Nello specchio di Rossini – In Rossini’s Mirror

Lucas and Arthur Jussen grew up in a musical environment in Hilversum. Their mother teaches transverse flute, and their father is a percussionist in the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. It is likely that they did their first finger exercises as early as in the stroller. As their mother tells it, the two brothers made almost identical progress at the piano from the very beginning, so much so that they were hardly distinguishable.
Today, they conquer the world’s greatest concert halls with their virtuosity and charisma. Felix Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Two Pianos in E Major is a stroke of genius, composed when he was only fourteen years old. The young composer gave it to his sister, Fanny, for her 18th birthday, and premiered it with her. Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 6, also called “The Little C Major,” marks a turning point in his output. At the time of composition, Vienna was engulfed in a“Rossini fever,” an irrepressible enthusiasm for his operas, including “The Barber of Seville.” A hallmark of Rossini was the famous crescendo, in which the musical movement gradually accelerates and intensifies. Schubert, too, could not escape this fascination. His admiration for Rossini’s timbral originality, melodic grace, and cantabile lines is clearly reflected in the Sixth Symphony.