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Aix-en-Provence. Grand Theater of Provence. 8-X-2024. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): My Mother Goose (1910). Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Fantasy in F minor op. 103 D.940. Philip Glass (born 1937): les enfants terrible (1994), arrangement for two pianos by Michael Riesman. Katia & Marielle Labèque, piano.
The Aix public came in large numbers to listen to Katia and Marielle Labèque in a program devoted to the world of stories and childhood with works by Ravel, Schubert and Glass.
Difficult to enter into the wonderful atmosphere of My Mother Goose with a room as noisy as at the start of the concert! But Ravelian poetry does not take long to envelop us and modify our relationship to time. Katia and Marielle Labèque offer us a reading as subtle as it is delicate of this much appreciated work from the four-hand repertoire. The symbiosis between the two performers is like yin and yang, air and earth, as their musical complementarity appears obvious. Each episode, considered with clarity, reveals a sensual and balanced pianism which deepens the expression.
L’Allegro very moderate of the Fantasy in F minor by Schubert is part of an intimate vision with sometimes confidential nuances. The initial theme touches us with its penetrating melancholy and its loose phrasing. The duo breathes together and the dialogue takes place at a subtle level where the intentions of one are inspired by what the other proposes. The narration thus reveals pages of luminous chiaroscuro. It is regrettable that the dry acoustics of the room do not allow us to fully appreciate the projection of sound and its dynamics, particularly beyond the half strong. If the depth of Largo offers a verticality marked by gravity, the ascending ranges of the Scherzo bring an almost improvised touch that evokes the melody of a music box. The tension in the fugal development is relentless, perfectly delivered, before a climax where the music continues in silence.
In the second part, the two sisters are reunited in the adaptation for two pianos of Terrible Childrenthe dance chamber opera composed by Philippe Glass. The American composer takes us into the world of childhood, a fantasized childhood that leans towards surrealism. The imaginary theater of the two children becoming adults occupies the entire space. We find the manipulations then the tragic outcome of the piece. Hearing the expressive fluidity but also the dramaturgical conduct of each piece, we can see to what extent Katia and Marielle Labèque are in their element here. In this dreamlike world where the notion of time is constantly redefined (Opening, the Somnambulist or even They Lived their Dream), the harmonic patterns have a captivating character. They are slowly unrolled, stretched and even hammered in a perpetual ebb and flow movement. Where the marvelous rubs shoulders with fear and mystery, disturbing and tragic, the camera moves to the rhythm of the often unreal music.
A monotony could set in but that’s without taking into account the alchemy of the two musicians who exploit a kaleidoscope of sometimes hypnotic colors. In Are you in Love, Agathe ? the dark bass rumbles and contrasts with the incandescent flashes played in the upper part of the keyboard.
Three encores prolong this state of weightlessness, the 4th movement et Orpheus’ roomstill by Philip Glass. Then, a crazy extract from a revisited version of the West Side Story de Leonard Bernstein.
Photo credit: © Umbetto Nicoletti
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More details
Aix-en-Provence. Grand Theater of Provence. 8-X-2024. Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): My Mother Goose (1910). Franz Schubert (1797-1828): Fantasy in F minor op. 103 D.940. Philip Glass (born 1937): les enfants terrible (1994), arrangement for two pianos by Michael Riesman. Katia & Marielle Labèque, piano.
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