Their relationship may be singular. The heroes of the string family, violinists are more likely to take up with violists or cellists. No competition that way.
Besides being violinists, Jansen and Rachlin are of such similar musical stature that both have Philadelphia Orchestra appearances this year: Rachlin plays Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 2 Thursday to Saturday at the Kimmel Center; Jansen plays the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 April 19 to 21.
The fact that their dates don't even begin to coincide sums up the central dilemma that arises from each of them being equally famous and at a time in life when opportunities must be seized. "Right now I'm in Hamburg; he's in Munich," Jansen says a bit sadly. "They aren't so far away, but. . . ."
Concerts must be played - about 100 apiece annually. They usually grab five days a month together, either at her home outside of Utrecht in the Netherlands or, more likely, his place in more centrally located Vienna. "As a soloist, you spend your main time on the road by yourself. It's just the nature of the profession," Rachlin says. "Our phone bills have been horrendous."
Fatuous as the celebrity aspects of their lives might seem, nobody would draw parallels between them and their film- and sports-star counterparts if they didn't have the profile and staying power of true artists. Though Jansen comes across like some crossover violin babe on her CD covers - she has the looks for it and writes chatty, personalized program notes - her reading of the overexposed Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on the Decca label projects a serious, considered and personal relationship with every phrase.
