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Vita
Janiczek was born into a musical Salzburg family of Polish-Czech descent and began his violin studies at the age of 10 with Helmuth Zehetmair at the Mozarteum Academy in Salzburg. He also attended master classes with Max Rostal, Nathan Milstein, Ruggiero Ricci, Dorothy DeLay and the cellist Harvey Shapiro in New York.
He first attracted international attention when the violinist and orchestral musician Sándor Végh - who strongly influenced him and became his mentor - appointed him concertmaster of the Camerata Salzburg. Under Végh's direction, Janiczek also regularly performed as a soloist with works such as Beethoven's violin concerto at the Salzburg Festival. Alexander Janiczek has always been fascinated by the long violinist tradition which knows how to combine the musical roles of soloist, concertmaster and chamber musician in a convincing way.
After this formative period, Janiczek made guest appearances as musical director with numerous renowned European chamber orchestras. He had the good fortune to play with soloists such as Leonidas Kavakos, Marta Argerich, Murray Perahia, Maria Joao Pires, Andras Schiff, Miklos Perenyi and Nicolai Gedda.
With the Chamber Orchestra of Europe he undertook extensive concert tours throughout Europe and the Far East, developing close musical partnerships with artists such as Mitsuko Uchida. Recordings such as Stravinsky's Pulcinella Suite and Apollon Musagète also bear witness to this relationship.
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has appointed Janiczek as Associate Artist for 2011. With this orchestra he performed as a soloist under Robin Ticciati, realised numerous projects as principal concertmaster with pianist Piotr Andrszewski and, as musical director, recorded some highly acclaimed recordings of works by W.A. Mozart and Carl Maria von Weber. Other recordings in which Alexander Janiczek has been involved as concertmaster include Beethoven's symphonies (live with La Chambre Philharmonique and Emmanuel Krivine), Mahler's Eighth Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, projects with Sir Colin Davies and the London Symphony Orchestra in the Berlioz Year 2003 and most recently Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Orchestra of the 18th century.
Through his presence as concertmaster of high-ranking chamber orchestras, Janiczek has repeatedly been invited as a guest for this position. He has been invited by the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, SWR Stuttgart and the Orchestra of the Munich State Opera.
Through Sandor Végh's formative musical education, which was strongly anchored in the spirit of the late 19th century, Janiczek began some time ago to take an in-depth look at romantic performance practice. He worked closely with Sir Roger Norrington, Robert Levin and Philippe Herreweghe.
Today, Janiczek is concertmaster of the Dresden Festival Orchestra, which plays on Romantic instruments, and, in addition to guest concertmaster invitations from the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, he regularly works with the Orchestra of the 18th century in Amsterdam.
Janiczek was invited to the Marlboro Music Festival as a sought-after chamber musician, was regularly heard at IMS Open Chamber Music, Prussia Cove, England, and played with artists such as Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, Joshua Bell, Steven Isserlis and Andras Schiff.
Alexander Janiczek is Musical Director of the Youth Programme of the East Neuk Festival in Scotland and has taught violin at the Guildhall School of Music in London.
He plays a violin Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesù, Cremona 1731, "ex Sorkin", which is provided to him by the Austrian National Bank. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)