“On ferme les yeux des morts avec douceur; c'est aussi avec douceur qu'il faut ouvrir les yeux des vivants.”
—Cocteau

THIS SISTER PIANO DUO ARE TELEPATHIC: TRILOGY COCTEAU/GLASS
“unerring sensitivity , virtuosic ferocity, telepathic co-ordination …..I can’t imagine this music being better served….”
— THE TIMES, Daniel Lewis

GLASS’S COCTEAU TRILOGY PERFUMES THE AIR, LITERALLY
“…elegant, wistful melodic lines that float over his rippling piano textures ….played with all the Labèques’ usual flair and precision”
—THE GUARDIAN, Andrew Clements

“Voici donc la trilogie complétée, et de belle manière. Grâce aux résonances orchestrales de la réécriture instrumentale, à l’énergie et à l’imagination des interprètes, la narration est ardente, vivante, colorée, volontiers dansante, puissamment dramatique et étonnamment lyrique”
—TELERAMA

“Les opéras de Glass, gagnent à cette réduction pour deux pianos sous les doigts des sœurs Labèque, restituant les rythmes et couleurs de ces partitions avec la vigueur, la brillance et la sobriété qui conviennent.”
—LIBERATION, Eric Dahan

“Orphée, La Belle et la Bête et Les Enfants terribles Trilogie Cocteau. Un ensemble extraordinaire De la très grande musique.”
—LE FIGARO, François Delétraz

“ Exceptionnel de beauté, de densité, de maîtrise, de poésie”
—X, Renaud Machart

“Katia et Marielle Labèque sont comme deux poissons dans l’eau dans cette musique envoûtante et énergique à leur image.”
—RESMUSICA, Jean-Marc Petit

“... Force rythmique...énergie vitale …..Servi par ce « quatre mains » époustouflant , Philip Glass se révèle plus envoûtant que jamais. L’ivresse musicale, c’est cela.”
—LES ECHOS, Stéphanie Renard

“La musique de Philip Glass continue d’attirer les spectateurs, comme le montre les concerts pris d’assaut de Katia et Marielle Labèque à la Philharmonie de Paris , consacrés à la trilogie Cocteau/Glass.”
—LE MONDE, Bruno Lesprit

“une des merveilles peu connues du répertoire. Des œuvres extraordinaires”
—LE FIGARO MAGAZINE, François Delétraz

“...la Trilogie Cocteau de Glass est, sous les doigts des sœurs Labèque, une œuvre d’une efficacité redoutable, multipliant toujours les atmosphères dans un écrin captivant. Tantôt virevoltant et joyeux, tantôt mélancolique. Révélant toujours de nouvelles couleurs, dans une interprétation fusionnelle.”
—LE SOIR, Gaëlle Moury

“The standout item, though, was the UK premiere of a new arrangement for two pianos of Glass’s “dance opera” Les Enfants Terribles. ….remarkable playing: their velveteen touch interrupted periodically by harsh attacks, their exchange of patterns, sounds and colours almost liquid.”
—THE GUARDIAN

“The recording by the Labèques of this for DG is a miracle of performance; but somehow this account trumped it. Perhaps it was the occasion of its UK première, but the sisters, surely the perfect piano pairing, somehow took the excitement of the piece to greater heights….huge power, crystalline playing, every detail audible and clear….this was an utterly remarkable performance.”
—SEEN and HEARD INTERNATIONAL

“The “Enfants Terribles Suite” proved, to my surprise, the evening’s masterpiece. Glass’s complete “Enfants Terribles” – the second of three Glass works based on Jean Cocteau creations –(1996). Having never seen it, I now long to – and yet could it equal the intimate beauty of Michael Riesman’s two-piano suite? The Labèques played it with devout objectivity. While each section illustrates the moods and actions of scenes in the narrative, the work overall becomes a subtly and enchantingly poetic series of études. Here and there are echoes of many older composers (Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy) – This music is an open-sesame of affecting rhythmic structures and intensely atmospheric pianistic colours. I want to call it the finest of the many Glass compositions I’ve heard; I congratulate Riesman on the glorious sensitivity to pianistic sound he conjures here.”
—SLIPPEDISC

“Le jeu puissant des soeurs Labeque transcrit avec vehemence la passion poussée jusqu’aux limites de la folie et emporte dans un voyage dont on ne sort pas indemne...”
—CLASSICA *****

Note from the director:
Ronan Day-Lewis

“Before shooting, I read the Cocteau novel Les Enfants Terribles, which inspired Philip Glass’s music for these pieces, and found it a transcendent experience. I connected deeply with the subject matter of these two lost souls isolated in a world of their creation. As well as the current relevance of the story to our collective isolation in the midst of a global pandemic, I was drawn to its themes of the difficulty of leaving childhood behind, and the dangers of clinging to a paradise already lost, or one that was never really there. The book seemed to hint at something sublime. I started to feel that it contained all the ethereality and bodily reality of the human condition, the desperate fragility of life condensed into 193 pages. Cocteau’s poetic vision, combined with Philip Glass’s music interpreted entrancingly by Katia and Marielle Labèque, cast a spell over me which made it easy to disappear into the world of the holy terrors.”

philipglass.com
ronanday-lewis.com

Contact Promo: thierry@thepublicists.fr