Tour with Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
21 November - 5 December 2022

Following their successful projects in 2016, 2018 and 2019, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Sir Antonio Pappano join forces again this year in seven concerts in Oviedo (24th November), Athens (26th November), Ferrara (28th November), Milan (29th November) Munich (30th November), Antwerp (3rd December) and Cologne (4th December). These performances feature star violinist Janine Jansen. Together, they will perform Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, Dvorak’s Serenade for Strings  and Kodaly’s Dances of Galanta.

Sir Antonio Pappano is now a regular artistic partner of the COE and we always look forward to working with a conductor whose enthusiasm and drive are so infectious and who takes the Orchestra on a wonderfully creative voyage every time they meet. For him, as per the short video below, one of the aspects that attracts him most to the COE is the mix between the older and younger generations and the ability of the Orchestra to build on its incredible heritage shaped among others by Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt whilst also taking in more recent influences in its stride.

Our very first project with Janine Jansen dates back to 2008 when we toured Spain for the first time as well with conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, now Honorary Member of the Orchestra. Together, we visited Valladolid, Pamplona, Bilbao, Madrid and Castellon, performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. In 2013, the COE and Janine were invited to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam for a one-off concert with Bernard Haitink in celebration of the hall’s 125th anniversary.

In 2014, Janine joined the Orchestra again for a series of play-direct concerts with Leader Lorenza Borrani. Together, they performed works by Ravel, Mozart and Schnittke, including Schnittke’s “emotionally-charged” and “demonic” Violin Sonata No. 1 (NRC Handelsblad, 7 October 2014) and Moz-Art a la Haydn. The latter is a rather theatrical piece for two violins and small string orchestra which starts in complete darkness with instruments joining in little by little as the light finally comes on once the thirteen players are on stage. The light then fades out little by little at the end of the piece, a ‘wink’ to Haydn’s Farewell Symphony. Following this genuine chamber music experience with the COE, Janine said about the COE players: “You can really make music with them”. Our last project together dates back to Spring 2019 when we performed five concerts in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany with Sir Antonio Pappano. On that occasion, the programme featured Wagner’s Siegfried Idyll, Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1 and Dvorak’s Slavonic Dances op. 72.