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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
December 16, 2007
"Best record of the year"
Throughout the years, I've listened to countless readings of Ravel's ethereal fairy tale piano suite for four hands, "Ma Mere L'Oye." None of them matches the stunning beauty of the version included in this definitive disc.
Ernesto Lechner
THE SUNDAY TIMES
Classical CD of the week
For their first album on their own label, the Labèque sisters return to Ravel – specifically, in the Rapsodie Espagnole and Boléro, to their roots in the region of France closest to Spain. The Rapsodie is perhaps Ravel’s best-known work for two pianos, and they play Boléro in a two-piano version made by Ravel, but adapted by themselves and the Basque composer Michel Sendrez to include Basque sounds: the atabal, a small drum; the txepetsxa, a tiny instrument, made out of a walnut shell, that imitates the sound of a wren; and a ttun-ttun, a drum with “sympathetic” strings. The arrangement works well, and these Iberian-inspired works frame a programme chosen to show off the permutations of the sisters’ double act: Marielle plays the Menuet antique, Katia the rarely heard solo Prélude, and they unite at one keyboard for the Mother Goose Suite – a performance of brilliance, especially in the Tom Thumb and Empress of the Pagodas movements – and a four-hands arrangement of Pavane pour une infante défunte. The Labèques’ experience in this repertoire is second to none today, and they launch their label with panache.
HC
THE TIMES
KML Recordings,the first offering is core classical, a Ravel recital, and it’s spectacular.
Nothing unusual in the repertoire, true. But the slant they take, the vivid performances and the recording’s generous halo put this CD on a shelf apart. The recital takes a trip to the Labèques’ childhood, to the folk rhythms of the Basque country where both they and Ravel were born. Baby Ravel left for Parisafter three months, but the Labèques find the Basque residue everywhere. Take the farandole’s kicking rhythms in the Rhapsodie Espagnole,or the Dionysian overkill of Ravel’s two-piano version of Boléro, enlarged with Basque percussion instruments here.
Whether charging ahead or limpidly languishing, pianissimo, the Labèques provide a remarkable range of colours. Clattering at high speed, they still give us a rainbow (try the Rhapsodie’s fandango); while for quiet kaleidoscopic beauty, nothing tops their fairy garden in the Mother Goose suite. Aside from the colours, note as well the duo’s intuitive, sisterly feeling for interplay and ensemble. They can tease rhythms, coordination and each other without once derailing Ravel’s progress.
Good times easily dominate; and as their very slow-burn Boléro mounts, with exotic instruments of wood, steel and skin rising from whispers to giant thumps, you want to roll out the red carpet. Welcome back, Katia and Marielle. Where have you been?
Geoff Brown
CHICAGO TIME OUT
Such are the charms of this sister-and-sister piano duo playing the music of their countryman that the disc, the first on their own label, is almost irresistible. Thinking and breathing as one, they bend phrases and stretch them to their most expressive points. When they rein in that expression, they do it with the same unanimity.
So much for the purely technical values. They spice up Boléro with authentic Basque percussion instruments drumming out the hypnotic repeating figure. The indigenous instruments heighten the folk quality of the work, returning it to the dusty streets of the original dance, and even if you chip a tooth on the drums’ names (txepetxa? txalparta?), their buzzing and hollow pounding won’t be mistaken. Thierry Biscary, a Basque percussionist, and Gustavo Cimeno of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra play those instruments, and the Labèque sisters match them in intensity.
As the Labèque sisters move closer to Boléro, which closes the album, they play a handful of Ravel’s most popular works, including Rapsodie Espagnole and Ma mére l’oye (Mother Goose) with exquisite care. The five movements of Ma mére l’oye are scrubbed free of any extra sentimentality or cloying sweetness (no mean feat), and the finale (“The Fairy Garden”) positively soars to its end.
Each sister gets a solo piece to herself, but they shine most brightly when turning in a four-hands version of Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess). Their minute shifts of color would make Monet start over on his lily pads.
Marc Geelhoed
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH
This is the Labèque sisters´ first release on their own label, for which they have gone back to the Basque roots they share with Ravel to explore some of his Iberian inspirations in versions for one and two pianos. Most intriguing here is the Labèques´ own adaptation of Boléro for two pianos and an interesting array of Basque percussion: you don´t miss the multifarious colours of Ravel´s original orchestration at all.
But there is also fresh and lively playing in Ravel´s own four-hand versions of the Rhapsodie espagnole and Mother Goose, as well as a sensitive account of the perennial Pavane.
Matthew Rye
BBC MAGAZINE / BENCHMARK Recording of the month
The first disc to be released by Katia and Marielle Labèque on their KML label sees them returning to the Basque roots that they share with Ravel. Full of their customary sparkle, the Labèques make you sit-up and take notice. In their hands, the ‘Feria’ of the Rhapsodie Espagnole is a dazzling whirligig that leaves the orchestral version sounding rather tame by comparison.
Christopher Dingle
MIDWEST RECORD
The Labeques are still showing that they can push the boundaries. Working in classical music, you eventually have to revisit ground you've already covered, and here they take a new turn on the works of Ravel, including 'Bolero'. You can hear how their chops have deepened with maturity. You can also hear how they've taken control of their recordings but expanding beyond the four handed approach that was the source of most of their recordings. Adding percussion to 'Bolero', they make it more than just a set piece and fill it with drama in a cinematic way. Abandoning the sharp cornered precision that nearly dates their early recordings, they let their playing flow freely and even take solo turns at the keys. The girls still have it and now that they record for their own label, they are making the most of that freedom for themselves and their fans. All told, a delightfully brilliant recording.
ALLMUSIC.COM
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. Their first release on their KML Recordings is this collection of works by fellow Basque countryman Maurice Ravel. Even here, they don't stick to just his music for two pianos or piano four-hands; Katia and Marielle also each throw in a solo (Prèlude and Menuet Antique, respectively). And they haven't lost their touch. The Rhapsodie Espagnole has lush, very sultry coloring, played with delicacy and their nuanced, yet imperceptible control of their articulation, even in the whirling moments of the "Feria." In their 1985 recording of Ma mère l'oye, the Labèques were very serious and profoundly paced, particularly in the first two sections, but here they have slightly lightened the air, giving the music a more intimate, childlike innocence. Ravel's Bolèro, known (and sometimes hated) by everyone in the orchestral version, is heard in his two piano version much less frequently, even less often than his two piano version of La Valse. The Labèques invited percussionists Gustavo Gimeno and Thierry Bescari to join them for Bolèro, using several different Basque percussion instruments. The added element is at first very subtle, but it fills out the music by making the rhythm much clearer. It frees the Labèques from that dilemma of defining the bass rhythms while coloring the melody and harmony. And as the work builds, the percussion becomes more prominent and adds the exotic texture that Bolèro cries out for. The recording's sound is very rich, picking up all the different shades of the performances. The essence of the album is a sense of fantasy that encourages daydreaming, played with incredibly sensitive technique. Welcome back, Labèques!
Patsy Morita
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TAGES ANZEIGER
Katia & Marielle Labèque etwa aus den Vogelstimmen des Petit Poucet hervorzaubern, ist schlicht ergreifend. Höchste Kunst der Nuance und des rücksichtsvollen Sentiments ist das, gerade in den so genannten Kinderstücken zu vier Händen des Zyklus Ma mère lOye, faszinierend, wenn auch nicht ganz frei von Manierismen. Die beiden nehmen sich einige Freiheiten und lieben den Nachhall, aber das verzeiht man ihnen, weil ihre Interpretationen in sich so stimmig klingen und Atmosphäre vermitteln.
Mit dieser Ravel-CD, die im neuen hauseigenen Label erschienen ist, wollen die Schwestern ihre eigenen Klangvisionen umsetzen. Deutlich wird das in den spanisch inspirierten Stücken, der geheimnisvoll und fulminant dargebotenen Rhapsodie espagnole und vor allem im Bolero. Um dessen rhythmische Insistenz in Ravels eigener Version für zwei Klaviere besser umzusetzen, haben sie die Perkussionisten Gustavo Gimeno und Thierry Biscary beigezogen, und unerbittlich treiben sie diese Nicht-Musik (so der Komponist selber) gemeinsam zum Höhepunkt.
Thomas Meyer
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SCHERZO
November 2007
El Preludio a la noche de la Rapsodia, puede enganar. Sobre todo en este registro. Puede enganar esa delicadeza, porque la fuerza, la garra que tienen estas dos damas del piano se sirve de esas dilicadezas como motivaçion preparatoria del estallido. Que viene en episodios como la Feria, O quando se trata de Ma mere l’oye en culminaçiones como Laideronnette o Le jardin Féerique. Y que vamos a decir del Boléro. Al menos una cosa: que no es un estallido, sino la motivaçion pausada, paciente de un crecimiento que llega poco a poco, y como llega. Las excelentes hermanas Labèque han creado su proprio sello: KML. El comienzo no ha podido ser major, con un Ravel para dos pianistas que bordea la excelencia, y que hace justicia a ese esencial buen gusto del compositor francés. Dificilmente mejorable.
Santiago Martin Bermudez
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