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Simon Rattle and Katia and Marielle Labèque at the Berlin Waldbühne

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26 Jun 2005
From the Berlin Waldbühne

Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle

Katia and Marielle Labèque

  • Hector Berlioz
    Le Carnaval romain, Ouverture caractéristique, op. 9 (10 min.)

  • Claude Debussy
    Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune (11 min.)

  • Paul Dukas
    L’Apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice) (13 min.)

  • Francis Poulenc
    Concerto for two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor (21 min.)

    Katia and Marielle Labèque Piano

  • Camille Saint-Saëns
    Le Carnaval des animaux (The Carnival of the Animals) (25 min.)

    Katia and Marielle Labèque Piano

  • Maurice Ravel
    Boléro (18 min.)

  • Erik Satie
    Gymnopédie No. 1 (4 min.)

  • Maurice Ravel
    Daphnis et Chloé, Suite No. 2: Danse générale (7 min.)

  • Paul Lincke
    Berliner Luft (6 min.)

To end the 2004/05 concert season the Berliner Philharmoniker gave their traditional open-air concert at the city’s Waldbühne. Conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, the varied programme was made up of works by French composers. And in order to ensure the greatest possible authenticity, the orchestra had invited the sisters Katia and Marielle Labèque to join them.

The Labèques are without doubt one of the finest piano duos of our time and began by demonstrating their prowess in Poulenc’s demanding Concerto for Two Pianos, following this up with a hugely enjoyable series of musical character studies in the form of Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals, providing much amusement for the audience in the completely sold-out Waldbühne. Orchestra, conductor and soloists were perfectly matched as a team. It is no accident that Rattle and the sisters have known one another for decades.

According to the critic of the Berliner Morgenpost, this support from two native French speakers also helped to ensure that the other pieces on the programme were performed “in a thoroughly idiomatic manner, with effervescent wit and sensuous charm”. To accompany Ravel’s Boléro, the 23,000 spectators lit sparklers, and following the very last encore – Paul Linke’s Berlin Air, in which the orchestra’s principal conductor as usual played the bass drum – this evening of French music, performed against a backdrop of balmy summer weather, ended with what the Morgenpost described as “cheering, fun and a fairground atmosphere – fantastique!”

EuroArts

© 2005 EuroArts Music International

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