Michael Sanderling and the piano duo Lucas & Arthur Jussen
The brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen have revitalised the piano duo genre with their relaxed manner and the perfect harmony of their playing. They make their debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker with a work which another pair of siblings played to great success: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote his Concerto for Two Pianos for himself and his sister Nannerl. Michael Sanderling will also conduct Johannes Brahms’s First Piano Quartet in the sumptuous orchestral version by Arnold Schoenberg.
In 1777, Maria Anna Mozart, known as Nannerl, wrote to her brother: “So kiss mamma’s hands, you lout! And you, you rascal! I’ll give you a big kiss.” The tone suggests how close and warm the relationship between the siblings must have been. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart valued his sister not only as a family member, but also as a pianist: he composed the charming and lively Concerto for Two Pianos for them as a duo. It calls for an equal dialogue between the soloists, with both playing with the same technical skill, which shows how highly Mozart rated Nannerl’s abilities – including, incidentally, as a composer. However, Maria Anna Mozart was denied a career as a sibling duo and further development as a musician due to the expectations placed on her as a woman at the time.
In Nikolaus Lenau’s story, Faust strives not for knowledge, as in Goethe, but for divine omnipotence. This clearly appealed to the literate Franz Liszt, who in 1860 chose two episodes from Lenau’s Faust to set to music, including Der Tanz in der Dorfschenke (The Dance in the Village Inn). Paganini, the “devil’s violinist”, who Liszt greatly admired, probably served as inspiration for this scene, in which Mephisto strikes up a wild dance on the violin, to which Faust disappears into the night with a girl.
Following his debut in 2019, Michael Sanderling returns to conduct the Philharmoniker, and concludes this piano-centred programme with Johannes Brahms’s Piano Quartet No. 1 – a spirited work that Arnold Schoenberg elevated to symphonic grandeur through his brilliant orchestration.
© 2026 Berlin Phil Media GmbH
