That was Clementin Bonjour's arrangement of Margaret
Bond's Troubled Water and it was performed by
Katia and Marielle Labeck. I'm Erica Worth and
welcome to this pianist podcast. I'll be speaking
with the sisters about their new project for
Deutsche Grammophon which marks 55 years of recordings.
Katia and Marielle, it's great to have you on
the pianist podcast today. Thank you so much.
It's great to be back with Pianist again. Oh,
thank you. I know it's been a long time. So long.
Anyway, today we're here to talk about your new
three CD project called 55, which comes out on
the 12th of June on the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Now, I have to say, what a great idea to celebrate
55 years of recording with 55 tracks. Whose idea
was it? My sister's idea. it was her idea yeah
we like 55 because it's like twice you know five
five oh so this is what you would have been not
as good with 60 or whatever in few years so we
say okay we need to catch twice five with our
hands yes that's that's good but you started
your recording career 55 years ago Yes, exactly.
1970 with Olivier Messiaen for Les Visions de
la Mène. That's amazing. That's really quite
amazing. In fact, we even recorded, we were 17
and 19, and he went out in 1917. Yes. 71. No,
1917. 70. Yeah. That's exactly 25 years. We decided
to record the missing pieces. I mean, all the
new pieces last year. And that was 2025. So it
was exactly 55 years. Amazing. And what was it
like to work with him? Oh, that was so easy.
You know, when you're a teenager and you got
in a recording studio for the first time and
you have this giant who tells you exactly what
to do, the tempo, the dynamics, the articulation,
the meaning, everything. So that was, we just
had to follow him. That was easy. Amazing. We
could play. We could play. Wow. Well, this is
what's interesting. You were 17 and 19, as you
said. How were you actually discovered? How did
your career begin? I think really with this recording.
This recording started already when we went out
from Paris Conservatory in 68. We were 18 and
16. That was the first time that Sue... two sisters
got first prize on the same year, same exam in
Paris Conservatory. So, of course, that was quite
a sensation thing in Paris. And we got quite
a lot of press coverage at this moment. And that
started the CD, really. Yes. Wow. So you got
first prize as a duo. No, no. As is. Yeah, not
that. You know, duet is still not considered
in any conservatory as a valid form of music
because, you know, at this time we had to enter
as a soloist and we went out as soloists. So
each of us, we got the first prize. Marielle
got her first prize. I got my first prize. Then
after that, we decided to form a duet. And I
was really lucky that... We were just forming
the duet when Messiaen entered the room where
we were practicing his music and asked us to
play for him. And after that, he said, OK, I
need to record those pieces. Would you record?
you know instead of me because i cannot play
and of course we say yes in fact it was the way
to stay longer at paris conservatory because
in fact it was no class chamber music for two
pianos yes and my sister she was very young but
she asked for a meeting with the director and
she said that in fact it is chamber music i mean
chamber music is just to play with with other
musicians and to share music together i mean
why a trio string quartet is louder than two
people Or even a violin piano duet. Absolutely.
Would have been accepted, not the piano duet.
And finally, he accepted. So it was the first
time in Paris Conservatory that there was a class,
chamber music for two pianos. So we could re
-enter together. And then we started working
with a very good musician called Jean Hubeau.
And then we went to hear Michel Berhof. I remember
at this period, he was playing Messiaen extremely
well. I mean, he was 16 years old. He was impressive.
And I was so impressed by the concert. And then
Michel gave her the score of Les Visions d 'Amène,
Olivier Messiaen. So we started working on it.
We did with Jean Hubeau. And then one day, Olivier
Messiaen passed. He heard his music and he entered
the room. He wanted us to play for him. And then
he asked us if we would agree to do the... the
recording under his direction. So it's amazing
to start like that when you're 18, I would say
17 and 19, you're right, because we were very,
very young. So it was, yeah, it was a very beautiful
beginning because after that we met Luciano Berlioz.
Thanks to Messiaen. Thanks to Messiaen. Thanks
to Messiaen. Thanks to Berlioz. And then Ligeti,
thanks to Boulez. So each composer introduces
us with the next composer. Yeah. It's amazing.
It was a very beautiful story. And then on this
recording, we have a piece called Memory from
Luciano Berrio. And we played it, but we never
recorded it. So this one is new because on those
55, we did not record 55 new. As Katia was saying,
we started with pieces we recorded in 1970. And
then we did more new pieces, like 25 new pieces.
So it was a beautiful idea. It was a lot of time
of logistic. and the order of the music. I mean,
it was quite... Quite complicated because we
were changing our mind every day. Finally, we
agreed. We also wanted to introduce music we
never played before, like this 19th century music
written by women, like Hélène de Montgerou, who's
a genius, like Fanny Mendelssohn, who was really
blocked. We had letters that we could not believe
from her father. brother telling Fanny, you should
really just take care of your home and take care
of your, you know, that is what you're doing
well, but not being a composer because this is
a serious thing. Only men could be. as serious
as composer but not women you know so that would
be so we were so shocked discovering all that
that we say we need really to put some of their
music in in a way strange way the women today
they have a better place than they had at 19
or beginning of 20th century that was really
much more difficult for them today it's accepted
and we have women and we played already quite
a lot of them and it's okay but we never played
this period of you know of time with music written
by women. That we never did. So that was, yeah,
as Marielle was saying, it was really difficult
because it was a lot of pieces to play. A lot
of choice. Also, we've been listening to so much
music. At the end, the pieces we always preferred
were the pieces for solo piano. This is why we
did some transcription for, you know, for hands.
And in a way, it's not... more easy to play for
hands. It's much more difficult for all the rubato,
the articulation, the tempi. I mean, that's really...
But we thought, okay, we play since 55 years
together. We surely are able to manage that and
to manage to find a new... vision of those pieces,
because when you play them forehand, you hear
different voices, in fact. It's a dialogue very
often between the bass melody, the high melody,
and that was really fascinating for us to start
getting into. this music you know together and
not as a solo on the record few pieces are solo
like Marielle plays this amazing study from Grazina
Bashevich and she's also an amazing composer
and and that of course she had to play solo but
then the other one the piece characteristic we
play four hands no it's amazing yeah i know i
recognize some of them immediately like the fanny
mendelsohn leader yes Wonderful. And the Hélène
de Montgerou, étude number 110. I mean, it's
amazing. You know, she was quite, each of those
women had amazing story, all of them. And Hélène
de Montgerou, she was a noble. So she could have
been killed at the moment of the revolution.
And they say she saved, her husband was killed.
I mean, you know, but she saved apparently her
life. saying the torturers that she could improvise
on La Marseillaise. So they brought her a piano,
a forte piano, and she improvised for hours on
La Marseillaise. And after that, they say, oh,
yes, then you are a real revolutionary and you
will be saved. She was lucky. And she was accepted
at the conservatory in France. She was the first
teacher. teacher at the paris conservatory so
they all have a quite amazing story i mean all
of them even yes also working with india boulanger
yes yeah which is uh yeah it's amazing grazina
bashevich really changed the world of music in
poland because we are friends with christian
zimmerman and i asked christian i say uh who
is the most interesting and she said because
i had some other uh composer in in view you know
polish and she said no definitely the most interesting
the one who changed the music because she wrote
all i think before lutoslawski with before panderewski
you know and she says grazina bashevich and So
this is how... It is little. It's just a few
minutes because also for this idea of 55, we
really had to do short pieces. Short pieces.
Of course. We already were three CDs. So it's
short, but anyway... Not just Dutch gramophone
would have killed us. It would have been a CD
box of eight CDs. But what I noticed... It was
not possible. No. What I noticed, though, is
three CDs, but each one offers up a different
theme. Yes, it's true. Yeah, because the first
one we call has the song from Nina Simone, because
Nina Simone grew up as a classical pianist. But,
as she said... because of the color of her skin
he was not allowed to perform in the classical
concert hall so she invented her own world her
own songs her own music and she said oh my music
is black classical that was a reference for the
music you know and we took this this song that
she did not write the melody of the song but
she played it live in new york and doing a lot
of arpeggios difficult you cannot do that if
you don't have if you're not a classical pianist
you know so she did that and it was so impressive
that we had you know Michael Blaski from Los
Angeles he transcribed exactly everything she
played and that's what on the record and that's
our homage to Nina Simone because she's an amazing
artist really and a wonderful composer. And she
appears on the first of the three CDs and that's...
Wild is the Wind is more really about those women
who were wild enough to start. writing music.
So you have also Emma Hoy, Tsege Mariam Guebru.
I don't know if you knew her. No, no. She was
a nun. She was a nun in a convent. She is from
Ethiopia. And at the moment of the revolution
in Ethiopia, she had to escape her country. She
would have liked to come to London to study,
but that was denied to her. So she ended up in
a... in Jerusalem all her life, improvising her
own music. What's her name again? What's her
name? Her name is very complicated. Emma Hoy.
Oh, okay. Weberé, Zégué, Weberé, Marianne. Emma
Hoy, Marianne, Zégué, Weberouf. Emma Hoy, Zégué,
Marianne, Weberouf. Did you get the record? Actually.
i didn't get the record but actually i have the
track listing somewhere so you have it then i'll
let you i'll let listeners know absolutely you
you will have a complete right autograph Goodness,
goodness, goodness. Great names. She died, she
was 100 years old and she died in a convent.
And she wrote very few things, but mostly all
those tapes recorded. And we, again, we transcribed
some of her. But this piece I play solo because
it would have been difficult because she used
a lot of rubato. Her music is a very strange
mix of sati, blues. Yes. It's very, very, and
she used a lot of rubato, so it's difficult to
do the piece we choose on two piano or four hands,
but I did it solo. But she's a wonderful artist,
really. So this one also has a story. Oh, Lili
Boulanger. She was a sister of Nadia Boulanger,
and she was Prix de Rome. She was 19 years old.
She was the first woman. to be Pri de Rome. And
he died, he was 24. And at the end of her life,
she was so weak that Nadia had to write the music.
She was in her bed and she was dictating to her
sister the music. And Nadia was writing the music
she was dictating to her because she was too
weak to hold. And there were two amazing sisters,
so that's why it's nice also to have little homage.
I mean, they're very, very short. But the contact
she wrote when she got the first price in Roma
was quite amazing, really. But she was sick already
when she was two years old. She was very, very
kind of pneumonia, which she had until the end
of her life. It's very sad. It's a shame, isn't
it? We don't know what she would have produced.
Exactly. That's so right. That's exactly what
we kept saying because she was 24. Can you imagine?
And she wrote the most amazing music. Terrible,
terrible, terrible. Your second album sounds
lovely. It's all about gardens and childhood.
Yes, because that's a piece we started to play.
Actually, the first piece was Gabrielle Foray.
That was Dolly. And it was so difficult for us.
We kept fighting because we, you know, on four
hands, you need to divide the keyboard. So we
were saying, oh, you take all my space or no.
Or sometimes she would hold one note and then
coming back on the note, I could not play it.
So now we understand why. what was the difficulty
but that was yeah and ravel of course because
we were born few kilometers away from ravel house
you know and ravel was basque he was speaking
ashkara the basque language and And we grew up
with this music. Our mother was a pupil of Marguerite
Long. And Marguerite Long herself was a friend
with Gabrielle Fauré, with Claude Debussy, with
Maurice Ravel. So we had this French tradition
in us. And that's the way we started music. It
was to play French music. So your mother studied
with her, your mother. She studied with Marguerite
Long. Yeah. And Marguerite Long was his famous
French pianist. Of course. Who created a lot
of pieces from Ravel, from Fauré, from Debussy.
So my mother was a pupil. Yeah. So you grew up
in a musical household. Yeah, that's for sure.
It was so joyful. Yeah, that was helpful. Because
the pupils were coming and it was music from
morning until the evening. So it's the best way,
I think, to come to learn music. So your mother
was a teacher. Exactly. She was a pianist. It
was very natural and she was teaching us also.
But music was just part of our life. Yeah, it
was not a dramatic thing. It was normal for us
to enter a house and find a piano. that was something
normal if we would go to some we were invited
to people house and they would not have piano
we thought that was very very strange and were
you often asked to play when you went to people's
houses yeah we hated that i have to say that
we really hated that to play for people at the
end of the dinner no we always refused how interesting
no it's true it was it was really the the best
way she was wonderful she was a wonderful teacher
which is hard i would be i would not be able
to teach especially with kids because i would
be on their charm. But you have to be very tough
with kids. Discipline is so important. That's
what she gave us. It was wonderful. Because you
can imagine, you know, at this period in the
Basque Country, it was nothing, not one concert.
No internet, no concert and no television. I
mean, there was no concert on television. So
we really started to have music like that. Books
and And records. And she knew, she thought, you
guys, you've got to go and study in Paris. Oui,
yeah. That's what she wanted us, because when
you play piano, violin, you need to learn very
young. Yeah, the conservatory in Bayonne was
not high, the level was not high enough. We entered,
but we... We went out after six months. I mean,
that was not interesting. We had to be confronted
to, you know, it was good to have the challenge
of the other people playing, you know, as well
as us or better. And we had to, you know. to
grow up as a musician. No, it was very important.
Was it a shock? Yes, it was a shock, yeah. Yeah,
yeah, that's for sure. My Paris, that was a shock.
How old were you? How old were you both? So young.
We were 11 and 13. In the Paris Conservatoire?
Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were very young. She
was 11 and a half, and I was 13 and a half. Because
we were both born two years apart, but we were
both born in March. Okay. And we enter in September,
October. Yeah. So young. Yeah, very young. Did
your parents come with you? Did your mother come
with you? My mother was coming each Friday, leaving
us each Sunday. And we had an old friend of the
family and she was... Taking care of us. She
was alone and she was a Spanish woman. Spanish
woman. And she stayed with us. She did not have
family. She was not married. So we were a little
bit babies because she saw her born. You know,
when we were born, she was there. she wanted
to yeah when i realized today i said that we
were yeah we were very lucky because all that
was on extremely well nice because there is no
enter now i don't know the name in english no
you cannot be pension when you are at the conservatory
you cannot sleep there or oh yeah so it's uh
so yeah extremely small with two little upright
piano and then when we started playing together
we could open the door and we could start playing
to piano so it was it was fun no we didn't Not
inside Paris, that was too expensive. We were
outside Paris. So a very long way to go to the
conservatory and all that. Oh my goodness, so
young. Yeah, very young. So Ariel entered in
preparatory and I entered in superior. But because
I could not travel with her, because the schedule
would have been different. So I quit superior.
And I start again to enter preparatory to stay
with her. Yeah. Oh, you're obviously incredibly
close. Yeah, that we are. Yes, we are. You spend
so much time together. But in the same time,
we're very independent. We always, I mean, Marielle
was, she was 18. She had a boyfriend. She was
leaving. in an apartment in Paris, but not with
me. And I was also living with my boyfriend,
not with her. So already at 18 and 20, we were
very independent. We were living separately.
We always live very close, like in Rome. We have
our places. They are very close, but not together.
you're both in our own kitchen i have my own
kitchen so you're both in rome now yes now we
are in london yes but yes we have italian we
have italian because it was italian yeah she
was from torre del lago she was uh from toscana
so we always had a Fit in Italy. In Firenze first
and then we moved in Rome, which is great. We
moved to Italy in 1993. So it's like 33 years
we are resident in Italy. You couldn't live back
in Paris. Yeah. No, we are not Parisian. We don't
like Paris. I mean, we like the Basque coast
because it's where we grew up. And I love the
sea. I love the ocean. I need to see that. And
Rome is not far away from the sea, so it's fine.
But Paris, no, it's not for us. That was never
our city. We went there to enter Paris Conservatory,
but then we went out and we... really never stay
there and then we lived in london for a while
yes yeah i remember that yeah yeah long time
ago but it was nice i i love the city i love
this city and i i love the gardens and the tradition
for english garden Wow, it's so beautiful. It
is beautiful. So beautiful. There's so many different
areas of London. I love this hotel where we are
now, the Covent Garden. It's so amazing. Yeah,
it's nice. I show it to you. You see? Ah, we
closed the library. Yeah, because we are. Yes.
It's beautiful. And with the honesty bar. Where
can you find the honesty bar? Gorgeous. The honesty
bar. That means you've got to be honest. If you
don't find the honesty bar in France, in New
York or in Italy, forget it. So you can pick
up whatever you want and just write it and they
trust you. That's beautiful, no? We love that.
It is beautiful. So you're about to kick off
on an amazing tour, aren't you? Yes, we just,
it was so tiring. I mean, the amount of travel
we made were more than the amount of day we stay
in each city. But yes, in one month we were to
Los Angeles and then we went to South Korea for
a few concerts and then we went to Taipei. But
it was fantastic. We brought this great project,
which is a trilogy. Cocteau Glass. We brought
it in London last year at Barbican. Yes. And
we play with this huge chandelier with amazing
lighting and those three operas transcribed for
us by Philippe and Michael Riesman. And they're
wonderful music, really. We love it. Wow. So
we brought that and that was a huge amount of
logistics because to bring this chandelier, we
have three people traveling with us, but there
are in total 10 people working at Philharmonie
de Paris to prepare those concerts. And in fact,
we did it in London. We did it at Barbican, we
did it in Dublin also. No, no. We did in Barbican.
We brought a chandelier, everything in Barbican.
And that was beautiful. We were playing a recital
in Festival Hall just a few months before, but
after we brought this project at Barbican. That's
great. But your tour that you're about to embark
on at the end of June is the 55 tour, isn't it?
You're going to be playing... pieces from the
album yeah i think we're going to play that for
a long time because at the end it's all the music
we love and and of course we cannot play the
55 pieces that would be too long but we've played
you know we had again to choose it's very difficult
for us to choose but we did few pieces who we
represent for sure there is Fanny Mendelssohn
there is Hélène de Mongeroux there is Marie Jael
I mean mostly of the women they are here with
us and then some of the you know the pieces we
played at Arvo Part or Bernstein or Price Desner
so we we made a mix and also margaret bones in
fact yes absolutely yeah yeah yes she's become
quite well known now you know yeah it's incredible
yeah and she was the first pianist accepted and
played with chicago symphony because she was
african -american i don't know how to say that
no we say african -american but but i mean nina
simon could say I'm black classical because she
said it. Yes, we say black African. No, Margaret
Bond, she's a symbol, you know, because she had
to fight so much. She was so courageous. She,
you know, she was totally humiliated when she
was at Chicago University because she wanted
to be a classical pianist. And she... Again,
with the color of her skin, it was not allowed.
But then she became very friendly with Leontine
Price, who sang quite a lot of her music, and
also very friendly with Martin Luther King. And
she was part of this movement against segregation.
She was pianist, she was arranger, she was composer,
she was doing quite a lot. In fact, she was playing
very well. Any mother of child. Yeah, you've
got a lot of interesting composers there that
you're saying. Yeah, she used to say, Margaret
Bond used to say, you know, when we are women
and we do all that, we would need really the
day to be double of hours. We cannot do all that
in 12 hours. We need 36 hours to do everything
we are doing. In fact, Grazina Bashevich was
saying that sometimes it was so difficult for
her to work with... and everything that she would
go away in a small rental studio and write music
there because she was on her own. Amazing, amazing.
Yes. Yeah. So, I mean, by now, after these 55
years, I imagine you both, the two of you, understand
each other fully in terms of playing together.
Yes. Yes, I think. But we... We built that connection
also, you know, we built it because it's not
because we're just sister, you can be sister,
but little by little, each project, each meeting,
each new person, new musician we encounter help
us to grow. And this is how we end up loving
so much different kind of music. I mean, this
is how we are. Yeah. Do you ever? Do you ever
storm out? Yes, we do. Yeah, we do on stupid
things, you know. Of course we do. Like any couple,
you know. Yeah, yeah. Because we are living as
a couple in a way. But we also, Marielle, have
a couple with Simeon, her husband. I have my
couple with David, you know. At the end, we need
to manage the life of three couples together.
It's quite a lot. Well, I hope they get along,
David and Simon. I hope they get along too. It's
very rare that we are four of us together. Yes,
it's very rare. But it's true that in logistic,
it's complicated because each year is different.
Each week is different. There's never one week
which is like another one because we are never
in the same place at the same moment. So it's
a bit tricky. But we do our best since. Well,
you both look so happy. You're smiling so much.
I'm sure you're the best of friends. I'm absolutely
convinced. Now, before we sign off, because we're
getting close to the end, I want to ask you some
very lighthearted questions. Okay. If you can
just answer me. I mean, there's two of you. I
usually have one pianist on my podcast, but there's
two of you, so I don't know how you're going
to answer. But I'm going to ask you these little
questions, and if you could get just off the
cuff, tell me what you would like. Okay. Okay.
If you could play only one composer from now
on, who would it be? Philip Glass. Whoa. Because
that's the one we play the most in this moment.
And this is the one who wrote enough for us.
He wrote so much for us. For me, it's so hard
to... But if not, my answer would have been back.
But it's long time we have not come back to play
back concerti on forte piano. This is what we
do. Usually we play Mozart on Walter and we play
back on Silbermann. But this is something we
want. We did huge tour in the year 2000. But
now... We need to go back to it. And we have
the instrument. We need to practice more. But
it's almost impossible. But yes. Yes. For me,
it's very difficult to say one composer because
all our life we've been changing repertoire.
I know. I would say immediately Mozart, Stravinsky.
Just for a kind of combination between two. I
don't know, but then I would change my mind in
five minutes. But maybe now at 3 .30. I think
Philippe is the one who gave us the most repertory.
We have huge repertory of his music. So if we
have to end up only, and it's so diverse, you
know, between those three opera, it's such a
lot of different, and it's always a pleasure
to play it on stage. So, yeah, but of course,
it's an impossible question. So next question.
Next question. One pianist, dead or alive, you
travel long and far to hear? Christian Zimmerman.
That's a very nice answer. That's easy. Okay.
You agree, Marianne? Yes, I agree. A rising musician,
absolutely unique. He is. Whatever he does. That's
for sure. Absolutely. Okay. One person, dead
or alive, you would like to play for? Paul McCartney.
Have you met him? No, never. And I wish we would
because he's amazing. He's 84 years old and he
just released the record. He never stopped writing
music. After Beatles, he starts from the... from
scratch because really he started from zero really
and he had such an amazing courage and he always
has this kind of vitality about his music and
and about being part of you know so yes i would
love to meet him i met already tom york i would
have said you know tom york but i met him years
ago we play with him he wrote for us so now if
i have to say someone we never met yeah Paul
McCartney. And I always say Igor Stravinsky because
we could have. We could almost have played for
him. I know, but he's dead. No, he can't be dead.
I said that over live. He can be dead. He can
be dead. But I would have wanted so much to play
the Roto Spring for him. That would have been...
He can be dead. So he can be dead. Leonardo da
Vinci. Yeah, absolutely. That is surprising.
You don't have to go so far away. If we have
a way to travel into time, I'm sure it's with
our mother now. Okay, next question because we're
running out of time. Do you have any, that might
seem a silly question, do you have any technical
struggles on the piano? Always. We have only
technical struggles. That's why we work a lot.
But because then when we forget about all that,
then we feel a kind of little freedom on stage.
But for that, you need to be really extremely
well prepared and to practice. Also being two,
because when we start something new, before it
starts to be organic, because when we start playing
without thinking of playing together or whatever,
so it's a lot of... were pianists and piano is
like a extreme possessive lover if you stay away
from the piano when you go back he will make
you pay that you know you did not practice enough
so yes we we do need to to stay connected yes
but we love it we also love it yeah um what would
be your advice to an amateur pianist about how
to improve I would say to use his own imagination.
I think imagination is a quality which we are
losing more and more because very young pianists
or young musicians, they're afraid not to be
liked or loved enough. And I think that... You
need first to use what you have in your head,
in your mind. It's just to be free and to be...
We try all our life to be free and to be courageous.
Okay. I agree. Yes, you agree. Final question.
One composer you're not quite ready to tackle.
Good question. I don't know, because it can be
a few pieces from certain composers that we don't
play, but I still love this composer, for example.
So I don't know. It's not really one which we
reject. You really don't like playing Rachmaninoff?
I like the composer, but the switch for two pianos,
it's not what I prefer. As a duet, no, we don't
like it because Rachmaninoff really requires
quite a lot. of rubato and rubato on two pianos
is very difficult to do very very difficult so
all our life we have tried to you know also it
comes from the way we study music you know great
musicians like Tom York they never wanted to
learn music because the way we learn music is
very metrical it's each value is divided in two
which is divided in four which and it goes like
that you know and but we cannot play like that
because there is not two not equal. We need to
understand that there is a difference of equality
in each not the weight on a chord, which is not
the same weight on the next chord and things
like that. And in Rachmaninoff, if you... Yes,
like Marielle, I mean, I could... I'm not a big
fan of his music in any case. I prefer Bach,
of course, and Mozart, Vivaldi, a lot of Bach
composers. But in any case, this kind of rubato
is very difficult. So you end up playing very
rhythmical and very metric. too difficult. I
mean, the music does not breathe. We don't really
connect with those pieces, let's say, for two
pianos. I admire the composer because he writes
so well for piano. He was a fabulous pianist
himself. So just a few pieces like that, we are
not playing anymore. I prefer Chopin in this
kind of... I'm not such a big fan of Rachmaninoff.
We play Debussy quite a lot. Debussy, Ravel,
Stravinsky. Those ones we adore. and all kind
of modern repertoire works extremely well like
Bartok also first recited we did in Paris in
70 it was Les Visions de la Mène d 'Olivier Messiaen
and La Sonate de Bartok yeah so for two piano
and percussion so it was very strong but let's
say we would not tickle now to play Boulez we
did but we would not anymore that's right the
music we have been living with since so many
years but and sometimes we played and just and
then we don't go we don't come back to it we
cannot come back to all the music we have played.
Because now we are too old. And we just want
to enjoy. So we enjoy so much playing Fanny Mendelssohn,
Hélène Demoraux. I mean, we just want to enjoy
our life and our time left on stage. For sure.
The choice of the music is important. Each day,
each month, each year, it's a gift, you know.
So that's for sure. Yeah, one thing I haven't
asked you, just before we go, do you play any
solo stuff? Do you like to play? No, in this
project, we have played some solo. Oh, yes, you
have. And we probably play some of them on stage.
But I don't go to play a Mozart concerto solo,
no. No, but I would travel miles and miles to
hear Christian Zimmermann play whatever he wants
to play. Yeah, and you're obviously so busy.
And that would give me more pleasure than to
play it myself. Yes, okay. Yeah. Oh, well, I
could chat to you for so much longer. Thank you
so much, Erika. Oh, you're very welcome. It was
really lovely speaking to you. And I really wish
you all the best for this grand year -long tour
of yours. Thank you. Yes, and let's stay in touch.
It was too long we haven't been in touch. You
were on the cover of Issue 7, and that was in
2002. Amazing. We have to have you on the cover
again, I think. Yes, with pleasure. Before it's
too late. Before it's too late. Oh, well, thank
you so much for joining me today. Thank you very
much. Okay, thank you. Bye -bye. Bye. That was
Michael Reisman's arrangement of Philip Glass's
Les Soeurs and it was performed by Katia and
Marielle Labeck. Pianist podcasts are free and
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