Playing to a live audience what keeps Dutch piano brothers inspired

In the beginning you want everything, Lucas Jussen says — travelling the world, playing the big concert houses, performing with the greats. "You want to go there,” he says. Lucas and his brother Arthur are a piano duo from the Netherlands who for the past 10 years have done exactly that, travelled and performed. [Missing Credit]The Jussen Brothers. Photo: Jesaja Hizkia "That has been our life. We’ve done everything and we’ve enjoyed it very much.” But, Lucas admits it slowly gets to the point where the place they want to be is home. "You know, cooking on a Tuesday evening, sitting with your wife on the couch and looking at some politician trying to explain why we have another right-wing government here in the Netherlands, something like that, which sounds very boring. And actually it is. But sometimes you can just wish that you can do that.” Arthur agrees, saying they like the normal life and family is very important to them as well as sports. "We love sports. We play tennis a lot. We love football. We used to play football, now not so much anymore, because you have to play as a team and we are often not there.” But it is football that started it all for them. Watching the Netherlands play in a Fifa World Cup as young children, Lucas heard the national anthem. “I liked that national anthem very much. I still think we do have a very beautiful and very nice national anthem.” His mother, a flautist and teacher, offered to teach him the tune on the piano “just as a kind of joke” but he took her up on it. Seeing how much he enjoyed playing, his parents suggested he take lessons. “It's a mixed factor of just being interested in the instrument, having our parents, who are musicians as well and obviously fed us a lot of interest into classical music and into instruments but it's also because of football which is very important still to us.” Arthur, three years younger, was in the background listening to his brother practise. “And as a young brother, you want what your older brother already does, right? So I followed in his footsteps. And I was very happy that when I was 5 years old, I would also play the piano. So I got inspired by Lucas.” [Missing Credit]The Jussen brothers have been playing the piano since they were five years old. Photo: Dirk Kikstra Their piano teacher suggested they play together soon after. “That's the way we also enjoyed it the most. From that moment on, we realised that making music together is very nice and something that we enjoy very much,” Arthur says. They have continued to play together ever since. "We love being on stage. That is the place where we feel very comfortable and what we enjoy. We always prepare very well. So when we're on stage, we really also try to enjoy the music, enjoy the audience, enjoy the surroundings, wherever we are.” Performing together also means travelling together. "Because we are very much on the road and the life can be quite lonely as well.” Lucas says after concerts can be quite hard for musicians, when everything is closed, they are a little hungry and their hotel might not be very nice. "Those evenings are also in there and they're not the nicest ones. And the fact that we get to go through that with the two [of us] and we're always able to have a laugh about it and to say, ‘Hey, come on, but tomorrow or next week we're going to New Zealand and Australia’. That's fun.” They are both very grateful for their relationship Lucas, who finished his studies with Menahem Pressler in the United States and Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid, does not believe he could have built such a career with anyone but his brother. "I think the way of comfort that we have reached in playing, but also in being together while travelling and while having this life, is something that I don't see myself achieving with anyone else. "I think we understand each other very good musically, but also on a personal level. And maybe in the long run for this career, the personal level is even more important.” They have the same music interest on and off stage. Off stage it is “the oldies” — Frank Sinatra, James Brown, Stevie Wonder — and they are big fans of Bruno Mars. "But when we are on stage it is purely classical. Even though we do have discussions sometimes about which direction we want to go musically in a piece, I think for really the most part, we are exactly on the same line and we want the same things.” [Missing Credit]The Jussen brothers play Beethoven in Haarlem in 2012. Photo Performing together means they have less freedom as they adapt to each other’s playing but conversely also more freedom, Arthur, who completed his studies with Jan Wijn at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam, says. "It's very important to sound almost like one musician. And we try to do that. But, actually, I feel very free when I play together with Lucas. “And I think the main aspect of that is that we both try to adapt to each other each second, almost each millisecond. So I listen to Lucas, where he's going, what he wants. And Lucas does the same with me. " And especially in a live performance is very beautiful because a lot of things can happen. We can take risks. And sometimes it goes very well. Sometimes you also make a mistake. But that is the beauty of a live concert.” There is no ego involved and when it all comes together it is a “beautiful feeling’’, he says. "I think that is what I enjoy most to feel absolutely free while I'm playing together with Lucas.” Unlike other musicians, pianists do not have the luxury of travelling with their instruments, but the Jussens like having to adapt each concert to the sound of a new piano. "You have to work with that, make it work. If you play on the same piano all the time, you know how it works. You kind of get lazy a little bit as well. So we might be a little bit strange in that, but we like it,” Lucas says. When they play on a piano each, they can find each sounds different. "That's life. And we think that's beautiful instead of trying to perfect everything and keep the differences as small as possible. Now, I'm not saying that any tuner that tunes for us has to try to make the pianos very different. Go for a unison sound. Please try to achieve that. But if it's not the case and they're different, hey, we like that as well. We'll make it work and keep things fresh.” They are inspired by many different things, from their teachers such as Maria Joao Pires, a Portuguese pianist, to the many conductors, orchestras and musicians they perform with. "Apart from that, it can be anything. It can be politicians, it can be sports. Mathieu van der Poel, who is a Dutch cyclist, won the last stage in the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysees this year in such an amazing way. I mean, that's pure art as well.” Given their career to date has taken to them around the world, picking a highlight is difficult, they say. Their debut in Salzburg, Austria, was not in a big hall but was memorable. "I remember very well that it was so special. It was so special to feel the soul of Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, in that city,” Arthur says. [Missing Credit]The Jussen brothers were part of a concert for Queen Beatrix's 75th birthday. Photo: Supplied This year they made their debut with the Berlin Philharmonia. "That was definitely an achievement. To play in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, actually very near where we live, is always a very, very special place. We will make our debut this year in Carnegie Hall, where we never played. So hopefully that's going to be a highlight too. And of course, the tour in New Zealand and Australia is this year a big highlight.” Their tour of New Zealand is broken in two, with one programme designed for two pianos and the other for one. In Dunedin they will play one piano and aim to show lots of different elements of the duo repertoire, including Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn. "We think Mozart is always a great way to start. It's almost like opening up the first bottle of bubbles when the evening starts. It's festive, it's fresh, it's elegant, it gets you going.” Schubert’s Fantasie is “definitely up there” in the top three pieces for piano duo, they say. "I mean, people can argue about that, but the fact is that it's one of the masterpieces for a duo piano. Beautiful. A roller-coaster of emotions, but heartbreakingly beautiful.” After a “virtuosic” end with Mendelssohn before the break, they play the Rite of Spring. "To this day, every time when I play it, it still feels absolutely new and modern and incredible how one can think of such music and compose such music.” The pair are also seasoned recorders of music. Their debut recording of works by Beethoven went platinum and won the Edison Klassiek Audience Award. This was followed by a Schubert CD and the album Jeux featuring French piano music. In 2015, a recording of Mozart’s concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields under Sir Neville Marriner was released, achieving gold status. [Missing Credit]The Jussen brothers are presented their platinum award for Aangenaam Klassiek in 2013. Photo: Supplied Their latest recording, Dutch Masters (April 2022), was awarded an Edison Klassiek and the audience prize. “I think we're quite proud of the different pieces that we recorded.” However, Arthur says, they enjoy performing more. "As an artist, making records is part of your identity as well. So we are proud of the records we made and we now cherish them. But when it comes to what do you enjoy more, I definitely have to say that we enjoy playing live in front of an audience more.” They are looking forward to their trip to New Zealand. “It's a big honour for us, a big pleasure. And we will try to play as beautiful as we can.” To see: Lucas & Arthur Jussen, piano duo in Dunedin, August 21 at 7.30pm, Glenroy Auditorium