Monday 31 August 2026

Sydney Symphony Orchestra 

Sydney Opera House

Photos by Ken Leanfore

Review by Paul Neeson (Arts Wednesday)

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In the competitive world of concert pianists, Lucas and Arthur Jussen have carved out a unique niche for themselves: a rare find as a virtuoso piano duo. Their absolute synchronisation of mind and body is what you’d expect in identical twins, but their three year age difference belies a common misconception. As boys, these two must have spent hours every day, side by side on the piano stool. They would literally have been joined at the hip. And we are privileged to benefit from their dedication.

The program comprised four works, if not performed strictly in chronological order, they portrayed the development in compositional style over 250 years. Mozart’s Sonata in D for piano, four hands opened the show. Musicologists believe it was written as a show piece to display the talents of Mozart and his sister, Nannerl, as part of the travelling family business of exhibition recitals to crowned heads. In the hands of the Jussen brothers it was little more than a warm up to get the feel of the hall and the audience. The early classical format clearly defines the sections of music with perfect cadences making it easy to listen to.

Schubert on the other hand, in his Fantasia in D minor – again for four hands on one piano – was one of his last compositions and by then he had embraced the chromatic harmony of the Romantic period. Schubert’s melodies are beautiful, meandering over constantly evolving harmonies, transitioning through unexpected keys. The Jussen’s sensitivity brought out all the emotions navigating the shifts between light and shade, melancholy and joy, with a depth of feeling that the audience responded to with a rapturous pleasure and gusto.

Time to utilise the 2nd grand piano onstage for Ravel’s La Valse – poème chorégraphique, the 1920 version for two pianos. After having the score rejected by the impresario Diaghilev, he created a stand alone piece that was eventually orchestrated. It depicts a waltz, but a dark and menacing out-of-control dance, in the mould of the tarentella where the dancer, having been bitten by a tarantula, dances themself to death. The emotional content is ramped up to maximum, almost to automatism, where it becomes impossible to write the notes, instead demanding the music to cease with double full-keyboard glissandi. And our pianists were very physical in their performance, often rising from the stool with sweeping body movements.

And finally a work that was a successful Diaghilev commission, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Let’s start with the rhythm. The complexities of the rhythm is created by the composer’s rejection of time signatures, but using building blocks of quavers, the number of quavers being entirely arbitrary. This leads to constant chopping and changing of metre and the superimposing of complex counter-rhythms. Watching the two bothers negotiate these demands, we soon noticed how entirely in sync they were with each other. Complex rhythmical blocs and melodic motifs moved from one piano to the other seamlessly, and only a keen observer would be able to pick the moment when that occurred. 

The two piano score predates the famous orchestral version that caused the riot at the Ballet Russe. That score is famous for it’s unique use of orchestral colour, from the opening plaintive bassoon solo, to the sharp tutti stabs in a violent unpredictable rhythm. The Jussens evoked all those colours and so much more. The quiet sustained woodwinds were beautifully represented by gentle tremolos and trills. We heard the brass, the timapani, the winds and we felt the percussion and the full orchestral tutti – was all that really coming from two pianos?

What we witnessed was virtuosic brilliance, a vast emotional range and technical perfection. Every note was played from memory. It was like watching and listening to one mind with four hands. All those years sitting side by side on the piano stool was definitely worth it. The brothers were obviously overwhelmed and humbled by the riotous reaction from the audience, and quietly acknowledged our appreciation, before introducing the most sublime choice of encore – JS Bach (arr. Kurtag)  Zeit ist die allerbeste Zeit. What a night of next level music-making we were privileged to enjoy.