Lucas & Arthur Jussen

Charlotte Observer
Friday, Apr. 26, 2013
By Lawrence Toppman

If there were justice in the musical world, the list of popular young blond guys beginning with “J” would include not only Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers but the Jussens.
Alas, the Dutch siblings are old enough now – Lucas is 20, Arthur 16 – to know how the world works, so they couldn’t have expected Belk Theater to be crammed with people waiting to hear Mozart’s Double Piano Concerto Friday night. But the many who came saw pianists playing with assured, dignified elegance few musicians of their parents’ generation could muster. Their playing recalled Antonin Dvorak’s claim: “Mozart is sunshine,” warming and nourishing.

Friday 5 April 2013

Since April 2013, the piano duo Arthur and Lucas Jussen belongs to the crack troops of the Steinway Artists, which makes them the youngest Steinway Artist Piano Duo in the world. As soloist, too, Arthur and Lucas met the strict selection criteria of Steinway & Sons in Hamburg and New York.

Lucas Jussen: “I already spotted our names in the Steinway Artist Roster, among great pianists such as Horowitz, Rubinstein and Lang Lang. We are proud to be part of the Steinway family. Over the years we have become very attached to the brand.”

Affiliation as a Steinway Artist connects the Artists with Steinway & Sons and with each other. They can call upon the knowhow, service and the network of Steinway from any place on the globe. The pianists endorse that they do prefer playing on a Steinway grand piano, as this instrument allows them to perform at the highest level.

Eindhovens Dagblad – 11 March 2013
Philipszaal Eindhoven – Mozart’s so-called Lodron concerto in the version for two pianos, with the Brabant Orchestra conducted by Jan Willem de Vriend – Sunday 10 March 2013
by Cornélie Hoendervanger

(…) The young pianists Lucas and Arthur Jussen played their solo parties in a playful way and with a beautiful sparkling touch. Their timing is perfect, their dynamic gradations extremely balanced. Jan Willem de Vriend and the Brabant Orchestra dedicatedly parried the illustrious brothers, however, a little too robustly. Mozart became a glorious success, obviously also with the many youths in the sold-out hall. Together, both seated on their half of the stool at one single grand piano, the Jussens played Schubert’s Fantasy in F minor, an enchanting melancholic masterpiece for quatre-mains. The expressive melodiousness and the ensemble appeared very natural and organic. The structuring of the difficult final fugue really was a clever achievement. The deep stillness can grow a little more, but it was compensated by a charming directness (…)

Self-willedness and joy of playing in De Doelen
De Volkskrant – 12 March 2013

*****
by Biëlla Luttmer
photo: Marco Borggreve

De Doelen succeeded in achieving what every concert hall dreams of: a full house with a remarkable number of young faces. They are fans of the piano brothers Jussen, who with their 16 and 19 years have been booked for concerts in the United States and Japan, and have a recording contract with the chic label Deutsche Grammophon. In Rotterdam, Arthur, the youngest one, played Schumann’s cycle called Papillons. His brother Lucas signed for Schubert’s late Impromptu in B flat.
(…)
The youngest brother gave a personal rendition of the various characters in Papillons in a very loving manner, but did not really touch all of them in the heart. Lucas Jussen is further, he gave Schubert’s Impromptu a remarkably high level of meaningfulness and fluent sound power. In Ma mère l’oye, Ravel’s fairy tale cycle for two pianists, the brothers joined their sparkling enthusiasm. With all their success, they still want to enjoy the music. You smell it, you feel it, that’s what you take home with you.

Emder Zeitung, February 18th, 2013 – by Ina Wagner
The Noord Nederlands Orkest from Groningen excited the audience in Emden
(…)
Because with a CD recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 played by the 19-year-old Lucas Jussen, one may very well expect artistic perfection and depth of expression. But the fact that Jussen succeeded to perform this complex work live in such a light, fresh and unpretentious manner delighted the audience. His fellow musicians and the conductor applauded the young Dutchman as well.
There are times when talents appear on the scene that make you speechless. It is a beautiful thing that such a talent, who is yet at the very beginning of his career, gave a performance in Emden. (…)

Lucas Jussen has already won numerous awards. Performing at the Neues Theater in Emden, his audience was at times left in breathless amazement.

By Werner Zwarte
Ostfriesen Zeitung – February 18th, 2013

EMDEN – The classical music concert series in Emden has provided yet another jewel. On Saturday, the 80-member strong Noord Nederlands Orkest Groningen gave a concert performance at the Neues Theater in Emden, in which musical vigor was mixed with the brilliance and genius of a 19-year-old “wunderkind” at the piano. Approximately 500 listeners enjoyed an evening worthy of larger venues in major cities. (…)
Multiple award-winning pianist Lucas Jussen is only 19 years old and he plays as if he was born with a piano. With long blond hair, lanky and in tails, the young man not only displayed technical perfection in Emden, but, accompanied by the powerful orchestra, played with a sensitivity that at times elicited breathless amazement in the audience. Like an ad-lib introduction, seeming to be an improvisation, the sounds of the piano merged with the orchestra playing the main theme, with a beautifully soft accompaniment by the horns. It featured sound groups in juxtaposition with each other, leading to an effect of choirs within the orchestra. And always the theme by the piano, at times sounding playful, at other times dominant, finally flowing into the festive rondo. It was a more than masterful presentation. The audience was swept away and even before the intermission the applause was rewarded with an encore by the artist. (…)

There was a big Friday night party at the Beatrix Theater in Utrecht. Queen Beatrix is celebrating her 75th birthday there with almost the entire family and staff. The birthday guests were treated to a wonderful show in the theatre by the ballet company Introdans, and Arthur and Lucas gave a concert. They played works by Ravel, Liszt and Chopin separately, and pieces for four hands including the Maria Isabella Waltz and the Polka by Berio. It was a very special evening!

28 January 2013
Interview with Lucas Jussen by Michiel Cleij
Beethoven with the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra (NNO)

Beethoven’s fifth and last piano concerto has been a challenge for many a piano star for over two centuries. It is an imposing, expressive work, with a virtuoso solo part. Lucas Jussen (19) has his own reasons for challenging the piece. In February he is performing it with the NNO – for which he will come back from America ‘for a bit’.

Lucas Jussen mentions that he is ‘just in the Netherlands for a bit’ – the type of remark that you could expect from the greatest stage celebrities. But Lucas says it without any trace of boastfulness. He has been pursuing his piano studies in Bloomington, USA since last summer, and he comes over for concerts almost every month. He does his homework on the plane. His American teacher is no less a person than Menahem Pressler, founding member and permanent pianist of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio. How did he come to meet such an éminence grise?
“Through Maria João Pires. Yes, I know. You might have noticed by now that I mention her name in every interview, but she played such a decisive role in my and Arthur’s career. We both took lessons from her, and she was the perfect teacher – so much so that it is difficult to imagine that you could ever click with another teacher. But when you are young you can’t become too attached to one patron; perhaps she understood that better than I did. She knows Menahem Pressler, and she arranged a meeting when he was in Europe on tour. I played for him in Germany, and he was willing to teach me if I would come to his institute in Bloomington.”

“I’m learning a lot from Pressler. Sometimes it is difficult to make a selection from everything he says. You learn the most from his immense wisdom. As someone in his eighties, of course he has vast knowledge, and definitely a rich inner life. This enables him to really penetrate a piece of music: he is very sharp if you are not true to the score. I think he understands better than anyone what the composer meant in a certain piece, or a particular passage. He says that I interpret too much sometimes, which means that I am playing something that the score doesn’t say, without realising it myself. He can’t stand that. But of course he knows that there is more to making music than slavishly following the score – you always have to add something of yourself. Pressler is immensely helpful in finding the right balance in this.”

Eindhovens Dagblad
Lucas and Arthur Jussen piano recital.
Performed in Eindhoven, Muziekgebouw, 6 November.
by Cornélie Hoendervanger

From an early age, the prodigies Lucas (b. 1993) and Arthur (b. 1996) Jussen from Hilversum were put on the great stages. But they still managed remained ‘normal’ lads, who also loved football and pop music. Arthur is still in school and Lucas is studying with the American pianist Menahem Pressler. They are now entering the real pianists’ circuit, and on Tuesday they gave a recital in the ‘Pour le Piano’ series at the Eindhoven Muziekgebouw.
The brothers have superlative skills and played with unadorned musicality and natural ease. Lucas played a beautiful and flowing interpretation of Schumann’s Abegg variations. His Appassionata by Beethoven still lacks dramatic maturity, but his intense concentration was remarkable. Arthur played exceptionally poetic Papillons by Schumann, finely elaborated Rachmaninoff preludes, and exciting Balkan Dances by Tajčević. They were masterly and fascinating.
The brothers began and ended the concert at the grand piano together, side by side on one bench. Their duet performance revealed a dazzlingly high level. The wildly enthusiastic listeners, including noticeably many young people, went practically crazy.
The Jussens are in a good position to create a bridge to the youth. They are ‘cool’ and have a charismatic stage presence. Their performances could spread like ‘classical wildfire’ among the young. Once the older folks in the concert hall have departed, a new generation of piano lovers will be ready to take their place.

On 31 October and 1 and 4 November 2012, Arthur and Lucas debuted with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam with Mozart’s Concerto for 2 pianos. Listen here to the AVRO – Zondagmiddagconcert (Sunday Afternoon Concert), recorded and broadcast on 4 November. Arthur and Lucas can be heard in Mozart from 17’00”. As an encore, they played the Waltz from the Suite for 2 pianos op.15 by Anton Arensky, which can be listened from approx. 45’00”, followed by a short interview with Lucas and Arthur from the Concertgebouw.