GUUS JANSSEN
Period
13-05-1951 - current
Genre
classical, componist, contemporary classical music, improvised, jazz, klavecimbel, orgel, piano
Online
Guus Janssen
Guus Janssen is a Dutch composer and pianist whose work brings different musical worlds together: that of classical music with jazz, of composition with improvisation. He doesn’t blend them into a synthesis, but places them alongside each other in montages. In his composed pieces, there are passages where the musicians ...
Instruments
componist, klavecimbel, orgel, piano
Mentioned in the biography of
1973
Paul Termos
1974
Maurice Horsthuis
1978
Gerard Bouwhuis
1981
Mondriaan Kwartet
1985
Ernst Reijseger
1985
Nils Wieland
1988
Ernst Glerum
1988
Lucas Vis
1994
Joost Buis
1994
Jorrit Dijkstra
1996
Ebony Band
1997
Alan Laurillard
1998
Lucas Vis
2005
BRISK Recorder Quartet Amsterdam
2012
David Kweksilber
2015
Greetje Bijma
2015
Misha Mengelberg
Biography Guus Janssen
Guus Janssen is a Dutch composer and pianist whose work brings different musical worlds together: that of classical music with jazz, of composition with improvisation. He doesn’t blend them into a synthesis, but places them alongside each other in montages. In his composed pieces, there are passages where the musicians must improvise, and the improvisations in his jazz pieces are always structured. His improvisations are often rooted in visual impressions. Janssen composes instrumental and vocal music for a variety of ensemble types – it might be a duet for piano and hi-hat, or a piece for Siberian overtone singers. Open-mindedness is one of his main characteristics, and it keeps him from producing routine music and bowing to tradition. Janssen’s music is capricious, unsettling and restless – both his compositions and improvisations. In the string quartet 'Streepjes' [Little Stripes], for instance, he consciously avoids traditional vibrato-playing: the musicians play only flageolet tones, and then suddenly break into exaggerated vibrato passages. Janssen has a particular liking for (intentional) blunders, glitches, the breaking from an initial pattern. The result is music that continually keeps itself in perspective and never gets bogged down in ponderousness. His style has been described as sober, matter-of-fact, clear, even 'typically Dutch'. Janssen himself says that he wants “to write music that is unbiased and open-minded toward all the ‘musics’ around us”. As a composer, he usually works closely with the performers to bridge as far as possible the gap between composition and performance. As a pianist, he frequently appears in large and small venues, from jazz cafes to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
1951 - 1972
Guus Janssen is born in Heiloo on May 13. He studies the piano with Jaap Spaanderman and composition with Ton de Leeuw at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam.
1972 - 1973
After completing his studies, Janssen writes the complex piano piece 'Brake', which has clear echoes of the avant-gardists Iannis Xenakis and Brian Ferneyhough. Its complexity does not come from a compositional plan, but largely from improvisation. His 'Muziek' for winds is performed by the Asko Ensemble, in which he plays the piano.
1973 - 1980
Janssen performs as an improvising pianist and harpsichordist, either alone or with the Guus Janssen Trio and Guus Janssen Septet. He also plays with others, for example with Paul Termos, Maarten Altena and Theo Loevendie. His playing often shows the influence of Thelonious Monk and Lennie Tristano, whose records he knows from his parents’ collection.
1980
At the Warschauer Herbst music festival, Guus Janssen performs his piano concerto 'Dans van de Malic Matrijzen' (1978) and at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra and trombone soloist Vinko Globokar, conducted by Ernest Bour, premier his new composition 'Toonen'.
1981
Janssen writes 'Streepjes', his second string quartet. He performs as a soloist in the Masters of the Clavier series at the Holland Festival. Guus Janssen receives the Boy Edgar Prize for his achievements in jazz and improvised music. The jury report praises him as a distinct innovator “because he finds a way in his music to forge two related but up to now entirely separate streams into a totally new whole” – by which is meant contemporary classical music and jazz.
1982
Janssen performs as a soloist at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and he doesn’t go unnoticed between such giants as Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Stan Getz and Dizzy Gillespie. According to one critic, he crafts “masterpieces from the most insignificant little themes”.
1984
Guus Janssen receives the Matthijs Vermeulen Prize for 'Temet' (1983) for flute, violin, cello and harp.
1987 - 1989
Janssen performs with John Zorn in the BIMHuis in Amsterdam. There they play old bop pieces by Misha Mengelberg during the October Meeting. The following year, they do the same in Italy. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra commissions a piece from him, and he writes Keer [Turn] (1988). It opens with the strings, which in modern music 'so often have nothing to do'. “You get the idea that the violinists have landed in a windmill that just keeps turning and turning. (...) That string violence has to be turned aside, and that’s why the brass breaks through with the basic chord.”
1993 - 1994
Guus performs with his brother, the drummer Wim Janssen, at the Knitting Factory in New York. For a Gidon Kremer concert in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, he composes 'Klotz' (1994), for violin, hi-hat solo and ensemble, on a commission from Kremer. The premiere of his opera 'Noach', on a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, is performed during the Holland Festival. The production is directed by Pierre Audi and the scenery is made by Karel Appel.
1996
On a commission from the Donaueschinger Musiktage, he writes 'Verstelwerk' [Mending]. The essence of this piece, according to Janssen, lies in “how it handles tonality, how it’s put together topsy-turvy. There’s plenty of swing in it, but in an odd, stumbling way [...] it sounds like Bernstein gone mad. 'Verstelwerk' is one of my favourite pieces, and the conductor had a ball with it.”
1999 - 2000
The opera 'Noach' is again performed by de Nederlandse Opera. A year later comes the premiere of his opera 'Hier°' which he worked on from 1999 to 2000. The libretto is by Friso Haverkamp, the direction by Pierre Audi.
2003
Janssen has a special connection with several composers from the Baroque and Classical eras (among whom, Joseph Haydn, C.Ph.E. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti). At times he uses a work of theirs as the starting point of an improvisation, and sometimes he finds with them an idea for a new composition. For the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, he arranges six sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti. He scores three of the sonatas for winds, three others he arranges so they “end wrong”.
2007 - 2008
This season Janssen is the composer-in-residence of the Brabant Orchestra. He writes 'Belvédère', for two cellos and orchestra, for Larissa Groeneveld and Ernst Reijseger with the Brabant Orchestra. 'Verstelwerk' (1996) is performed at Carnegie Hall in New York by the Riverside Orchestra.
2010
'Pinocchio in Love' is the new opera on a libretto by Friso Haverkamp, written for the summer tour of the Ricciotti Ensemble. In the autumn, the ensemble goes to Sicily.
2011
On May 10, Guus Janssen performs the premiere of his piano concerto 'Vrije Tijd' [Free Time] with the Asko|Schönberg in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
2012
Guus Janssen is awarded the prestigious Johan Wagenaar Prize for his entire oeuvre. From the jury report: “Composer Guus Janssen is ‘Holland at its best’. His complete works are authentic, clearly his own and can't be compared to anything else. His work has such a unique signature that all his pieces, no matter from what period, are always easily recognised as 'typically Janssen'. The jury sees him as one of the most creative and free-thinking composers of this time.”
Discography Guus Janssen
Albums | Singles | Compilations | Other | Guestperformance
Janssen/Termos/Janssen - Pok
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1989 |
Label | Geestgronden, GG 3 |
Guus Janssen / Ernst Glerum / Wim Janssen - Lighter
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1995 |
Label | Geestgronden, GG 11 |
Details | Recorded at various locaties between 1992 and 1995 |
Noach
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | 2CD, 1995 |
Label | Composers' Voice, CV 42/43 |
Guus Janssen / Ernst Glerum / Wim Janssen - Zwik
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1997 |
Label | Geestgronden, GG 19 |
Guus Janssen
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1998 |
Label | Composers' Voice, CV 61 |
Guus Janssen
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1999 |
Label | Composers' Voice, CV 81 |
Meeting Points
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2015 |
Label | Bimhuis Records, BIM 010 |
Willem Breuker - The Busy Drone
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | Compilatie, 1981 |
Label | BVHaast, 034 + 034A |
componist | Gilius van Bergeijk |
componist | Louis Andriessen |
componist | Cor Kee |
componist | Nico Schuyt |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Misha Mengelberg |
Maarten Altena Octet - Tel
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | LP, 1983 |
Label | Claxon, 83.12 |
muzikant | Kenny Wheeler |
muzikant | Wolter Wierbos |
muzikant | Maud Sauer |
muzikant | Lindsay Cooper |
muzikant | Paul Termos |
muzikant | Maartje van Hoorn |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
Ab Baars + Trebbel - Carroussel
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | LP, 1984 |
Label | DATA, 841 |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
muzikant | Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort |
Nils Wieland - Nils Wieland
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | LP, 1985 |
Label | Idiot Records, 2406341 |
gastmuzikant | Julya Lekranty |
gastmuzikant | Guus Janssen |
gastmuzikant | Peter Warnier |
gastmuzikant | Marcel Schimscheimer |
producer | Willem Wisselink |
producer | Arno van Nieuwenhuize |
gastmuzikant | Arno van Nieuwenhuize |
gastmuzikant | Robert Schakel |
engineer | Jan Piet Exalto |
gastmuzikant | Klaas ten Holt |
gastmuzikant | Paul Termos |
gastmuzikant | Jan Piet Visser |
gastmuzikant | Robert Schakel |
gastmuzikant | Evert Woud |
Orkest de Volharding - Vriend, Van Zeeland, Torstensson & Janssen
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | LP, 1985 |
Label | De Volharding, 005 |
componist | Cees van Zeeland |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Huub de Vriend |
Maarten Altena Nonet/Octet - Quick Step
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | LP, 1986 |
Label | Claxon, 86.16 |
muzikant | Kenny Wheeler |
muzikant | Wolter Wierbos |
muzikant | Maud Sauer |
muzikant | Lindsay Cooper |
muzikant | Paul Termos |
muzikant | Ab Baars |
muzikant | Maartje van Hoorn |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
Maarten Altena Octet - Rif
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1987 |
Label | hat ART, CD 6056 |
muzikant | Marc Charig |
muzikant | Wolter Wierbos |
muzikant | Michael Moore |
muzikant | Peter van Bergen |
muzikant | Maartje ten Hoorn |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
muzikant | Michael Vatcher |
Harry Sparnaay - Ladder of Escape 1
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1989 |
Label | Attacca, 8945-1 |
componist | Theo Loevendie |
componist | Enrique Raxach |
componist | Guus Janssen |
Palinckx - Covers
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1992 |
Label | Vonk, 3 |
gastmuzikant | Herman van Haaren |
gastmuzikant | Eduard van Regteren Altena |
gastmuzikant | Fons Mommers |
gastmuzikant | Guus Janssen |
Orkest de Volharding - Orkest De Volharding 1972-1992
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1992 |
Label | NM Classics, 92021 |
componist | Amilcar Vasques Dias |
componist | Cees van Zeeland |
componist | Klas Torstensson |
componist | Willem van Manen |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Misha Mengelberg |
componist | Louis Andriessen |
Palinckx - Llllivvvvve!!!!
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1993 |
Label | Vonk, 4 |
gastmuzikant | Eduard van Regteren Altena |
gastmuzikant | Guus Janssen |
gastmuzikant | Peter van Bergen |
gastmuzikant | Jan Erik van Regteren Altena |
gastmuzikant | Edwin Blankenstein |
gastmuzikant | Annette Bergman |
Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam - Zoek (Guus Jansen), Glenz (Willem Jeths), Zey (Jeff Hamburg)
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 1995 |
Label | NM, Classics 92041 |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
muzikant | Peter Brunt |
muzikant | Judith Mok |
Bert van den Brink - Jazz virtuosi - Famous Dutch jazz pianists
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2000 |
Label | MGM, NM Special 92099 |
gastmuzikant | Guus Janssen |
gastmuzikant | Michiel Scheen |
gastmuzikant | Michiel Braam |
gastmuzikant | Rob van Bavel |
Orkest de Volharding - Orkest De Volharding
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2000 |
Label | Composers Voice, CV 95 |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Peter-Jan Wagemans |
componist | Maarten van Norden |
componist | Roel van Oosten |
componist | Geert van Keulen |
componist | Willem van Manen |
componist | Wim Laman |
Ab Baars Trio + Guests - 10 Years Ab Baars Trio: Party At The Bimhuis
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2003 |
Label | Wig, 09 |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
muzikant | Mariëtte Rouppe van der Voort |
muzikant | Ig Henneman |
muzikant | Martin van Duynhoven |
muzikant | Wilbert de Joode |
muzikant | Misha Mengelberg |
Sound-Lee! - Plays The Music Of Lee Konitz
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2003 |
Label | Geestgronden, GG 021 |
muzikant | Guus Janssen |
muzikant | Raoul van der Weide |
muzikant | Wim Janssen |
Ralph van Raat - Fingerprints
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2004 |
Label | NM Classics, 92113 |
componist | Tristan Keuris |
componist | Jos Kunst |
componist | Louis Andriessen |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Peter van Onna |
componist | Theo Loevendie |
componist | Hans van Sweeden |
Aurelia Saxofoon Kwartet - Fugue in C of Dog
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | 2CD, 2005 |
Label | Challenge Classics, CC 72148 |
componist | Peter van Onna |
componist | David Dramm |
componist | David Rowland |
componist | Joey Roukens |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Ab Sandbrink |
Smalts - De Rijpe Sterren, Een Ode Aan Louis Lehmann
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | 2CD, 2006 |
Label | Blowpipe, BP010 |
gastmuzikant | Guus Janssen |
gastmuzikant | Louis Th. Lehmann |
gastmuzikant | Sophie van Lier |
gastmuzikant | Libby Houston |
gastmuzikant | Tabe Bas |
BRISK Recorder Quartet Amsterdam - Vintage Brisk
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2006 |
Label | Globe Records, GLO 5220 |
componist | Huba de Graaff |
componist | Daan Manneke |
componist | Guus Janssen |
componist | Bart Visman |
componist | Calliope Tsoupaki |
componist | Theo Abazis |
componist | Roderik de Man |
componist | Ron Ford |
gastmuzikant | Tomoko Mukaiyama |
gastmuzikant | Egidius Kwartet |
BRISK Recorder Quartet Amsterdam - Dutch Diversity: 6 Centuries Recorder Music From The Low Countries
Act | Guus Janssen |
Type and year | CD, 2011 |
Label | Globe Records, GLO 5250 |
gastmuzikant | Greetje Bijma |
gastmuzikant | Ramon Lormans |
gastmuzikant | Guus Janssen |
In the discography you will find all recordings that have been released listed chronologically. We restrict ourselves to the title, the type of audio, year of publication or recording, label, list of guest musicians, plus any comments on the issue.