It was a most natural step for piano’s two enfants terribles, performers with a history of taking inspiration from the catalogue of the repetitive American composer. While Four Movements for Two Pianos swiftly became a staple of their recitals, in 2015 the Labèque sisters added another arrangement by Philip Glass to the impressive list of two-piano concertos composed for them (Los Angeles Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel).

To heighten the audience’s listening experience of each opera, stage director Cyril Teste and stage designer Nina Chalot have placed a chandelier above the pianists to produce an atmosphere of intimacy. The object offers endless different possibilities in terms of staging (set, lighting, video, text and more) and dramatics to enlighten listeners during the successive performances of the three suites.

“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.”