Resident artists season 24-25
Pianists
Lucas and Arthur Jussen are among the most sought-after piano duos of our time. In view of their illustrious international career, one could remark that the Jussen brothers (30 and 26) are the Netherland’s pre-eminent ambassadors for classical music. With their energetic, almost symbiotic playing, their great refinement of sound and gripping interpretations, they are praised vigorously by press and audiences alike. ‘It is like driving a pair of BMWs’, exclaimed conductor Michael Schønwandt about the two pianists after directing them in concert.
The Jussen brothers have performed with eminent orchestras internationally, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra, Concertgebouworkest, Budapest Festival Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester, the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, as well as the Montréal, Sydney, Singapore and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. They collaborate with the likes of renowned conductors such as Andris Nelsons, Christoph Eschenbach, Iván Fischer, Sir Neville Marriner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Jaap van Zweden.
In August 2023, Lucas and Arthur Jussen performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Kazuki Yamada at the Tanglewood Festival. This will be followed by festival appearances at the Rheingau Musik Festival, Gstaad and Amsterdam. With the Sinfonieorchester Basel they open the 2023/24 concert season in the city of Basel. Further highlights of the new season include debuts with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Wiener Symphoniker, Philharmonia Orchestra London and Taiwan Philharmonic. Other guest engagements take them back to the Münchner Philharmoniker, WDR Sinfonieorchester, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. They perform the concerto “Anka kuşu” (Phoenix), written for them by Fazıl Say, with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and on tour with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. Touring projects take them around Europe along with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. This season they are “Artists in Residence” with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi. In recital they can be heard in Hamburg, Berlin, Bratislava, Prague, Antwerp, Brussels, Chicago, Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Recording exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon since 2010, their debut recording with works by Beethoven received platinum status and was awarded the Edison Klassiek audience award. A Schubert recording and Jeux, a recording dedicated to French piano music, were subsequently released. Their recording of Mozart’s piano concertos KV 365 and KV 242 together with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Sir Neville Marriner reached gold status. The Jussen brothers also recorded Poulenc’s double piano concerto and Saint-Saëns’ ‘The Carnival of the Animals’ with the Concertgebouworkest and Stéphane Denève, as well as concertos and chorales by Bach with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta. On “The Russian Album” (March 2021) they interpret works for two pianos by Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky and Arensky. The latest addition to their discography is “Dutch Masters” (April 2022) which is devoted to works by Dutch composers, in collaboration with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Karina Canellakis. The recording was awarded an Edison Klassiek in the category “Chamber Music”, as well as the audience award in September 2022.
Lucas and Arthur received their first piano lessons in their native town of Hilversum. As children, they were invited to perform for the Dutch Queen Beatrix. Then distinctions and awards in competitions followed. In 2005, the brothers met the Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires. During the following years they took lessons from both Pires and renowned Dutch teachers. Lucas completed his studies with Menahem Pressler in the US and with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid. Arthur graduated from the Amsterdam Conservatory, where he studied with Jan Wijn.
COULD YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELVES IN A FEW WORDS?
We are Arthur and Lucas Jussen, two brothers, two pianists. We play together four hands and also on two pianos. It all started with a funny story… During the 1998 Football World Cup, the Netherlands performed well and we heard the Dutch national anthem before each match, which we found very beautiful. We had a piano at home and Lucas loved the melody so much that our mother suggested he learn it. So it was thanks to football that we started playing the piano! We get along very well, had the same teacher, who suggested we play as a duo. We’ve been playing together ever since! We loved it, and therefore immediately tackled the duo repertoire.
WHAT ARE THE HIGHLIGHTS OF OUR CARRIER?
There’s different kind of highlights in our young carrier and we have a lot of cherish memories. Perhaps the first one was playing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at ages 12 and 15, a huge honor at such a young age. Later, we played for the King and Queen of the Netherlands on a state visit to Australia, where we performed at the Sydney Opera House. Playing for the very first time with an American orchestra – the Boston Symphony Orchestra – under the direction of Andris Nelsons, was also a highlight of our journey. If all these concerts are memorable, we also remember our concerts in Salzburg, in a small auditorium with about 200 people. We felt the history, the spirit of Mozart and all the great composers who passed through this place. At the end, it is not the size of the room or the concert that matters, but the atmosphere that emanates from it.
WHAT DO YOU EXPECT FROM THIS RESIDENCY AT THE ORCHESTRE PHILHARMONIQUE DE MONTE-CARLO?
We hope to share good times with the musicians and offer the public memorable concerts with quality music. We wish to highlight the diversity of the repertoire offered by our duo. Most people think that it is a “poor area” of the classical music, but in reality it is full of treasures and we are really happy to share with the OPMC all the diversity it contains: from Mozart to Poulenc , through Stravinsky and even contemporary pieces.
YOU HAVE ALREADY PLAYED WITH THE OPMC: WHAT IS YOUR PERCEPTION OF IT AND WHAT ARE THE LINKS THAT UNITE YOU?
We have already played with the orchestra musicians during the Mozart Festival and it was an excellent time. We love their vision of music, very free and open to ideas. Perhaps it has to do with their fantastic music director, Kazuki Yamada, who has an innate sense of music. We remember the concerto we played in Monaco, which we played very often but to which he brought so many fresh ideas that it was an entirely new Mozart for us! We hope to experience more moments like this with the orchestra. In addition, we would like to thank Didier de Cottignies, open to new ideas and new repertoires. As you have understood, we are looking forward to playing with the OPMC and very honored to be artists in residence.
Grande Saison
SEPTEMBER 15, 2024
APRIL 13, 2025
JUNE 22, 2025
Concerts at the Prince’s Palace
JULY 20, 2025
