The pianist, composer, producer and renaissance musician Jeroen van Veen has played many concerts with both his wife Sandra and his brother Maarten, and has recorded with both of them for Brilliant Classics. The present compilation brings together a unique sequence of masterpieces for the genre in live and studio performances, made between 1992 and 2008, and given by the brothers as Piano Duo Van Veen.
This pocket history of the piano duo opens – as it must – with the F minor Fantasy of Schubert. All elements of Schubert's art can be found in the Fantasy: his gift for a sublime, gently unfolding melody; melancholy harmonic turns from major to minor; high drama within a spacious symphonic design; intricate counterpoint in the finale. Less well known but no less accomplished in its way is the set of Beethoven variations by Camille Saint-Saëns, a polished transformation of a minuet theme.
This 1992 studio recording concludes with a pair of 20th-century pieces which capitalise on the energy and momentum of the piano duo genre as a whole: La valse of Ravel and the Paganini Variations of Lutoslawski, which never fail to raise the pulse and receive here barnstorming performances.
The adrenaline level increases further with a sequence of live performances on CD2, opening with Rachmaninoff’s gorgeous Russian Rhapsody and continuing with The Rite of Spring in the version which Stravinsky first performed with his friends in Paris prior to the ballet’s notorious public premiere in 1911. In his Monologue of 1964, Zimmermann developed the thread of his Dialogue for two pianos and orchestra with a collage technique which quotes from Bach, Mozart and Beethoven in which the two pianists muse almost to themselves at times. Rounding off this collection in epic style is the apotheosis of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen.
Piano duo Jeroen and Maarten van Veen were raised a musical family. The brothers started playing together at a young age before entering the conservatory. They studied at the Utrecht Conservatory with Alwin Bär and Håkon Austbø, and Maarten continued in Amsterdam with Ton Hartsuiker. The Van Veen brothers made their debut at the Festival Wien Modern in Vienna in 1993. They played with various orchestras and worked with conductors like Howard Williams (Adams), Péter Eötvös (Zimmermann), Neal Stulberg (Mozart & Bartók) and Robert Craft (Stravinsky). They were prizewinners of the 4th Murray Dranoff International Two Piano Competition (U.S.A, 1995). In 1998 they founded the International Piano Quartet and then worked with Robert Craft, who recorded Stravinsky’s Les Noces with them at the famous Abbey Road studios in London (2000). The New York Times review called the recording "the best recording ever". Jeroen van Veen became one of the world’s foremost champions of Minimal Music, while Maarten specializes in contemporary repertoire. This double-CD features several iconic works from the 2 piano repertoire: Schubert’s eternal Fantasy in F minor, Saint-Saëns’ Beethoven Variations, Stravinsky’s Sacre du Printemps, Ravel’s La Valse, Russian Rhapsody by Rachmaninoff, Paganini Variations by Lutoslavski and Monologues by Bernd Alois Zimmermann.
