Love Stories Katia Labèque & Marielle Labèque

• David Chalmin (b.1980): Star-Cross'd Lovers:
• 1 Act I: Prologue 01:54
• 2 Act I: Street Fight 01:45
• 3 Act I: Star-Cross'd Lovers 01:56
• 4 Act I: The Party 03:24
• 5 Act I: Two Foes 02:05
• 6 Act II: Prologue 01:29
• 7 Act II: Capulet's Orchard 00:40
• 8 Act II: Mariage 01:14
• 9 Act III: Prologue 00:14
• 10 Act III: Mercutio Vs. Tybalt 01:56
• 11 Act III: Mercutio's Death 01:23
• 12 Act III: Romeo Vs. Tybalt 02:24
• 13 Act III: Tybalt's Death 00:36
• 14 Act III: A Room In Capulet's House 01:12
• 15 Act IV: Juliet's Despair 01:58
• 16 Act IV: Juliet's Poison 02:37
• 17 Act V: Romeo's Rage 01:10
• 18 Act V: Romeo's Poison 01:16
• 19 Act V: Juliet's Awake 01:33
• 20 Act V: Epilogue 02:01
• Leonard Bernstein (1918 - 1990): West Side Story - Arr. for two pianos and percussions by Irwin Kostal:
• 21 Prologue 04:15
• 22 Jet Song 01:54
• 23 Something's Coming 02:22
• 24 Rock Blues 01:52
• 25 Mambo 02:26
• 26 Cha Cha 01:54
• 27 Maria 03:14
• 28 America 02:32
• 29 Cool 04:00
• 30 I Feel Pretty 01:03
• 31 One Hand, One Heart 02:01
• 32 Tonight 02:40
• 33 Somewhere 03:05
• 34 A Boy Like That 02:19
• 35 I Have A Love 03:21
• 36 The Rumble 01:23
• 37 Finale 02:52
• Total Runtime 01:16:00

Info for Love Stories

Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet inspired many composers from Benda to Prokofiev through Berlioz, Gounod or Tchaikowsky and it is always a challenge for a musician to approach such a subject so full of history. With Star-Cross’d Lovers, French composer David Chalmin gives a new look at Shakespeare’s drama : a contemporary ballet choreographed by Yaman Okur, written for two pianos, electric guitar, electronics and drums. The musical dramaturgy is based on tension and resolution, violence and harmony, brutality and poetry, which correspond to the two antagonist themes of hatred and love. These contrasts enable a vast range of choreographic possibilities boosted by the energy exchanges between the seven breakdancers and the four musicians. The piece is tinged with minimalism, rock and electronics but also includes references to art music or ethnic music. It finds its unity in a cleverly combination of tradition and experimentalism. The clashes between the two rival gangs take place in a dark, oppressive and threatening musical world where tension and danger are constant. It could describe a sordid urban environment, perhaps that of a soulless suburb of a big city. The tragic end of the work is prefigured in the first prologue by an evolving melodic theme played by the pianos in the lower register that could be a modern version of a Wagnerian leitmotiv of curse or fate. Electronic roars and buzzes, howlings of electric guitar, aggressive hammerings of pianos, cold polyrhythmic combining motoric style, obssesive rave music but also African and Latino influences, contribute to this dystopian vision of the drama. The musical universe of the two famous lovers, which often tintinnabulates in the high register of the pianos, is instead full of delicacy and sweetness. David Chalmin gives his music a special charm drawing his inspiration from Ravelian limpidness, Schubertian lyricism and Chopinian poetry but also from styles close to jazz and pop music. David Chalmin’s 30-minute score was composed for Katia and Marielle Labèque. It was premiered at the Philharmonie de Paris in May 2015. Since then, it has been performed in Luzern, Dortmund, Montpellier Festival, Bordeaux, Paris (Théâtre du Châtelet), Napoli Festival, etc.

Katia Labèque, piano
Marielle Labèque, piano
David Chalmin, guitar, electronics
Raphael Seguinier, drums, percussion
Gonzalo Grau, percussion
Pablo Bencid, timbales, percussion (on „Mambo“)

Katia and Marielle Labèque
are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Daughters of Ada Cecchi (who was, herself, a pupil of Marguerite Long), Katia and Marielle had a childhood filled with music. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.

They are 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,Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Kristjan Jarvi,Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Georges Pretre , Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

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 and recently toured with Age of Enlightenment & Sir Simon Rattle.

Their North American engagements in the upcoming season begin with a return to the Hollywood Bowl, Toronto's Summer Music Festival and in the Spring of 2014 a recital tour in which Bernstein's West Side Story in a special arrangement for two pianos and two percussionists will be featured. During the fall they will make their first visit to Australia in recitals as well as orchestral concerts in Sydney and Melbourne.

Katia and Marielle had the privilege of working with composers including Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Boesmans, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti, Olivier Messiaen.

The Labèques have played in festivals and renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, Royal Festival Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Blossom, Hollywood Bowl, Lucerne, Ludwisburg, Mostly Mozart, The BBC Proms, Ravinia, Ruhr, Tanglewood and Salzburg. A record audience of more than 33,000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne, now available on “Medici” DVD.

They recently released a new recording of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein's West Side Story on their own label, KML Recordings. They have also launched the KML Foundation aimed at furthering research and developing awareness of the duo piano repertory through meetings between artists of all fields. 2014 highlights included the release of a documentary “The Labèque Way” produced by'El Deseo' ( Pedro Almodovar ) and filmed by Felix Cabez and concerts in Vienna with The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Musikverein with Semyon Bychkov conducting.

2013 saw the release of their new project “The Minimalist Dream House” inspired by the early 1961 concerts curated by La Monte Young at Yoko Ono’s downtown New York loft. Musicians from the alternative rock and classical worlds came together to celebrate this revolutionary movement and its many waves of influence in the intervening 50 years. The 3 CD was released in February at the time of their series of concerts in Paris at 'La Cité de la Musique'.

Booklet for Love Stories