Katia Vlachos

The keyboard aficionados from all over the world know that Katia and Marielle Labeque are the most famous pianistic duo on the international concert stage now. They have reigned supreme in the territory of the two keyboards repertoire for some three decades and still seem inexhaustible in musical resources when conveying its marvels…

The second release from Katia and Marielle Labèque's own KML label largely revisits Debussy and Stravinsky works that the duo previously essayed for Philips. Their newer versions are preferable, and may well represent the Labèque sisters' finest recordings to date. Whereas a driving, steel-edged literalism characterizes their earlier Debussy En blanc et noir, the duo now imbues the score with greater rhythmic leeway.

The new recording captures the pianists’ special artistic relationship with Philip Glass – a follow-up to the Double Piano Concerto the composer dedicated to the sisters in 2015. They are known for the fusion and energy of their duet, pursuing a stunning career all around the world, supporting both the classical repertoire and the contemporary creation. Philip Glass’s music occupies a special place in Katia & Marielle Labèque’s creation since they are already dedicatees of his Double Concerto for two pianos. It’s the composer himself who chose to adapt his opera Les Enfants Terribles after Jean Cocteau’s novel for them, in a suite for piano duet.

The Labèque sisters' recordings on the Philips and London labels from the early '80s, which were big hits, largely disappeared after their initial acclaim and, as of the early 2000s, were only found in excerpts on compilations. So as the big labels continue to abandon new classical recordings, the Labèques started their own record label, as many other artists have done, allowing them the freedom to choose what kind of music they want to record, whether it be standard piano duet repertoire or new interpretations of Lennon and McCartney.

One might have thought that Satie's charmingly eccentric and obscurely evocative piano music would fit the French piano duo Katia and Marielle Labèque, like a silk chemise, but this disc of his most popular pieces for piano two-hands and piano four-hands is their first recording of any of his works.