented by Jessica Ford at Intermusica, jford@intermusica.co.uk.
February 2010 / 433 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.
MAREK JANOWSKI, CONDUCTOR
Guest Conducting reviews
San Francisco Symphony, Beethoven and Schumann
“Let's face it, the San Francisco Symphony plays awfully well under just about any circumstances. But something special seems to happen when Marek Janowski comes to town. It happened again on Thursday afternoon, when the Polish German conductor led the orchestra in a phenomenally exciting program of music by Beethoven and Schumann. Even listeners accustomed to near-weekly feats of musical prowess from the local band had to sit up and take notice.
[Janowski’s] effect on the Symphony players was galvanizing. The orchestral sound they offered up was simply huge - muscular, richly colored and impeccably blended - but at the same time it boasted a striking fleetness and rhythmic cohesion.
A preference for brisk tempos is part of his formula, but it's not the whole story. Just as important is the specificity of his long-term vision, and the extraordinary clarity with which he lays it out.”
San Francisco Chronicle, October 2008
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra – Otto Klemperer Guest Conductor Chair
European Tour / Brahms Violin Concerto with Leonidas Kavakos & Symphony No.4
“… the PSO gave an inspired performance of Brahms' Fourth Symphony that was the equal of any I've heard it give. Janowski's tempos were faster, if only slightly so, than he commanded in Heinz Hall and his phrasing aggressive from the downbeat. The result was a capturing of the large-scale plan of the piece, the tonal continental shifts that contain monumental energy in potent climaxes and great profundity in quieter moments.”
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 2008
Brahms Symphony No.4
Janowski’s strengths as a conductor are a reminder of Wolfgang Sawallisch, whose tenure as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra was a golden age for that great ensemble. Neither German conductor sells himself to the audience, both are true servants of the music.”
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 2007
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande - Artistic and Musical Director
Messiaen Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum at the Lucerne Easter Festival
“This great monument to the fallen of both world wars brought suffering powerfully into the present. There are no strings in the score; but the percussion of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande – mighty cymbal clashes, huge gongs and tam-tams – caused the wind and brass players to put their fingers in their ears, and all but blew the audience out of their seats in the excitingly resonant acoustic of the Konzertsaal. But Marek Janowski, conducting, also drew perfectly paced breaths from the underworld of woodwind and brass – and deeply eloquent silences too. ... "
The Times, March 2008
UK tour / Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 (with Nikolai Lugansky), Bruckner Symphony No. 5
“Marek Janowski proved himself a master at moulding Bruckner's immense paragraphs... At certain moments when the music reached a wall-shaking grandeur, Janowski's tiny gestures told us that no, this wasn't the goal, the real high point was still around the corner.”
The Telegraph, January 2008
Rundfunk-Symphonieorchester Berlin - Chief Conductor and Artistic Director
Weber, Dutilleux with Mireille Delunsch and Berlioz’ Symphonie Fantastique
“Of all of Berlin’s orchestras, it is meanwhile the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester that has the most individual, well-formed and warmest sound. The Berliner Philharmoniker may have more stylistic flexibility or more high-profile soloists, but in its seven years under Marek Janowski, the RSB has achieved a sound quality with an inner vivacity that is reminiscent of the Philharmoniker trained by Karajan in the 1960s. A single chord can sound so beautiful that the music surrounding it is barely needed to flood the depths of one’s physical and psychological fabric with the utmost intensity. The beginning of Friday’s concert at the Konzerthaus with the swelling, deep C of Weber’s “Der Freischütz” Overture, was the best example. And it was just the beginning.”
Berliner Zeitung, October 2009
Shostakovich Suite on Poems of Michelangelo Buonarroti and Bartok Duke Bluebeard’s Castle
“May the man who watches over Berlin’s music scene retain Marek Janowski in the city for a long time to come. He is utterly irreplaceable.”
Berliner Morgenpost, September 2009
Strauss Alpine Symphony
“The music of Richard Strauss is like a drug for conductors. Few of them can resist the temptation to exhaust its effects to the point of losing orchestral control. Luckily, Marek Janowski has outgrown the drug phase. When the head of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester conducts Strauss’ Alpine Symphony at the Philharmonie, it’s not about effects but about clarity, order and inner consequence. Light-footed does Janowski go about his mountain trek, staying close to Richard Strauss’ own recording from 1941.”
Tagesspiegel, June 2009
Recordings with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande
Pentatone / Franck & Chausson
“Marek Janowski draws on his operatic experience to make the melodic lines live and sing. Everything has shape and colour (I have never before heard so vividly the debt the opening of the slow central movement of the Chausson owes to the last act of Tristan), but these frequent dark undertows are never allowed to wallow in sentimentally. Best of all for me is the way Janowski responds to the variety of harmonic tension in both works: the more chromatic a chord, the more space he tends to give it without obstructing the flow ... I have no doubt that the power and refinement of this splendid recording should bring it a wide audience.”
BBC Music Magazine, January 2007
Recordings with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
PentaTone Classics / Brahms Symphonies No.4, Brahms Hungarian Dances (selection)
“This is an often romantic, even lush rendering of the Fourth Symphony. Menace and despair loom, but Janowski’s brahms seems determined to keep them at bay. Which adds a brooding tension to the work, a sense of struggling idealism. The Pittsburgh forces play their hearts out, rewarding their conductor with character and feeling. An endlessly absorbing disc.”
Editor’s Choice, Gramophone Magazine, March 2009
PentaTone Classics / Brahms Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3
“It’s notoriously difficult to bring off this work convincingly, yet by negotiating the music’s dramatic contours with complete naturalness, Janowski and his fabulous Pittsburghers create the impression of profound ease and inevitability. With playing and recording both of luxury class, Janowski’s insightful recordings will appeal even to those normally resistant to Brahms’s music.”
Classic FM, Orchestral Disc of the Month, 5 stars, March 2008