Marek Janowski
Conductor Marek Janowski has forged a solid, mostly European-based career by largely disengaging himself from the fast-track musical life. Disturbed by the dominance of regietheater in Europe, he vacated the opera pit in the early 1990s to concentrate on his symphonic repertory. In the new millennium, he assumed directorships of several orchestras and returned to the operatic repertoire.
Janowski was born in Warsaw on February 18, 1939. After completing his studies, he applied himself to the 19th century regimen that had produced the best-prepared conductors. Serving as a répétiteur in Aachen, Germany, for a year, Janowski moved to a similar position in Cologne for two seasons. In two years at Düsseldorf, beginning in 1964, he was afforded the opportunity to conduct some performances. After returning to Cologne as first Kapellmeister, he was engaged by Rolf Liebermann in Hamburg. Later, during directorships in Freiburg and Dortmund, Janowski appeared as a guest conductor in Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich. In the late '70s, Janowski began to appear in American theaters, notably the Metropolitan Opera, and in Chicago and San Francisco. In 1984, he accepted the directorship of the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique in Paris (later known as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France). During his 16 years with the Paris orchestra, Janowski raised performance standards and broadened his repertoire, acquiring considerable fluency in a variety of French works. Aside from four years when he also served as music director for Cologne's Gürzenich-Orchester, Janowski devoted himself to Paris, all the while paring down his opera activities.
Appreciation for certain French composers, such as Messiaen, Roussel, d'Indy, and Dutilleux, informed his programming choices for Monte Carlo. With the Dresden Philharmonic, Janowski's other 2001 appointment, a long-term relationship hinged upon the promised construction of a new concert hall. In 2008, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin offered him the position of artistic director for life, after serving six years in that position; Janowski remained in this position until 2016. He joined the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as music director in 2005, having filled similar positions with Orchestre Philharmonie de Monte-Carlo (2000-2005) and the Dresden Philharmonic (2001-2003). In 2018, the Dresden Philharmonic announced Janowski's return as chief conductor beginning in 2019.
Janowski's discography holds estimable recordings of Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau, Penderecki's The Devils of Loudon, Wagner's Ring, Euryanthe, Oberon, and Hindemith's Die Harmonie der Welt. In addition to the symphonies of Roussel, his orchestral recordings include Lutoslawski's Concerto for orchestra and Saint-Saëns' Symphony No. 3. Following his break from conducting opera in the 1990s, Janowski returned to the genre in the 2010s with several recordings of Wagner on the PentaTone Classics label, including a new recording of the composer's Ring Cycle in 2016.
© Erik Eriksson /TiVo
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Wagner: Das Rheingold
Marek Janowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tomas Konieczny, Christian Elsner, Iris Vermillion, Jochen Schmeckenbecher
Opera - Released by PENTATONE on 1 May 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Marek Janowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tomas Konieczny, Stephen Gould, Petra Lang, Jochen Schmeckenbecher
Opera - Released by PENTATONE on 19 Jul 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Götterdämmerung
Opera - Released by Eurodisc on 4 Jan 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Fidelio
Marek Janowski, Lise Davidsen, Christian Elsner, Dresdener Philharmonie
Opera - Released by PENTATONE on 16 Jul 2021
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Lieder (Orch. by Max Reger & Anton Webern)
Christian Elsner, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 1 Oct 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Humperdinck: Hänsel und Gretel
Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Marek Janowski, Katrin Wundsam, Alexandra Steiner, Ricarda Merbeth, Albert Dohmen
Opera - Released by PENTATONE on 1 Oct 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 7 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Marek Janowski - Der Ring des Nibelungen (Deluxe Edition)
Classical - Released by Eurodisc on 7 Jan 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Die Walküre
Classical - Released by Sony Classical on 18 Mar 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Puccini: Il tabarro, SC 85
Opera - Released by PENTATONE on 20 Nov 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bartok: Le Château De Barbe-Bleue
Marek Janowski, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte‐Carlo, Liza Kerob, Peter Mikulas, Violeta Urmana, Ors Kisfaludy
Classical - Released by Universal Music Division Decca Records France on 1 Jan 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6, Opp. 67 & 68
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by PentaTone on 8 Nov 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Parsifal
Marek Janowski, Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Franz-Josef Selig, Christian Elsner, Michelle DeYoung, Evgeny Nikitin
Opera - Released by PENTATONE on 1 Feb 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Complete Symphonies
Marek Janowski, WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Symphonies - Released by PENTATONE on 2 Oct 2020
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner / Symphony No. 7 in E major
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 5 Apr 2011
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 1 Jan 2007
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Meeting Venus (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Highlights from Wagner’s Tannhäuser]
Kiri Te Kanawa, René Kollo, Hakan Hagegard, Waltraud Meier, Philharmonia Orchestra, Marek Janowski
Film Soundtracks - Released by Warner Classics on 1 Jan 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bruckner, A.: Symphony No. 5
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 30 Mar 2010
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie n°2 (Edition William Carragan)
Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by PENTATONE on 1 Mar 1993
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Le Chevalier à la Rose (Musique du film de 1926)
Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Marek Janowski
Classical - Released by Capriccio on 1 Jan 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo