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Stories   >   Janoska Ensemble double bassist: Julius Darvas talks about the big B's with New Classical Tracks

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Janoska Ensemble double bassist: Julius Darvas talks about the big B's with New Classical Tracks

Posted: September 1, 2022
Interview with New Classical Tracks

As broad-ranging and eclectic as its repertoire may be, the Janoska Ensemble always stands for a very special sound that offers audiences an intimate combination of sensuality and sophistication, airiness and precision. This miracle is based on the fact that the interpretations of the Bratislava-born brothers Ondrej, František and Roman Janoska, who have been making music together since childhood, also mysteriously evoke a kind of phylogenetic echo of the joys, sorrows and ecstasies of preceding generations. As a double bass player, Julius Darvas, who married into the dynasty, provides the very special zest that makes our trademark family sound even more appealing. Their sensuous ensemble sound is characterised by the way as a group they constantly oscillate between exploring their origins and curiosity about the unheard and unplayed.

When looking for a basic idea for their third album, the ensemble started from their own strength in improvising. The musicians asked themselves who the greatest improvisers in classical music were and came up with the names Bach, Beethoven and Brahms, whom they view as the main role models for the ensemble, yes, even their patron saints. Then they looked a little into the modern age, and immediately took Bernstein, Bartók and Brubeck on board. Then it was time for the test. With the Janoska Ensemble, playful gestures are also the result of profound reflection and concentrated improvisation by the four musicians. The sensuousness of this music is also a perfect fit for the curvy silhouette of the eponymous Latin letter B, which is originally from the Proto-Sinitic (or Proto-Chinese) alphabet and was used by Canaanite migrant workers around 1700 B.C. In its original form, the B resembled a house with an exit. The Phoenicians referred to the letter as bet, meaning “house.” This is an apt association for an ensemble whose musical foundations were laid some 150 years ago. As with the Proto-Sinitic B, the door remains open. This makes constant change possible. And so the boundaries between what is familiar and what is strange are blurred in a subtle way. Genres and styles sometimes dissolve in a manner that is light-hearted, then soulful.

What makes the new recordings of the Janoska Ensemble so special? Their sensitivity to subcutaneous atmospheres, the ability to transcend conventional articulatory conciseness and, last but not least, the way they deliberately turn a blind eye to genres and styles. No matter what this quartet plays, it all comes together to create the popular Janoska aesthetic. It strikes a fine balance between the Apollonian and Dionysian – reason and passion. Progress may occasionally gallop in the wrong direction, but with The Big B’s the Janoska Ensemble presents music that is deeply human. These may be strange times, but they are still beautiful. Not least thanks to this wonderfully hybrid music, which so perfectly expresses the outlook of the Janoska Ensemble that brings people together.

New Classical Tracks - JULIE AMACHER writes….Two violins, double bass and piano is an unusual combination for a classical quartet, but it’s the perfect combination for the Janoska Ensemble.   “It's a new window that we want to open for classical music,” double bassist Julius Darvas said about the ensemble’s sound. “We want to bring a new wave of air in classical music that includes great improvisation, with fantastic arrangements and virtuosity”

The other ensemble members are violinists Ondrej and Roman Janoska and pianist Frantisek Janoska. Darvas married their sister. “When I met my wife, she told me that she has relatives in Bratislava,” Darvas said. “We went there, and the whole house was full of music. Somebody had left a double bass at her family’s home. I took the double bass, and we were jamming together. Their father liked it very much and said, ‘You have to marry her because we need a good bass player in the family.’”

LISTEN TO THE New Classical Tracks INTERVIEW