Musical passion. That nicely sums up the spirit of the “Janoska Style”, with which the Janoska Ensemble has shot to international fame in no time – and certainly not just because of the consummate mastery of its instruments.

At each performance the four artists dazzle their audience with their music and their vast reserves of creative energy. They see it as a personal challenge to fulfil, no to surpass, the high hopes of their fans.

True art knows no frontiers, and the music of the three brothers from Bratislava Ondrej, František and Roman Janoska and their Konstanz-born brother-in-law Julius Darvas proves that in remarkable fashion: their musical creations happily harmonize or colourfully contrast their classical fach with the music of other genres – from jazz and Latin to pop music.

The consequence is not a mix of styles, however, it is a creative synthesis: the Janoska Style. This style, apart from its innate spirit, defies description in words. Janoska Style is not a static fixture, mounted on a musical platform, crossing all boundaries of content, it is a spontaneous phenomenon. Five strong creative forces shape its profile: the unmistakable handwriting of the arrangements and the hands of their four skilled musical exponents.

Then there is the dynamic resonance, that anticipation that builds up in the concert audience and feeds back to the artists. After all, they are playing with their audience’s knowledge of music, freely communicating widely known classical themes only to guide the ears of their listeners – slowly or suddenly – into surprisingly appropriate themes from quite different musical disciplines, without any sense of a break in style.

On the contrary, the act of listening is an irresistible pleasure. There is no template, no set formula, for this special ability of the Janoska Ensemble to create imaginative music. Nothing is merely adapted; every note, every motif, is lovingly and playfully reinvented. Janoska Style is far more than just a “sound”, it is “music to be lived” – you have to listen to it and feel it live.

The genial musicians have already played on four continents and are constantly developing new projects. They have repeatedly played suitably expanded arrangements in concert with celebrated European orchestras.

Ondrej Janoska plays on the Carlo Ferdinando Landolfi ca. 1760 generously on loan from the Goh Family Collection.