Rudolf Jansen (19 January 1940 – 12 February 2024) was a Dutch pianist who focused on

Lied In the Western classical music tradition, ( , ; , ; ) is a term for setting poetry to classical music. The term is used for any kind of song in contemporary German and Dutch, but among English and French speakers, is often used interchangea ...

accompaniment and

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

, touring the world. He accompanied singers including Elly Ameling, Barbara Bonney, Peter Schreier and

Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (; 28 May 1925 – 18 May 2012) was a German lyric baritone and conductor of classical music. One of the most famous Lieder (art song) performers of the post-war period, he is best known as a singer of Franz Schubert's ...

. Jansen taught at the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam and the Musikhochschule Nürnberg, and gave masterclasses worldwide.

Life and career

Rudolf Jansen was born in

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

on 19 January 1940. He received early

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

lessons from his father, . He studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory of Amsterdam, organ with his father, piano with and , and

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

with

Gustav Leonhardt Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments. Leo ...

; he earned there a Prix d'Excellence for organ in 1964, and one for piano in 1966. In 1965, he was awarded the Toonkunst Jubileumprijs, and in 1966, the "Zilveren Vriendenkrans" by the Friends of the Concertgebouw. He won the

Edison Award The Edison Award is an annual Dutch music prize awarded for outstanding achievements in the music industry. It is comparable to the American Grammy Award. The Edison award itself is a bronze replica of a statuette of Thomas Edison, designed by ...

twice: in 1973 with oboist Han de Vries and in 1987 with soprano Dorothy Dorow. His focus became, in addition to solo performance,

accompaniment and

. He toured the world in recitals, and collaborated with singers such as Elly Ameling, Irina Arkhipova, Olaf Bär, Hans Peter Blochwitz, Barbara Bonney,

Brigitte Fassbaender Brigitte Fassbaender (; born 3 July 1939), is a German mezzo-soprano opera singer and a stage director. From 1999 to 2012 she was Theater manager, intendant (managing director) of the Tyrolean State Theatre in Innsbruck, Austria. She holds the ti ...

, Birgit Finnilä,

Monica Groop Gerd Monica Groop née Riska (born 14 April 1958 in Helsinki) is a Finnish operatic mezzo-soprano. After graduating from the Sibelius Academy, she joined the Finnish National Opera in 1986 where she remains a member. She has sung leading roles as ...

, Tom Krause, Christiane Oelze, Andreas Schmidt,

Edith Wiens Edith Wiens Order of Canada, OC (born 9 June 1950) is a Canadian opera, recital and concert singer with a soprano voice. Early life and education Wiens, daughter of a Mennonite pastor, grew up in Vancouver where she finished high school at the ...

, Peter Schreier and , and instrumentalists including Abbie de Quant and Jean-Pierre Rampal. He was the regular accompanist of

for several years. He played his last concert at the

Concertgebouw Concertgebouw may refer to one of the following concert halls: * Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands * Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium * Concertgebouw de Vereeniging, Netherlands {{disambiguation Buildings and structures disambiguation pages ...

in Amsterdam in 2017; it was dedicated to him. Jansen taught at the Sweelinck Conservatory, where he established a class for Lied, and at the Musikhochschule Nürnberg; he regularly gave masterclasses for singer/piano duos in the Netherlands and abroad.

Personal life

Jansen was married to Christa Pfeiler, a singer with whom he performed in concerts and recordings.Mountain View International Festival of Song and Chamber Music
''Calgary Herald'' Jansen died in Laren on 12 February 2024, at the age of 84. A prize of the International Vocal Competition 's-Hertogenbosch is named after him.

Recordings

Jansen made more than 120 CDs, mostly of Lied recitals. He recorded the complete songs of Alphons Diepenbrock with his wife Christa Pfeiler and Robert Holl, with whom he also recorded

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

' songs, the complete the songs of

Edvard Grieg Edvard Hagerup Grieg ( , ; 15 June 18434 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic music, Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwid ...

with four soloists, and the complete songs of

Anton Webern Anton Webern (; 3 December 1883 – 15 September 1945) was an Austrian composer, conductor, and musicologist. His music was among the most radical of its milieu in its lyric poetry, lyrical, poetic concision and use of then novel atonality, aton ...

with Dorothy Dorow. A reviewer from '' Gramophone'' noted that the musicians had "an assured grasp of Webern's style". A recording with Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau was awarded a Deutscher Schallplattenpreis in 1992. When he made a recording of Wolf's ''

Italienisches Liederbuch (English: Italian songbook) is a collection of translations of anonymous Italian poems and folk songs into German by Paul Heyse (18301914). It was first published in 1860. In 1892, the composer Hugo Wolf (18601903) published a collection of 22 ...

'' with soprano Christiane Oelze, Alan Blyth wrote:

References

External links

* *
Rudolf Jansen
at Muziekweb
Rudolf Jansen
at usic.metason.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansen, Rudolf 1940 births 2024 deaths">1940 births">usic.metason.net {{DEFAULTSORT:Jansen, Rudolf 1940 births 2024 deaths 20th-century Dutch classical pianists 21st-century Dutch classical pianists Musicians from Arnhem