TWO-HEADED PIANO

Lucas and Arthur Jussen have been performing at the highest level for two and a half years. Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos is a bravura work, as if tailor-made for these Dutch brothers. In the words of critic Alexander Hall, ‘it was like watching two boys pulling out from a gigantic box of toys one brightly coloured bauble after another, all managed with lightning precision and breathtaking coordination.’

Gabriel Fauré’s works are among the most important contributions to French symbolism. Pelléas et Mélisande, with its hazy stirrings of emotion rising from the mists, set an example for Claude Debussy, Jean Sibelius and Arnold Schoenberg, who later took up the same story.

Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska, who has recently appeared with orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra, here conducts the Lahti Symphony Orchestra for the first time.