Michael Sanderling meets Lucas and Arthur Jussen

Brahms versus Liszt
The musical conflict of factions

In the second half of the nineteenth century, a fundamental question divided the musical world into two irreconcilable camps: should the music of the future build upon the achievements of tradition – or break radically with everything handed down through the ages? Each side had its prominent champions …

“Children! Make something new! New things, and yet more new things!” demanded Richard Wagner in 1852 in a letter to Franz Liszt. “If you cling to the old, the devil of unproductivity has got you, and you will be the saddest of artists!” Johannes Brahms saw matters quite differently: he looked to the masters of the past, to Bach and Haydn, and even called the music of his own time a “cesspool”. By the end of the 1850s, this conflict had escalated into what became known as the War of the Romantics. On one side stood the “New German School” surrounding Wagner and Liszt, on the other, the “Conservatives”, with Brahms and the violinist Joseph Joachim as their leading figures.

Brahms felt a pronounced aversion to the works of Franz Liszt. As early as 1853, when he paid Liszt his respects in Weimar and the latter played his latest creations at the piano, Brahms is said to have fallen asleep during the performance of the Sonata in B minor. In letters, he would later brand Liszt’s compositions as “rubbish”, even as a “plague” that was corrupting the taste of the public. “I am often itching to start a quarrel, to write Anti-Liszts,” Brahms confessed to Joseph Joachim in the summer.

In 1860, this impetus led  to a laboriously-formulated declaration against “the activity of a certain faction”, whose products, he claimed, were “contrary to the very essence of music”. Liszt, who dreamed of ushering in a new age of art, had little need to respond personally. The journalist Franz Brendel took over for him, penning scathing polemics in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. This led to Brahms being ridiculed as “Hans Neubahn” – a cruel jibe at the enthusiastic article his mentor Robert Schumann had once written about him, entitled New Paths. After this humiliation, Brahms responded only with his music. But he had to live with the damage – and with the reputation of being an incorrigible conservative.

Biography

Michael Sanderling

One of the few orchestral musicians who have successfully made the switch to conducting, Michael Sanderling comes from a family of musicians. He became principal cellist of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra at the age of 20, before spending many years in the same role with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin. In parallel, he pursued a solo career, performing with orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2000, he made his conducting debut with the Kammerorchester Berlin—marking the start of his second career: “I believe it is generally a great advantage if, as a conductor, you can assess what is happening on stage, also from the perspective of an orchestral musician,” says Michael Sanderling, who made his first appearance with the Berliner Philharmoniker in May 2019.

Lucas & Arthur Jussen

Whether Lucas and Arthur Jussen sit at two grand pianos or share the keyboard of a single instrument, according to Berlin newspaper Der Tagesspiegel, “it is always palpable to the audience how close the two brothers are. They play with a shared breath, their energies flow together symbiotically, only to erupt in gripping interpretations”. Their playing, observes the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, seems effortless and completely natural. By now, the charismatic brothers—who were born three years apart in Hilversum—have reached the top tier of the international classical scene, with guest appearances at leading ensembles such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom they are making their debut in these concerts.