At the Walt Disney Concert Hall, the two sisters played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a powerful performance that showed why they are so respected as iconic creative forces.
By John Lavitt
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 4/23/24 – Known for their profound artistic interpretations of classical piano works from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Philip Glass, Katia and Marielle Labèque are cutting-edge classical performers. The two sisters, taking on recent works by two modern composers—Nico Muhly and Bryce Dessner—played at the Walt Disney Concert Hall with the LA Phil. Conducted with passion and care by Gustavo Gimeno, the performance was intense and revelatory.
What was the revelation? Although they came on stage in fabulous fairy tale dresses that enveloped them and the piano benches, they did not arrive like delicate princesses. Sitting down at their pianos, facing each other like two warriors preparing for battle, you immediately realize these women do not worry about a pea like a fragile princess. Instead, they are creative forces that play with a passion and pace that captures the entire auditorium.
Nico Muhly’s In Certain Circles, a Concerto for Two Pianos, overflows with a sense of disguise and a distant haunting. The music feels like a story about to happen, and the Labèque sisters build an almost threatening sense of anticipation. Indeed, although the door might be opening to a wonderland, it is not a sweet, gentle, or childlike tale. Instead, like the classic tales of old, the composition has an otherworldly feeling that verges on the uncanny.
There might not be a better word to capture what is unique about the Labèque sisters. Moody and demanding like alien question marks, their playing is uncanny. They come across as Warrior Queens from Shadowy Kingdoms, perhaps lost in time, expressing the struggle in a hostile world to create something beautiful and lasting. When they are gentle, it is not light and fluffy. Instead, it is wistful and distant, like a precious memory being shared of something forever lost.
One cannot imagine anyone better to present the first LA Phil performance of Nico Muhly’s piece. Thus, it is unsurprising that the composer dedicated the work to the two sisters. In addition, Bryce Dessner’s Concerto For Two Pianos is also a tribute to the Labèque sisters. Although written in 2017, it feels perfectly contemporary. Indeed, two such tributes in a single night made the concert particularly special, and both pieces felt perfect for the duo.
As the night’s conductor, Gustavo Gimeno, the Music Director of Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, was a generous caretaker who focused on the rhythms and intensity of the two sisters. In the night’s second half, he led the LA Phil in exciting selections from Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Beautiful and rousing, the choice soared while also proving to be a revelatory companion piece to the piano work of Katia and Marielle Labèque. Although wonderful to experience, the uncanniness of their presence was missing. Nothing is lacking on the part of the brilliant Gimeno or the LA Phil: Only a void that only these Warrior Queens can fill.
Photograph Courtesy of the LA Phil, the Labèque Sisters, and Umberto Nicoletti
