Lucas (left) and Arthur Jussen, coming to Canberra. Photo provided.
By Helen Musa
There may be plenty of jokes about the “double Dutch” brothers, but there is nothing remotely funny about the extraordinary musical talents of Lucas and Arthur Jussen, one of the world’s leading piano duos.
The famed Dutch brothers, who recently made their BBC Proms debut at London’s Royal Albert Hall after appearing as soloists with the Berlin Philharmonic, are now bringing their acclaimed four hand partnership to Canberra for their Australian debut tour.
At the piano, the brothers are said to breathe as one, listening and responding to each other instinctively, shaping phrases together and creating a sound both thrilling and intimate.
Born in 1993 and 1996, Lucas and Arthur Jussen have become among the most sought after piano duos of their generation, earning praise for their energetic, almost symbiotic playing, refinement of sound and gripping interpretations.
Their international reputation has seen them perform as soloists with some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, making the brothers leading ambassadors for classical music from the Netherlands.
They have recorded exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon since 2010, with their debut album of Beethoven works achieving platinum status and winning the Edison Klassiek Audience Award. Conductor Michael Schønwandt summed up their partnership after directing them in concert with the observation that it was “like driving a pair of BMWs”.
Their Canberra program at Snow Concert Hall will showcase the full range of their musicianship, beginning with Mozart, Schubert and Mendelssohn.
After interval, the program takes a dramatic turn with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, performed in the composer’s own version for piano four hands.
One of the most revolutionary works in music, The Rite of Spring is already renowned for its raw energy, but the four hand arrangement, its elemental force is concentrated into a single piano and two performers, demanding extraordinary precision, virtuosity and complete trust between the players.
The Jussen Brothers perform at Snow Concert Hall on Friday, August 28.
The former Bonegilla migrant camp near Albury-Wodonga
Thousands of post-war migrants passed through the Bonegilla migrant camp near Albury-Wodonga. So Bonegilla – The Migrant’s Journey is likely to strike a particularly resonant chord with ACT audiences, writes HELEN MUSA.
For many Canberra families, the story of Bonegilla is also part of their own story.
Thousands of post-war migrants passed through the migrant camp near Albury-Wodonga, with many going on to work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme before eventually putting down roots in Canberra.
So Bonegilla – The Migrant’s Journey, a multimedia work coming to Belco Arts on August 28, is likely to strike a particularly resonant chord with ACT audiences.
Creator Simon Reich describes the migrants at the heart of the work as “gutsy pioneers who left everything behind and travelled to a country they knew nothing about”.
The production combines filmed interviews with post-war migrants from across Europe with their photographs, home movies and personal documents.
Two large screens dominate the stage, sometimes creating a screen-within-a-screen, while Reich performs his own original musical score on piano with Ukrainian-born violinist, composer and improvisational specialist Alex Burkoy.
The stage itself is decorated with possessions migrants brought with them on the voyage or used during their early years in Australia, while a sea of LED candles helps create the emotional atmosphere.
For Reich, the project is also deeply personal. His German-born father, Manfred, lived through the final days of World War II in Berlin and was only nine when the war began. The family lived just 50 metres from Hitler’s bunker and waited in terror for the Russians to arrive.
Manfred later spent time at Bonegilla and began working in nearby Wangaratta. Reich says his father’s wartime experiences left him with undiagnosed PTSD, something he came to understand more fully while creating the work.
“I’ve had many descendants come up to me in tears after the show, realising what their parents had gone through,” he says.
Reich himself grew up with the uncomfortable burden of a German surname. At school he was called “the Nazi”, while one classmate famously announced at roll call, “Here comes the Fourth Reich.”
His research has taken him back to Bonegilla itself, where museum staff corrected a common mispronunciation of the name. The original name, he says, is the Koori word “Bone-gilla”, rather than the often-heard “Bona-villa”.
The production unfolds in six chapters, beginning with the journey to Australia and first impressions, moving through camp life and the transition into Australian society, and ending with “Home Sweet Home”.
The darker experiences are not ignored. Migrants speak about war, displacement and racism, but Reich is careful to balance the tragedy with humour, warmth and the often surprising details of starting a new life.
The final chapter looks at what happened when the migrants left the camps and began building their lives in Australia. Many became homeowners within five or six years, either buying or building their own houses, despite having arrived with very little.
“Many of them had left school by 14,” Reich says. “They took up trades and learnt on the job. They were a real inspiration.”
And Australia, he points out, was not their first choice. Many had hoped to go to America, with Australia often an accidental destination.
Yet for many, it worked out. Among their descendants is federal politician Tanya Plibersek, whose Slovenian-born parents came to Australia after the war, passed through Bonegilla and whose father went on to work on the Snowy Mountains Scheme.
Reich says the contemporary relevance of the work is becoming increasingly obvious as questions about multiculturalism and Australia’s identity continue to surface.
He is also finding that the production is bringing families together. Some are booking multiple tickets so children and grandchildren can hear stories their elders have never shared.
“It’s also healing families,” Reich says, particularly because the early part of the show allows migrants to talk openly about their wartime experiences and what motivated them to leave Europe.
The production can be scaled for larger venues, where Reich uses a string quartet, but at the intimate Belco Arts Theatre the music will be created by Reich and Burkoy. The score moves between nostalgia and darker passages, with the musicians sometimes improvising in response to the images on screen.
It is clearly a multimedia show with many moving parts, but Reich says audiences often respond viscerally, even wanting to take photographs in the theatre after the performance.
“Everything works together,” he says. “It’s so topical.”
Bonegilla – The Migrant’s Journey, Belco Arts Theatre, August 28 and 30.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia has partnered with YouTube to recognise 10 of Australia’s most influential creators on the platform, it was announced at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday.
In what they believe is a world first for a national audiovisual archive, the creators will become part of the NFSA’s national audiovisual collection through the inaugural NFSA Creator Capsule.
Together, the 10 creators have a global subscriber base of 84 million and more than 36 billion combined channel views.
The archive will collect 300 videos from the creators, along with oral histories and contextual material about their work and creative processes. It will also preserve associated interactions such as likes, views and comments, providing a snapshot of how audiences have engaged with the material.
The creators will be recognised at an event at Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, August 17.
The archive has in fact been collecting individual YouTube videos since 2013, but the Creator Capsule signals a greater commitment to preserving the audiovisual culture of the 21st century.
“Audiovisual storytelling is the dominant form through which we now express, celebrate and negotiate identity,” NFSA chief curator Meagan Loader said, while Google Australia and New Zealand vice-president and managing director Mel Silva said the partnership would give the creators a permanent place in Australia’s cultural record.
Among those being inducted are Canberra educator Eddie Woo, recognised for his high-energy mathematics lessons that have made classroom learning accessible to millions of people around the world, multi-instrumentalist Tash Sultana and YouTube pioneer Natalie Tran.
Independent animation studio GLITCH, which has achieved international success with series like Murder Drones and The Amazing Digital Circus, joins Outback Boys, whose unscripted filming on Country provides an insight into Yolŋu bushcraft and Superwog in the Creator Capsule.
With 91 per cent of Australian adults using an online service to watch video content each week, the archive says preserving this material is essential to understanding contemporary Australian culture.
Highlights from the Creator Capsule will be featured on the NFSA website.
Many of you, my friends, would be familiar with the BBC radio program Desert Island Discs, yes?
The premise being that you imagine yourself cast away on a desert island and choose eight audio recordings (including specific performances) you would like to take with you.
Here are mine:
Stevie Wonder: Songs in the Key of Life
Steve Miller Band: A Journey from Eden
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess - Cleo Laine and Ray Charles
We Get Requests - Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Ed Thigpen
Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 - Ferenc Fricsay conducting the BPO
Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia - Sir John Barbirolli conducting The Sinfonia of London
Vivaldi: Gloria in D - Kings College Choir Cambridge
Schubert: Lieder on texts of Goethe - Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Six years and $121 million later, the Australian National University finally has its heart back – just in time for its 80th birthday.
University House was one of the buildings damaged in the devastating 2020 hailstorm, which saw thousands of cars written off, homes destroyed and about 80 percent of the ANU campus damaged.
Master of University House, Professor Peter Kanowski, said the building’s age simply meant it couldn’t withstand the original storm, exposing the interior to the elements.
“We’ve got something like 64,000 bespoke roof tiles, and they were more or less 70 years old, and they didn’t stand up to the hailstorms,” he explained.
“All of those tiles got cracked by the hail, so when it rained a few weeks later, the water penetrated the ceiling down through the building, took out the fire system, the building had to be evacuated, and then came COVID.
“And so the building sat empty for two years with only possums living here until the university and its insurers agreed on how we’d repair it.”
It’s taken about 1500 workers to repair the building.
Asbestos, lead and mould damage needed to be remediated before works could even begin. This was followed by the restoration of each roof tile and the replacement of the copper panelling. All the gas pipes were removed, and the building completely electrified and brought up to standard with modern building codes.
Inside, leather and wood panelling needed to be revived and all the damaged furniture painstakingly brought back to life.
Books and artworks weren’t spared, but they’re also back to their original states.
“University House has been the ceremonial heart of the ANU since it was opened in 1954, and for the last six-and-a-half years we haven’t had that heart,” Prof Kanowski said.
“It’s been a hole in the life of the campus, and it’s so wonderful to be back and open again.”
University House includes a Great Hall decorated by the Leonard French mural ‘Regeneration’, multiple recreation and dining rooms (including a famous beer garden), 97 bookable hotel rooms and 60 rooms for postgraduate students.
They feature Fred Ward-designed and built furniture, and the original underfloor heating in the bathrooms.
The building was designed by Professor Brian Lewis and awarded the 1953 Sulman Medal for Architectural Merit.
His son David Lewis (who was seven when the building was originally opened) described University House’s closure as a “deprivation” for both ANU and the community.
“[Having it open again] is obviously great because it adds to the atmosphere … [provides a chance] to meet other people and that’s a real pleasure,” he said.
Master of University House Peter Kanowski (in the Great Hall) says the ANU’s heart is back. Photo: Claire Fenwicke.
Design and oversight of the restoration was undertaken by heritage architects Lovell Chen and the building work by Hindmarsh Construction Australia.
Lovell Chen’s Audrey Ong said the building’s simplicity actually made restoration even more challenging.
“Trying to restore the original heritage fabric was a challenge, but there was a lot of research that went into understanding the materiality, understanding the methodology, and trying to faithfully restore and repair that,” she said.
“Some of the original heritage fabric on the building includes … terracotta tiles, parquetry flooring, leather panelling, wood leather panelling, to the walls, acoustic ceiling tiles, so they are very specialised trades.”
The asbestos, lead and mould remediation – along with the extent of the damage – meant many parts of the building essentially had to be stripped back to its shell.
Hindmarsh Construction’s project manager, Alex Morgan, said workers touched every area of the project.
“We needed to take the building apart before we could put it back together and start the restoration,” he said.
“It was very fulfilling to be able to bring it back to where it used to be.”
To prevent similar damage in the future, waterproofing membranes have been installed.
Most of the building’s repairs were covered by insurance, with the rest paid from funds ANU had already set aside for infrastructure.
Prof Kanowski said this opening was another healing moment for the university.
“The ANU community’s getting back a place where they can meet, formally and informally, to relax, interact with people that you don’t see in your day-to-day role, whatever that happens to be, and that’s already started to happen,” he said.
“The bar’s been open for four days and [already] people were moving furniture around down in the bar and just reoccupying the building.
“It’s given the university a special place to welcome the community back that we haven’t had for the last six-and-a-half years.”
University House will be officially reopened on Friday, 14 August, ahead of an ANU campus community day on Saturday, 15 August.
