(c) Umberto Nicoletti

Katia & Marielle Labèque

Piano

Representation AT | BE | LU | NL | UK | div.

Mag. Nora Pötter-Grabko
Managing Director
+43 650 700 7477
poetter@rbartists.at

Vera Kalman 
Assistant Artist Manager 
+43 660 300 2911 
kalman@rbartists.at

Biography

Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.

They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London…

Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.

They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonia della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Marin Alsop, Alain Altinoglu, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Pietari Inkinen, Louis Langrée, Zubin Mehta, Juanjo Mena, Andres Orozco-Estrada, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher, Georges Pretre, Sir Simon Rattle, Santtu Matias Rouvali, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.

They have appeared with Baroque music ensembles such as The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica with Reinhard Goebel, and Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon, il Pomo d’oro with Maxim Emelyanichev and also toured with The Age of Enlightenment and Sir Simon Rattle. They will be on stage once more with Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini in 2019.

Katia and Marielle have had the privilege of working with many composers including Thomas Adès, Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Nico Muhly and Olivier Messiaen. At Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles they presented the world premiere of Philip Glass’s new Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel. Last spring also saw the world premiere of Bryce Dessner’s concerto at Royal Festival Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and John Storgards and in June 2020 a new concerto written by Nico Muhly will receive its world premiere at Lincoln Center with New York Philharmonic and Jaap van Zweden.

The Labèques play in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, BBC Proms, Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Salzburg. An audience of more than 33,000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne, now available on DVD (EuroArts). A record audience of more than 100,000 attended the Vienna Summer Night Concert in Schonbrunn (now available on CD and DVD by Sony). More than 1.5 million viewers followed the event worldwide on television.

For their own label KML recordings, they have released a CD box Sisters (2014). Previous releases include a Gershwin-Bernstein album, and their project "Minimalist Dream House" (50 years of minimalist music). The DVD "The Labeque Way, a letter to Katia and Marielle by Alessandro Baricco" produced by El Deseo (Pedro and Augustin Almodovar) and filmed by Felix Cabez is released by EuroArts. Their biography, "Une vie a quatre mains" by Renaud Machart is published by Buchet-Chastel.

The Labèques’ label KML Recordings joined the historical label Deutsche Grammophon, their first collaboration being Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Debussy's Epigraphes Antiques, followed by Love Stories with music by Leonard Bernstein and David Chalmin , Amoria, a journey to their Basque roots covering five centuries of music , Moondog, a tribute to Louis Thomas Hardin, one of the true geniuses of his time. They just released a new album "El Chan" dedicated entirely to American composer Bryce Dessner, including his Concerto for two pianos with Orchestre de Paris conducted by Matthias Pintscher. The album is dedicated to the film director Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritú, who created the album cover artwork.

Most recent performances include concerts with the New York Philharmonic, Camerata Salzburg, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Thom Yorke, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, Dresden Staatskapelle at Easter Festival Salzburg with Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic, including return visits to the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Hollywood Bowl and Cincinnati Symphony.

At the invitation of the Philharmonie Hall in Paris for a special Week End, attention was focused on "Amoria", "Invocations" and their new project for two guitars and two pianos with David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner including a piece written for them by Thom Yorke Don’t fear the Light with Thom Yorke as special guest.

(c) Stefania Paparelli

Whether Mozart or Stravinsky, their musical line always sounds as if its being woven for the very first time... But the illusion of improvisation is the genius of their performances. In all their recordings there is a deceptive sprezzatura that is born of throwing the preparation to the winds and hanging onto each each others ears.

07.10.2021

Katia & Marielle Labèque in Zurich
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Repertoire

Concerto Repertoire (Selection)
   
Bach Concerto for two Pianos in c minor, BWV1060
  Concerto for two Pianos in C major, BWV1061
  Concerto for two Pianos in c minor, BWV1062
Bartók Concerto for two Pianos and percussion
Berio Concerto for two Pianos
Bruch Concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra, op.88a
Dessner Concerto for two Pianos
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue (Adaption)
Glass Concerto for two Pianos
Golijov/Grau "Nazareno" for two Pianos, two Percussions and Orchestra
Martinů Concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra
Mendelssohn-Bartholdy    Concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra in E major
  Concerto for two Pianos in E major
  Concerto for two Pianos in Ab major
Mozart Concerto for three Pianos and Orchestra "Lodron", KV242
Poulenc Concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra in d minor
Saint-Saëns Le Carnaval des animaux
Tekemitsu Quotation of Dream
   
Recital Programmes (Selection)
   
"Les Enfants Terribles"
Glass Etude No. 17
  Etude No. 18
  Etude No. 20
  The Poet Acts
  4 Movements for two pianos
  Suite "Les Enfants Terribles" for two Pianos
   
"Invocations"
Debussy 6 Épigraphes Antiques
Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps (Transcription by the composer)
   
"French American"
Glass The Chase (Orphée and the Princess)
  Stoke's Duet
  Etude No. 18
  Etude No. 20
  4 Mouvements for two pianos
Ravel Ma Mere l'Oye
Bernstein Songs from "West Side Story"
   
"Transgressions & Transcriptions"
Debussy Two Nocturnes
Ravel Rhapsody Espagnole
Stravinsky Le Sacre du Printemps
   
"Dream House Quartet" for two pianos, guitars and electronics
Meredith Monk Ellis Island (arr. Lisa Kaplan)
Bryce Dessner El Chan
Steve Reich Electric Counterpoint
Thom Yorke "Don't Fear the Light" for two Pianos and Electronics
Bryce Dessner Haven
David Chalmin Particule 5 & 6
David Chalmin "Distant Places" for two Pianos and Electronics
   
With Percussion
"Amoria" ─ Basque Songs and Ravel's "Bolero" with Percussions
"West Side Story" with Drums & Percussions