Amsterdam Piano Duo - Wyneke Jordans & Leo van Doeselaar


Wyneke Jordans and Leo van Doeselaar belong to the best known Dutch musicians of the moment. They are invited by the Concertgebouw at least once a season and frequently perform with leading Dutch orchestras and ensembles as well as on television and radio. They played together with conductors as Jean Fournet, Frans Brüggen and Ken-Ichiro Kobayasji.

Both Wyneke Jordans and Leo van Doeselaar graduated with Jan Wijn at Amsterdam's Sweelinck Conservatory in 1981 and played their graduate recital already as a piano duo. As an established concert duo Wyneke and Leo since 1977 appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout Europe, japan, India and the USA. In 2005 and 2006 they gave concerts and Master-Classes in China (Wuhan, Nanjing, Sjanghai and Bejing).

In 1985, the Duo was awarded the Amsterdam `Publieksprijs' (Audience Award) whilst in the same year they were appointed visiting professors at the Sweelinck Conservatory. For many years they taught at the faculty of the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. Currently Leo van Doeselaar is professor of organ at Berlin's Universität der Künste.

The extensive piano repertoire of the duo covers the rich tradition of music for four hands and for two pianos, as well as contemporary compositions and transcriptions from the orchestral literature. The duo's discography is considerable and has been mostly recorded for the international label, Etcetera Records and includes the complete works for piano four hands by Erik Satie, Dvorák's Opus 59 (Legends) and the complete four hand pianomusic by Ravel.

The duo has particularly specialised in historical performance on the fortepiano, focusing especially on the fascinating literature of the First Viennese School. They recorded works for four hands by Franz Schubert for the Globe label, performed on an 1826 Viennese fortepiano. They are much in demand from the important early music festivals such as the Berliner Tage für Älte Musik, Festival of San Antonio (USA), the Early Music Festival of Moscow and the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

In 1993, recognition by the BBC earned the duo a series of seven concert broadcasts and recordings on historic and modern pianos. A CD of BBC recordings includes works by Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms played on a selection of historic instruments from the Edwin Beunk collection.

The “Bach after Bach” CD with transcriptions of major orchestral works of Johann Sebastian Bach by Max Reger, their CD 'Bric-à-Brac' with transcriptions of Saint-Saëns, Milhaud and Ravel and their most recent Beethoven CD (played on a Viennese Lagrassa from 1815) with all the original works and early 19th century transcriptions of the Egmont Overture and 4th Symphonie received widespread international attention.