After all the drama of cancelled concerts on tour earlier this season, and with their chief conductor Lahav Shani sitting high in the Concertgebouw balcony, the Munich Philharmonic’s 2025 Winter tour under guest conductor Tugan Sokhiev and local favourites Lucas and Arthur Jussen was a joyful affair.
The programme
The concerto
Dressed in matching shiny, midnight-blue suits, the Jussen brothers descended the famous Concertgebouw stairs for a performance of their favourite work, Poulenc’s Piano Concerto for Two Pianos – a work they first played here in 2009 and subsequently recorded in 2017. With tentative indications that they are examining what the future may hold, how many more performances will there be from this most celebrated Dutch piano duo who have taken the world by storm?
Immaculate ensemble and a very percussive opening created a chamber-like feel. With jazzy trumpets and Spanish castanets running riot, rhythm pulsated through both pianists’ veins. Segueing seamlessly into the trance-like second theme, the pianos wallowed in Poulenc’s delicious dissonances, creating a sultry 1920s Parisian nightclub feel. Velvety ascending scales punctuated by shimmering trills depicted party girls, just having fun. The spectacle continued: a one-man-band percussion section, lower strings evoking hazy summer nights, and pianos luxuriating in gamelan-inspired exoticism inspired by a Poulenc’s visit to the Paris Exposition (1931). All echoed by equally bell-like cellos. Something different at every turn.
The naïve simplicity of their Larghetto contrasted starkly with the quirky tussles of the Finale. Delicate trumpets, a looming tuba and relentless piano turns (conjuring Scott Joplin rags) sat comfortably alongside impressionist swathes of colour. A pot-pourri of French lusciousness punctuated with military precision by that lone percussionist and his military drum. The brothers’ skill and vitality in keeping everything fresh and alive was impressive.
Returning to the stage, Poulenc’s Sonata for Four Hands rang true. Their coordinated head movements articulating the jazzy rhythms, soon had the audience on their feet… again!
A sea of calm
The rest of the evening was dominated by an overwhelming sea of calm. In Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture, Sokhiev gave time for all to inhale the Scottish wonders before the weather swiftly changed, whipping up a storm and sending us packing, high up those rugged and jagged Scottish Highlands.
Effortless calm continued in Tchaikovsky’s restrained yet emphatic Fourth Symphony. Sokhiev, the master of music that restores hope amidst a sea of darkness. As triumphant horns and trumpets vied in Tchaikovsky’s fateful theme, the audience burst into applause. Attentive cellos answered a soulful oboe as rich double bass pizzicatos doused in generous vibrato, granted all a dignified reverence. Ravishing, lingering solos culminating in opaque flute clarity contrasted starkly with plunging cellos and pathos-filled bassoons. Utterly divine.
The Scherzo’s sprightly pizzicato full of cheeky accents, evoked fluttering tutus. But it was the visual display of string players’ hands, ascending and descending fingerboards in unison, which will stay in the mind. A raucous cymbal crash signalled the end was nigh; doom-laden lower brass set against delicate and beautifully phrased triangle chimes. Those seductive bass pedals, offering more than a glimmer of hope.
Gopak’s The Fair at Sorochintsy sent the Dutch audience on their way. The Munich Philharmonic offering joy and sorrow in equal measure.
This concert was reviewed at the Concertgebouw on Wednesday 26th November, 2025
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