Katia and Marielle Labèque Double Piano Recital A Zeneakadémia saját szervezésű programja

The result of several decades of combined work by Katia and Marielle Labèque is a whole new reality in the four-hand and two piano genres. Performances by the sisters, who mobilize an amazing depth of energy on stage, are characterized by a harmony that only the greatest duos are capable of achieving. One can state without exaggeration that the sisters have tried out virtually every existing genre: they have worked together with the finest European and American symphony orchestras and Baroque ensembles, and composers including Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Zubin Mehta and Sir Simon Rattle, as well as top contemporary composers such as Pierre Boulez, Philip Glass, György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen. And as if that were not enough, they have taken part in several crossover projects, most recently, for example, the Paris premiere of a new Romeo and Juliet choreography by a famous break-dancer, supplemented with electric guitar and drums. At meetings of Les Apaches, a gathering of leading artists of the day, instead of debating topical music questions Ravel often recounted tales to children of his friends, and these occasions eventually inspired the four-hand piece Mother Goose which was so well received at its premiere that Ravel composed a ballet to the music shortly thereafter. It is often said of Ravel’s music that it is more Spanish than the Spanish themselves, and there is no better proof of this than the composer’s Spanish Rhapsody in the original two piano version. The closing piece in the Labèque sisters’ concert is Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, one of the most scandalous and at the same time most defining works of the 20th century.