Janoska Ensemble makes the audience in Rector’s Palace sing

The virtuoso musicians of the Janoska Ensemble performed in the Rector’s Palace last night, 24 July and with their impeccable musicianship, imaginative improvisations and immense enthusiasm won the hearts of the audience, whom they even made sing.

Coming from an incredible seven generations of family musical tradition, virtuoso musicians and brothers pianist František, and violinists Roman and Ondrej Janoska, play with Julius Darvas on double bass, their brother-in-law who himself belongs to the third generation of musicians.

Last night, they performed as a trio at the Rector’s Palace, without Ondrej Janoska, and subsequently with a changed programme. However, since their mission is improvisation, the audience was not deprived in any aspect. The programme, entitled The Big B's after the first letters of the great musical names it pays tribute to, began with František Janoška's original composition Musette pour Fritz, an expressive homage to Fritz Kreisler, an American violinist and composer of Austrian roots who is considered by many to be one of the greatest violinists of all time. Bach's famous second movement Air from the Orchestral Suite no. 3 in D major, anchored the programme in the classical after which František Janoska treated the festival audience with two more of his compositions, Leo's Dance dedicated to his son, and Souvenir pour Elise based on perhaps the most recognizable piece of classical music, Beethoven's Für Elise, in which the virtuosity, innovation and passion of the Ensemble reached the first of many peaks of the evening. After bright, inspired jazz performance of Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo à la Turk, the Janoskas interpreted in their signature style one of the Beatles' most covered hits, the ballad Yesterday, which Paul McCartney is said to have written after hearing it in a dream. Another piece by František Janoška rounded off the programme, Cole Over Beethoven, a paraphrase of two works from different musical genres and eras that embody feelings of love and longing, Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, beloved by generations, and Cole Porter's jazz standard Night and Day. Through this performance, as well as the entire concert, the Janoska Ensemble showed that they are true polyglots of musical languages, covering a wide range of genres and erasing the boundaries between them with their skilful improvisation. Their unique fusion of improvisation and creativity in the interpretation of classic compositions and well-known themes, exceptional technique and mutual synergy enchanted the audience, who enthusiastically followed every beat. Thus, the immense enthusiasm of the musicians themselves and the unstoppable applause of all gathered culminated in an encore, an improvisational collage of several compositions, the first of which was a thank you to the Dubrovnik audience - the local classic La Musica Di Notte, and even the Beatles' Hey Jude, which made everyone break out into song spontaneously, ending the evening on a heartwarming and cheerful note.

The next concert in the Rector’s Palace as part of the music programme of the 74^th Dubrovnik Summer Festival will be held tomorrow, 26 July by award-winning guitarist Krešimir Bedek. Tickets for the concert and all other events are available via the festival website www.dubrovnik-festival.hr or the service www.ulaznice.hr, at the box office in the Festival Palace (Od Sigurate 1) every day from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and in front of the DTS building (Vukovarska St) from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.