Katia & Marielle Labèque
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Biography
Internationally renowned, sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque (born in Bayonne in 1950 and 1952, respectively) began their joint career in 1970 with a performance of Messiaenâs Visions de lâAmen, conducted by the composer himself. Whether performing together or separately, their recitals and recordings have been highly successful. In 1980, Gershwinâs Rhapsody in Blue for two pianos and percussion was certified gold. The Labèque sisters were highly prolific from this period through the late 1990s. Recorded with a host of rock stars, the album Carnaval (1997) was their last before a hiatus of about ten years during which they pursued different activities. Married to conductor Semyon Bychkov, Marielle Labèque reunited with her sister in 2005 to establish a foundation, a recording studio, and the KML Recordings label in Rome; in 2012, the label released the anthology Minimalist Dream House, dedicated to the fiftieth anniversary of minimalist music. Katia and Marielle Labèqueâs repertoire is vast, ranging from the Classical and Romantic periods to contemporary composers. Luciano Berio, György Ligeti, Philippe Boesmans, and Michael Nyman have each dedicated a work to them. In 2015, they premiered David Chalminâs composition Star Crossâd Lovers on stage, pairing it with Leonard Bernsteinâs West Side Story for the album Love Stories (2017). Two years later, El Chan featured the eponymous piece by Bryce Dessner, as well as his Concerto for Two Pianos, conducted by Matthias Pintscher. The sisters then collaborated with Philip Glass on the piano transcriptions of the three operas based on plays by Jean Cocteau: Orpheus, Beauty and the Beast, and Les Enfants terribles, collected in the box set Cocteau Trilogy (2024), which ranked among the best-selling classical music releases in France (No. 11) and the United Kingdom (No. 4 on the specialized charts). In 2026, the 3-CD box set, 55, traces their career through thirty selected pieces and twenty-five previously unreleased recordings.
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Albums
Top Tracks
- Track Popularity
- Preludes for Piano: Maria Isabella Valzer featuring Marielle Labèque
- Preludes for Piano: Wasserklavier featuring Marielle Labèque
- Preludes for Piano: Tango featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solo: V. Variation 3 featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solo: III. Variation 1 featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solo: IV. Variation 2 featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solo: I. Con moto featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solos: II. Nocturne featuring Marielle Labèque
- 5 petites pièces faciles pour piano 4 mains: I. Andante featuring Marielle Labèque
- En blanc et noir, pour 2 pianos: II. Lent. Sombre featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto Pour 2 Pianos Solos: VIII. Fugue featuring Marielle Labèque
- En blanc et noir, pour 2 pianos: I. Avec emportement featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solo: VI. Variation 4 featuring Marielle Labèque
- Concerto pour 2 pianos solo: VII. Prélude featuring Marielle Labèque
- Scaramouche, Suite for 2 Pianos: 3. Brazileira (Mouvement de samba)
- 5 petites pièces faciles pour piano 4 mains: V. Galop featuring Marielle Labèque
- 5 Petites pièces faciles pour piano 4 mains: III. Balalaïka featuring Marielle Labèque
- Capriccio (d'après le Bal Masqué) for 2 Pianos: Capriccio (d'après le Bal Masqué) for 2 Pianos
- 3 petites pièces faciles pour piano 4 mains: I. Marche featuring Marielle Labèque
- Sonata for Piano 4 Hands: 3. Final (Très vite)
- Sonata for Piano 4 Hands: 2. Rustique (Naïf et lent)
- Sonata for Piano 4 Hands: 1. Prélude (Modéré)
- Scaramouche, Suite for 2 Pianos: 2. Modéré
- Scaramouche, Suite for 2 Pianos: 1. Vif
