Piano four hands and piano duos
György and Marta Kurtag, Robert and Clara Schumann or Maurice Ravel and Ricardo Viñes. Music history already proved that on a keyboard, bonds are forged for life. Musicians can sit together at one piano (piano four hands or quatre-mains) or play two pianos that enclose each other like puzzle pieces (piano duo).
Brothers Lucas and Artur Jussen
Dutch brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen have been playing the piano together since they were very young, then with raised pedals so they could make music. Fortunately, their talent also grew rapidly. The now world-famous duo will play a new piano concerto written for them by Fazil Say on 26 September: Anka kuşu. Lucas, three years older, takes care of the higher notes (and thus the right side of the piano), Arthur the lower part. What connects them is that brand new score full of oriental rhythms and unusual timbres.
Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy
They collided in the corridors of the Moscow Conservatory and have been inseparable ever since. The (keyboard) couple Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy live together in London and thus share more than just a love of music. With piano works for four hands, they enter difficult territory: they bring an eminently domestic genre to the stage. From intimate to extroverted. ‘Sharing a piano with four hands presupposes that you think together, breathe together,’ Tsoy explains, ’It's a togetherness of an exceptional level, a level you cannot achieve without being very close.’ The duo will play at Bozar on 1 November.
The sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque
Since their first recording of Olivier Messiaen's Les Visions de l'Amen in 1970, sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque have been ambassadors of contemporary classical music, but jazz and baroque also brought them unprecedented successes. During Ars Musica, both can be seen twice! On 16 November with Belgian National Orchestra in a programme full of new music and on 23 November as one half of Dream House Quartet, together with composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National) and David Chalmin (Trio Triple Sun).
The two pairs of two hands of the abovementioned duos will once again be hopping over the keys of the Steinway grand pianos of Pianos Maene, a long-standing and loyal partner of Bozar. Pianos Maene shares our passion for music and knows that every note carries a ton of emotions. Like the Centre for Fine Arts, the company builds on a rich history in which tradition and innovation go hand in hand, as close as a piano four hands.
