Search - Claude Debussy, Katia Labeque, Marielle Labeque :: En blanc et noir: The Debussy Album

Great performances of mostly rarely played masterpieces

Itamar Ronen | Boston, MA USA | 04/16/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It is often said that playing French music is almost like speaking French - you have to be a native French to do it convincingly. Despite many examples to the contrary, there is something magical in the way French artists perform French music. The more relatively recent examples are Jean-Ives Thibaudet, and in this instance - the sisters Labeque. Except for some mannerisms here and there I less agree with, particularly in the charming Petite Suite (something that afflicted also their performance of Bizet's Jeux D'enfants in a rather cheesy TV setting) - the performances, both technically and interpretation-wise, are wonderful. And the music is superb. En Blanc et Noir has it all - the amazing span of atmospheres and colours, so typical of the late Debussy. The two out of the three orchestral Nocturnes (Nuages and Fetes), arranged for two pianos by Ravel (who usually orchestrated rather than reduced) lose very little, if at all, in this piano version. The Six Epigraphes Antiques are the most shamefully neglected of all Debussy's piano works. There's a version for 2 hands, arranged by the composer. These late, meditative pieces deserve much more exposure, and the sisters Labeque do them justice. This is a wonderful CD."