Her Highness of the Violin, Janine Jansen

And if that weren't enough, the audience immediately enjoyed an exciting and engaging evening led by András Schiff, who, without announcing his program beforehand, delightedly commented on each piece, as he has done throughout his entire summer tour. From Bach to Bach, including Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.

Yesterday's performance was not, however, an absolute debut for Jansen, as Torroella had already anticipated all the musical venues in Catalonia when, in August 2003, with Josep Lloret as the artistic director of the competition, he brought her to the church of Sant Genís as part of a quartet promoted by the great cellist Mischa Maisky, who already then predicted the extraordinary solo career that awaited the 25-year-old.

The return to the Empordà of the Dutch lady of classical music, two decades later—and still not a wrinkle—aroused great excitement yesterday. The Espai Ter had to open its amphitheater—when will the seats in that last section of the auditorium, which is still occupied by chairs today, be available?—and its 635 seats were completely full.

Hearing Jansen's demanding Mendelssohn was a must , given that when she released her album of the Sibelius Concerto and Prokofiev No. 2 last year, with the Oslo Philharmonic conducted by Klaus Mäkelä, the violinist had not recorded a complete concerto album for nine years.

“It's tremendous luck to have this festival here in the summer,” commented Joaquim Uriach, president of the Palau de la Música Catalana, who will be hosting the artist in April in Barcelona, with Vivaldi's Four Seasons , the program she recently performed in Salzburg as part of this tour with the Camerata. Hence, after exhausting herself with that Mendelssohn, in which she leaped from pianissimi to forte with the agility of a cat and displayed an austere and perfect vibrato, balanced by her dazzling bow movement, Jansen ended by offering Vivaldi's Summer of the Seasons as an encore. And what a version! Nothing like the luminous interpretations of Anne-Sophie Mutter, nor the ethereal ones of the Giardino Armonico. No, Jansen, with the Camerata Salzburg, embarked on a telluric reading of this Baroque hit , as swift as any, but shaking the foundations of the work with the acrid sounds of his highly personal violin.

And the room sank.

The shy yet magnetic young woman Jansen was just a few years ago has given way, at 47, to a woman who enjoys being on stage like no one else. "It was so much fun, I had a great time!" she said with a luminous gaze, still dressed in a sort of red kimono.

Yet she doesn't seem to forget that her musical universe began, as a child, with a complete fascination with Bach. And, in fact, the singer from Leipzig was present yesterday with the Ricercar in 6 , that is, the Musical Offering with which he opened the concert, in Shane Woodborne's version for chamber orchestra, which highlighted Bach's power and eternal capacity to surprise. But Bach also soared above Mendelssohn; not in vain was it the Romantic composer who rediscovered him in 1829. In Jansen's first solo, that baroque echo, almost polyphonic and contrapuntal, could be heard.

It was the Camerata Salzburg's third visit to the Espai Ter. And they excelled with their concertmaster, the Israeli Gregory Ahss, in the second half, with the luminous Italian Symphony in which Mendelssohn shares his impressions after traveling through Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome... Everything sounded precise, yes, close-knit, perhaps too much so, since no one is upset by contrasts and different planes. The encore corroborated this, when the Camerata played the Scherzo from Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 1.

After an hour, the stage machinery was set in motion again for András Schiff. A Steinway grand piano would sound magical, beginning with Book I of the Well-Tempered Clavier and continuing with Bach's French Suite . The Hungarian pianist, knighted by the British crown, took the microphone at every turn, offering in chronological order works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, playing Six Bagatelles, before concluding with Bach's Italian Concerto . As encores, he offered a devoted audience a Brahms Intermezzo and a Chopin Nocturne .