Felix Mendelssohn; Max Bruch - Concertos for 2 Pianos and Orchestra (Katia & Marielle Labèque)

Information

Composer: Felix Mendelssohn; Max Bruch

• (01) Mendelssohn - Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra in E major
• (04) Bruch - Concerto for 2 pianos & orchestra in A-flat minor, Op. 88a

Katia Labèque, piano
Marielle Labèque, piano
Philharmonia Orchestra
Semyon Bychkov, conductor

Date: 1990
Label: Philips

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Review

Bruch's Double Piano Concerto will probably confound your expectations. It starts in an uncompromisingly solemn mood: dark, thick-textured and fugal, and with more than a suggestion of Busoni trailing in its wake. The second movement is healthily energetic, while the melodic richness and full-throated romanticism of the Adagio are fairly typical of the Max Bruch we all know and love so well. But, appealing though it is, Bruch's Op. 88a has had an amazingly chequered history. The work started life as a Suite for organ and orchestra, and was subsequently transcribed by Bruch himself for two of his students, who, while touting it around America, proceeded to re-fashion and simplify it, ultimately claiming it as an original piece written especially for them. The Concerto lay in total obscurity for a number of years, until Nathan Twining and Martin Berkofsky located and reconstructed Bruch's original. Since then (and that was by no means the end of editorial complications), it has gained admirers and revealed itself as an appealing addition to the slender two-piano concerto repertory.

In 1989, Claire and Antoinette Cann gave the work its British premiere, and this is its second recording (the first was by Berkofsky and Hagan with the Berlin SO under Herbig––Vox Turnabout (CD) 0012). The Labeques indulge both its burgeoning romanticism and its considerable virtuoso demands, while Bychkov directs a big, warm-textured accompaniment. The recording was made three years ago in London's Henry Wood Hall and sounds rather cramped––a fault due in part at least to Bruch's thickset orchestration.

Mendelssohn's E major Double Piano Concerto (another work that had to wait years for publication) is one of a pair that he composed during his early teens. It's far more transparent than the Bruch and presumably posed Philips's engineers fewer problems. Here Beethoven was an obvious model (his Emperor Concerto in particular), but the music is quintessentially Mendelssohnian none the less, with an abundance of sunny melodies and much dexterous solo writing. Although a lighter touch might have raised more of a smile, the Labeques never stint on brilliance and the Philharmonia is on good form. The recording copes fairly well and, taken as a whole, this CD provides an engaging introduction to some attractive but little-known repertory.

-- Gramophone

More reviews:

BBC Music Magazine  PERFORMANCE: ***** / SOUND: *****

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mendelssohn-Bruch-Concertos-Two-Pianos/dp/B00000E4SV

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Felix Mendelssohn (3 February 1809 – 4 November 1847) was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. He was among the most popular composers of the Romantic era. Like Mozart, he was recognized early as a musical prodigy. Mendelssohn enjoyed success in Germany, where he revived interest in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, and in his travels throughout Europe, particularly in Britain, where he visited ten times. His essentially conservative musical tastes, however, set him apart from many of his more adventurous musical contemporaries.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn

***

Max Bruch (6 January 1838 in Cologne – 2 October 1920 in Berlin) was a German Romantic composer and conductor. He wrote over 200 works, including three violin concertos, and was best known for his first violin concerto, which is a staple of the violin repertory and one of the most popular Romantic violin concertos. His complex and unfailingly well-structured works, in the German Romantic musical tradition, placed him in the camp of Romantic classicism exemplified by Johannes Brahms, rather than the opposing "New Music" of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner. In his time he was known primarily as a choral composer.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Bruch

***

The Labèque sisters, Katia (born 11 March 1950) and Marielle (born 6 March 1952), are an internationally known French piano duo. Katia and Marielle were born in Bayonne, on the southwest coast of France. Upon graduation from the Conservatoire de Paris in 1968, the two began working on piano four hands and two pianos repertoire. Between 1970 and 1997, they recorded many albums for Erato, Philips, EMI, Sony, and Decca. In 2012, they created their own recording studio called "Studio KML". In 2016 they joined the Deutsche Grammophon for the distribution of their record label KML Recordings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katia_and_Marielle_Lab%C3%A8que

--------------------------------------------------------------------

FLAC, tracks

Links in comment

Enjoy!