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Daughters of Ada Cecchi (who was, herself, a pupil of Marguerite Long), Katia and Marielle had a childhood filled with music. Their meeting Luciano Berio left a lasting impression on them and encouraged them to open their minds to musical styles ranging from Bach, Brahms, Liszt, Mozart, Stravinsky, Gershwin and Bernstein to works by Boulez, Berio, Ligeti, Messiaen, Takemitsu, Lutoslawski and young contemporary composers with whom they are in constant contact.
Their innovative interpretation of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue a few years ago marked the beginning of the international career of this atypical duo and was one of the first gold records in classical music.
http://www.virb.com/labeque
The Time, june 2006. There were sophisticated and mischievous tributes to Mozart and to Satie. And then the masterwork of the evening : Stravinsky’s Concerto for two pianos, as competitive as the Mozart had been co-operative, and as dense and rigorous as the Satie had been laidback. It was as brilliant in execution as it was in invention.
Their dazzling career has made them 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 and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Christoph Eschenbach and Michael Tilson Thomas.
San Francisco Chronicle, may 2006. Their performance was a knockout ! Katia and Marielle Labèque, the mop-maned French sisters who have made a specialty of the repertoire for back-to-back pianos, combining familiar fare with a dazzling rarity, delivered it all with a welcome blend of theatricality and affection.
Moreover, 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.
Kronen Zeitung Wien, mai 2006. Sie verzichten auf diesen Bravourakt und kosten lieber ein sehr musikalisches Aufeinander Eingehen aus. Ihr Spiel wirkt verhalten, völlig unaufgeregt, schwerelos. Lebendigkeit und Ausdrucksfülle, Witz und Humor beeindrucken. Und es war eine Lehrstunde in Anschlagskultur…
Their concert with Il Giardino Armonico at the Musikverein in Vienna was broadcast in Mondiovision.
Le Monde, août 2004. Katia et Marielle Labèque sont magnifiques, touchantes. Et impressionnantes : elles ne se regardent presque jamais mais jouent dans un même souffle, dans une même respiration — et pratiquement de mémoire. La synchronisation de leur jeu est unique. Ce n´est pas le fait qu’elles soient sœurs (laissons ce fantasme symbiotique aux magazines people), c´est qu´elles jouent et travaillent ensemble depuis des lustres. Le deuxième mouvement de la suite En Blanc et Noir de Claude Debussy était d´une mystérieuse abstraction, et le redoutable Concerto de Stravinsky bénéficiait d´une exécution tonique, à la précision de frappe et de trait impressionnante. On se souviendra longtemps de leur Maria, dans la suite d´après Bernstein: doucement timbré, tendrement mélancolique, un peu en dehors et complètement présent.
Katia Labèque has enjoyed international success in recital with Viktoria Mullova.
Il Sole 24 Ore, gennaio 2006. Da anni le Labèque riempiono le sale concerto del mondo con una presenza (e una bellezza) stranamente selvaggia e senza filtri che le avvicina più l’individualismo della star della musica rock che alla musica classica.
Katia and Marielle Labèque appear regularly at the festivals of Berlin, Blossom (Ohio), Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwisburg, ‘Mostly Mozart’ (New York), The Proms (London), Ravinia (Illinois), Rheingau, Ruhr, Schleswig-Holstein, Tanglewood (Massachusetts), Schubertiade at Schwarzenberg and Salzburg…
Die Presse Wien, november 2004. Und wir haben ja auch alle unseren Spaß gehabt, dieser kleinen, emotionsgeladenen Frau (Katia Labèque) bei ihrem lustvollen Spiel zuschauen zu dürfen. Und wir haben uns alle gefreut, wenn die große Sanfte (Marielle Labèque) sich sekundengenau in den Rhythmus ihrer Schwester einfühlen und einfügen konnte, sodass ein kaum denkbares Unisono der beiden Klavierstimmen tatsächlich stattfindet. Der Konzertgenuss entsteht hier durch das Musizieren, das aus — wenn man so sagen darf — erotischer Präzision, aus beißenden Rhythmen und aus Klang-Watte besteht, in die man versinken kann.
Unreleased Recordings of Ravel, Stravinsky-Debussy, Gershwin, Satie and Schubert, as well as the concept album Across the Universe of Language, will be released from the end of 2006 onward, on KML Recordings.
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