dream house quartet tour

DREAM HOUSE QUARTET

www.dreamhousequartet.com

Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms, featuring luminaries the Katia and Marielle Labèque on dueling pianos along with acclaimed composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National) and David Chalmin (innocence, la terre invisible) performing radical new commissions from visionary composers and pivotal contemporary works of the last half century. They presented their first project in 2019 at Paris Philharmonie with guest Thom Yorke followed by a tour in Lyon, London and Hamburg Elb Philharmonie. The second half of this project was dedicated to the world premiere of Thom Yorke ’s composition « don’t fear the light » and a new song « gawpers ». Those pieces were Yorke’s first composition for Katia & Marielle and classical concerts halls .

Bryce, Marielle, Katia & David

“They are immersing themselves in an increasingly youthful repertoire. The National’s Bryce Dessner (who recently wrote an entire album of music for them) and David Chalmin sit either side of the Labèques,. the Labèques provide atmospheric flourishes. It’s the kind of funereal meditation that would have fitted nicely on A Moon Shaped Pool.” —THE GUARDIAN

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and The National’s Bryce Dessner are fans of Katia and Marielle Labèque

BY BETH WOOD APRIL 16, 2023 6 AM PT

read the article >>

Dream House Quartet Comes to The Town Hall, With Guests Arooj Aftab and Ash Fure Dream House Quartet will make their North American debut on April 23. by Stephi Wild Apr. 17, 2023

Read the Article >>

“electrifying pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque. played a suite of old and new compositions. Bryce Dessner’s “Haven,” jumpy and shrill, , with guitars that jittered up and down arpeggios, and pianos that promised redemption….The sisters played with monstrous energy...” —PITCHFORK

“the quartet settled into a surprisingly accessible performance of light and shade, during which the pair playing propulsive chords on their grand pianos tended to out-rock the scratchy, sinuous guitars.” —EVENING STANDARD

Paris Philharmonie with guest Thom Yorke 2019

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Dream House Quartet: Dates USA April/May 2023

23.04.23 The Kitchen Benefit @ The Town Hall, New York

25.04.23 Texas Performing Arts, Austin

26.04.23 ArtPower, San Diego

27.04.23 Stanford Live @ Bing Hall, Stanford

28.04.23 Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa

30.04.23 CAP-UCLA @ Royce Hall, Los Angeles

03.05.23 TO LIVE, Toronto, Canada

05.05.23 Schwarzman Center, Yale University, New Haven

Bryce Dessner

In addition to his role as one of eight San Francisco Symphony Collaborative Partners, Bryce Dessner is currently Artist-in-Residence at London’s Southbank Centre and with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Major works include Concerto for Two Pianos premiered by Katia & Marielle Labèque, London Philharmonic Orchestra and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon; Violin Concerto premiered and performed internationally by Pekka Kuusisto, Trombone Concerto for Jorgen van Rijen commissioned by Dallas Symphony and l’Orchestre National d’Île de France; Voy a Dormir for mezzo soprano Kelley O’Connor and Orchestra of Saint Luke’s and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Skrik Trio for Steve Reich and Carnegie Hall; the ballet No Tomorrow co-written with Ragnar Kjartansson; Wires for Ensemble Intercontemporain; The Forest for large cello ensemble, Gautier Capuçon and Fondation Louis Vuitton; and Triptych (Eyes for One on Another), a major theatre piece integrating the photographs of Robert Mapplethorpe and premiered by Los Angeles Philharmonic. Dessner also scored the music - involving full orchestra and a 200-member choir - for the Louis Vuitton show at the Louvre in Paris as part of Paris Fashion Week 2020.

Dessner’s recordings include El Chan; St. Carolyn by the Sea (both Deutsche Grammophon); Aheym, commissioned by Kronos Quartet; Tenebre, an album of his works for string orchestra recorded by Germany’s Ensemble Resonanz and which won a 2019 Opus Klassik award and a Diapason d’Or; When we are inhuman with Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy and Eighth Blackbird (2019) and Impermanence (2021) with the Australian String Quartet. Dessner’s other film score credits include The Two Popes, which won Discovery of the Year at the World Soundtrack awards; C’mon C’mon (2021) directed by Mike Mills and Cyrano (2021), the major musical by Joe Wright.

Also active as a curator, Dessner is regularly requested to program festivals and residencies around the world, at venues such as at the Barbican, Philharmonie de Paris, and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. He co-founded and curates the festivals MusicNOW in Cincinnati, HAVEN in Copenhagen, Sounds from a Safe Harbour and PEOPLE.

David Chalmin

Singer, musician, composer, producer and sound engineer, his various collaborations extend from classical music to avant-garde.

The sixth movement of the piece Sept Particules, composed in 2018 for harpsichordist Justin Taylor and his ensemble Le Consort, was sung to critical acclaim. And now, his soft, sensitive voice has become an integral part of all five tracks on Innocence, EP to be released on Yotanka Records on the 17th of June 2022.

In 2022, he is also working on Electric Fields, a new project for Barbara Hannigan, Katia & Marielle Labeque with live videos by Netia Jones in which he’ll perform live electronics. This work, co-written with Bryce Dessner will be premiered in November 2022 in Disney Hall, Los Angeles.

Among his other compositions : a piece for organ Constellation premiered at Variations Festival Nantes, a piece for 100 pianos, Piano Orchestra premiered at Paris Philharmonie, a ballet Star-Cross'd Lovers for two pianos, drums electronics and guitar created at the Cité de la Musique in Paris (recorded for Deutsche Grammophon), an original music for Madonna's short film Her Story filmed by Luigi & Iango.

He also created with pianist Katia Labèque, a project on Moondog’s music premiered at Les Nuits de Fourvières in Lyon. The Moondog album was released by Deutsche Grammophon.

With the trio Triple Sun, with bass player Massimo Pupillo (ZU) and drummer Raphaël Séguinier (UbuNoir), he joined the Dessner brothers (The National) and Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) for the project Invisible Bridge at the Paris Philharmonie.

“David Chalmin’s music has the clarity, confidence, and self-evidence of works that have matured over time, reflecting experience that is unencumbered by outside in- fluences and perspectives... a glowing melody and haunting electronic waves...” —Vincent Théval (about Innocence)

Minimalist Dream House Quartet Katia & Marielle Labèque, Bryce Dessner, David Chalmin

“les sœurs basques comptent parmi les plus grandes pianistes actuelles, aussi grandioses dans le répertoire classique qu’ouvertes aux musiques actuelles. Leur album Minimalist Dream House rendait aussi bien hommage aux pionniers de la musique minimaliste (Philip Glass, Terry Riley) qu’à leurs héritiers (Radiohead, Aphex Twin).On retiendra la création mondiale de Haven de Dessner, plus classique, et les Particules n°5 et 6 de Chalmin, …...un moment rare, précieux, où se mêlent des horizons à la fois savants et chaleureux, cérébraux et gracieux.” —GRAZIA

brycedessner.com davidchalmin.com dreamhousequartet.com

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Dream House Quartet’s North American Debut Tour

25th April 2023

Dream House Quartet, formed in 2018 and made up of pianists Katia & Marielle Labèque, and guitarist-composers Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin, continue their North American tour performing a program that includes world premieres by Dessner and Chalmin, as well as works by Philip Glass , Anna Thorvaldsdottir , Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Thom Yorke and more. Works by Dessner within the programme include Haven and Cherchebruit .

The tour runs April 23-May 5

The tour opened with a concert at Town Hall in NYC in collaboration with The Kitchen and with guest artist Arooj Aftab, and then includes dates in New Haven, Austin, Los Angeles, Toronto, and more.

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Dream House Quartet Featuring Katia & Marielle Labèque, Bryce Dessner & David Chalmin

Dream house quartet.

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Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms, featuring luminaries the Katia and Marielle Labèque on dueling pianos along with acclaimed composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National) and David Chalmin (innocence, la terre invisible) performing radical new commissions from visionary composers and pivotal contemporary works of the last half century. In its first-ever world tour, this all-star ensemble will bring singular interpretations of several highly influential works of minimalist pioneers and contemporary composers to Austin for the first time. The original double album Minimalist Dream House (released in 2013) gathered interpretations of compositions by pioneers of minimalism and their successors, including Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt, Thom Yorke, Aphex Twin and Brian Eno – artists who bend musical time and space as much as the Labèques, while enjoying the paradoxical freedom of minimalism’s limitations. The Austin premiere of Dream House Quartet will feature new works by Dessner and Chalmin (commissioned for the group) as well as works by Meredith Monk, Steve Reich and Philip Glass. Running time: 100 minutes including one intermission  Program Bryce Dessner —  Haven (2019) Meredith Monk —  Ellis Island (1981) Steve Reich —  Electric Counterpoint (1987)  Philip Glass —  4 Movements for 2 Pianos (2008) Thom Yorke —  Don’t Fear the Light, Part 1 & 2 (2019) David Chalmin —  Eclipse (2023)  Bryce Dessner —  Sonic Wires (2023) View full program notes .

Media Sponsor: KUTX-FM

A daring triumph. — Pitchfork

The extraordinary celebrity of the pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque... immersing themselves in an increasingly youthful repertoire. — The Guardian

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Yale Schwarzman Center

• Dream House Quartet

Featuring Works by Anna Thorvaldsdottir (US Premiere), David Chalmin, Bryce Dessner, Philip Glass, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and Thom Yorke

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Dream House Quartet presented their new EP on Deutsche Grammophon on April 14, 2023!

Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms. Legendary dueling pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque alongside pioneering composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National, C’mon C’mon, Bardo ) and David Chalmin ( Innocence , La Terre Invisible ) perform unparalleled works by visionary composers from the past half-century.

The quartet’s premiere North American tour brings newly commissioned works from Thom Yorke (Radiohead) featuring his first compositions for classical music and concert halls for two pianos, electronics and modular synthesizer, world premieres from Bryce Dessner, David Chalmin, and works from Philip Glass, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, and more.

A daring triumph. Pitchfork

Katia & Marielle Labèque

Bryce Dessner '98BA '99MM

David Chalmin

Rarely has the weft and warp of the score been so realized, its question-and-answer dialogue with such perfect (and natural) even-handedness. Gramophone

About this performance

This one-night-only performance of Dream House Quartet is curated by acclaimed Grammy® award-winning musician, composer, arranger, and guitarist Bryce Dessner ’98BA ’99MM who,  nearly 25 years after graduating from Yale, has returned to New Haven  as the Schwarzman Center's inaugural artist-in-residence for music. As a feature of his multi-year residency, Dessner has curated and commissioned new works from a roster of emerging creators, produced in partnership with ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann , including Julia Bullock, Ash Fure, Nathalie Joachim, Kaneza Schaal, and Anna Thorvaldsdóttir—artists whose works amplify their lived experiences across gender, race, and culture.  Read more

North American Premiere Tour Produced by ArKtype / Thomas O. Kriegsmann

Dan Bora, Sound

Sami Pyne, Associate Producer / Tour Manager

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From The National to Taylor Swift, Bryce Dessner modernizing orchestral music as Yale's artist-in-residence

Dream house quartet brings minimalist artistry, thorvaldsdóttir world premiere to ysc.

Dream House Quartet Program

A sonic minimalist experience by dream house quartet comes to yale schwarzman center for one night only.

Dream House Quartet from l. to r., Maria Labèque, David Chalmin, Katia Labèque, and Bryce Dessner; photo: Mélanie Bordas

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By Anya Wassenberg on April 5, 2023

Classical contemporary supergroup The Dream House Quartet will be performing in Toronto at the Meridian Arts Centre on May 3 as part of their North American tour. The quartet comprises pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner, (best known as founding member of The National), and composer, musician, and producer David Chalmin.

With a unique instrumentation of two pianos and two guitars, they’ll be bringing an eclectic program of new music.

Dream House Quartet

Who are Dream House Quartet?

Siblings Katia and Marielle Labèque have been performing together since childhood, and first rose to fame with a modern take on Gershwin’s classic Rhapsody in Blue, which garnered a gold record designation. They’ve played with major orchestras around the world, and collaborated with prominent composers like Pierre Boulez and Philip Glass, among many others.

Grammy winning artist Bryce Dessner is as much at home in the world of classical music composition as he is in the role of guitarist, arranger and songwriter for the indie alt-rock band The National. His compositions have been commissioned by l’Orchestre de Paris and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, among many others, and he’s written a number of well received film scores.

As a producer, arranger, and sound engineer, David Chalmin has worked with icons of the indie music world. As a composer, his recent piece Electric Fields was co-written with Bryce Dessner for Barbara Hannigan along with the Labèque sisters. The performance at Disney Hall incorporated live video by Netia Jones and live electronics performed by Chalmin.

Dream House Quartet perform Bryce Dessner’s Haven in Paris in 2019:

As guitarist and composer Bryce Dessner tells it, the quartet came together as a natural kind of evolution.

“I’ve been working with Katia and Marielle for several years,” says Bryce Dessner. The group met several years ago during an event with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

After living in New York City for several years, Dessner moved to France in 2014, where the sibling performers are famous. “I wrote a piece called El Chan which is a two piano piece.” The Labèques have performed the concerto he wrote for them in concert many times. “They’re kind of a second family to me now,” he says. David Chalmin is Katia’s partner. “We all live down here in Basque Country. It’s almost like our band.”

A concert in Paris in 2016 kicked off the ensemble’s performing history, although the group didn’t formally become Dream House Quartet until 2018. Their goal is to bring the classical and contemporary worlds of music together.

In 2019, the quartet toured with the music of British Thom Yorke, best known for his work with Radiohead, but also a composer of music for films and more. That tour began at the Paris Philharmonie, and continue to Lyon, London, and the Hamburg Elb Philharmonie. Yorke composed two pieces for Katia and Marielle, including one they’ll play on the current tour.

The repertoire for Dream House Quartet blends the classical and the contemporary. “I spend my life composing music and playing electric guitar,” he says. In The National, his role is quite different, as he explains. “This is a nice way to kind of marry those things.”

The repertoire

“This particular program is mostly featuring music by David and I.” The tour will include premieres of specific works in some areas. “We’re constantly developing the program.”

The works on the program include new pieces by both Bryce Dessner and David Chalmin, Thom Yorke’s first classical composition Don’t Fear the Light, and music by Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Meredith Monk, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and others.

“Everything we are playing is either our composition, or what we’ve arranged,” Dessner explains. “We play music we like.”

The works hold special resonance for him. “Electric Counterpoint is one of Steve Reich’s most amazing pieces. It first got me into composition.” The Dream House version incorporates two live guitars, along with pre-recorded elements.

Steve Reich, as Dessner notes, has often worked with double instrumentation. “As a composer, it’s endlessly interesting.” Working with two pianos, it accentuates the percussive nature of the instrument. “It has this kind of one big instrument feel about it.”

“There’s a piece called Haven that kind of epitomizes our sound.” A piece called Cherche le bruit will be premiered — it’s the name of the town where Katia and David live. “It’s much more virtuosic,” Dessner says. “It’s a bit of an homage to Reich.”

On classical music

While the current program focuses on works by Dessner, Chalmin, and longtime favourites, the quartet has broader goals.

“We’ve started commissioning new works,” Dessner says. “When we began, we were combining — it’s obviously all music by living composers — it’s a mix that we like to call historic minimalism.” Although, as he continues, minimalism may be too narrow a term. “It’s almost reductive to call them minimalists.”

The classical music world is still subject to a kind of purist mentality in some quarters which insists on separating it from any other genres. “It removes an elemental, fundamental vitality of the music. We exist in conversation,” he says.

“I think that classical music, while historic, and at least 1,000 years of tradition, if we’re talking about Western music, is a living tradition.” New composers take their inspiration from the same things that the old masters did, he notes.

“We exist in a cross generational continuum.” He notes that classical music canon itself has excluded so many voices from for so long, a matter that’s only now begun to be addressed.

“I think my response to that is, I love Renaissance music, and 12th century polyphony, […] as much as I love Philip Glass and the Beatles.”

Younger listeners, in particular, don’t separate classical music from the array of other genres of music they listen to. It’s one among many choices, and streaming has led to an upward bump in classical music listening overall.

“Any teenager can sit in their bedroom and listen to Mahler’s 5th, and it’s revelatory,” Dessner says.

But, as he points out, the technology can also promote a certain homogeneity that is part of the algorithmic culture. That’s what makes supporting new composers so crucial. “I think it’s important to hear new composers and encourage them.”

And, in some ways, what we now accept as classical canon doesn’t necessarily have historical roots. Improvisation, for instance, was both common and expected of performers during the classical and baroque eras. “The baroque idea of a musician is closer to today’s,” he says.

The details

Their North American tour kicks off in New York City on April 23, and wraps up in New Haven, CT on May 5. They hit Toronto on May 3 at the George Weston Recital Hall.

Just before, their new EP on the Deutsche Grammophon label will be released on April 14.

Tickets for the Toronto show May 3 show are on sale now [ HERE ].

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Dream House Quartet

Dream House Quartet       

Katia  & Marielle Làbeque, Bryce Dessner & David Chalmin

“A daring triumph” — Pitchfork

Formed in 2018, the two piano/two guitar combo Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms. Featuring luminaries Katia and Marielle Labèque on dueling pianos accompanied by acclaimed composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner ( Bardo , C’Mon C’Mon , The National) and David Chalmin (Innocence, La Terre Invisible).

Dream House Quartet’s premiere U.S. tour features newly commissioned works, including Thom Yorke’s (Radiohead) first compositions for classical music and concert halls for two pianos, electronics and modular synthesizer, Philip Glass, Bryce Dessner, David Chalmin and more.

Funds provided by the NEA Challenge Grant Endowment .

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DREAMHOUSE QUARTET

Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms, featuring luminaries the Katia and Marielle Labèque on dueling pianos along with acclaimed composer-guitarists Bryce Dessner (The National) and David Chalmin (innocence, la terre invisible) performing radical new commissions from visionary composers and pivotal contemporary works of the last half century.

They presented their first project in 2019 at Paris Philharmonie with guest Thom Yorke followed by a tour in Lyon, London and Hamburg Elb Philharmonie. The second half of this project was dedicated to the world premiere of Thom Yorke ’s composition « don’t fear the light » and a new song « gawpers ». Those pieces were Yorke’s first composition for Katia & Marielle and classical concerts halls .

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Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro Tour is included in most guided tours’ itineraries. Opened in 1935, under Stalin’s regime, the metro was not only meant to solve transport problems, but also was hailed as “a people’s palace”. Every station you will see during your Moscow metro tour looks like a palace room. There are bright paintings, mosaics, stained glass, bronze statues… Our Moscow metro tour includes the most impressive stations best architects and designers worked at - Ploshchad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya, Kievskaya, Novoslobodskaya and some others.

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The guide will not only help you navigate the metro, but will also provide you with fascinating background tales for the images you see and a history of each station.

And there some stories to be told during the Moscow metro tour! The deepest station - Park Pobedy - is 84 metres under the ground with the world longest escalator of 140 meters. Parts of the so-called Metro-2, a secret strategic system of underground tunnels, was used for its construction.

During the Second World War the metro itself became a strategic asset: it was turned into the city's biggest bomb-shelter and one of the stations even became a library. 217 children were born here in 1941-1942! The metro is the most effective means of transport in the capital.

There are almost 200 stations 196 at the moment and trains run every 90 seconds! The guide of your Moscow metro tour can explain to you how to buy tickets and find your way if you plan to get around by yourself.

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Dream house quartet at town hall.

...in 2019 he released an album done with the duo piano team of Katia and Marielle Labeque... On that album, he also worked with French guitarist David Chalmin, and that combination of two pianists and two guitarists worked so well that they’ve now formed the Dream House Quartet.

Ludwig Van Toronto

Preview | bryce dessner talks about dream house quartet, music, and their north american tour.

With a unique instrumentation of two pianos and two guitars, they’ll be bringing an eclectic program of new music.

San Diego Union Tribune

Radiohead's thom yorke and the national's bryce dessner are fans of katia and marielle labèque.

Dessner teams with French sister piano duo in the Dream House Quartet, now San Diego-bound on its first U.S. tour

Berkshire Fine Arts

Minimalism at town hall.

The Dream House Quartet performed Dessner, Meredith Monk. Steve Reich, Philip Glass, Thom Yorke, and David Chalmin. The variety of minimalism, which Dessner suggest begins with a drone, was amply and thrillingly evident.

Brooklyn Vegan

Dream house quartet (ft. the national’s bryce dessner) made north american debut at town hall (pics).

When he's not busy with The National (whose new album First Two Pages of Frankenstein is out this Friday, 4/28), one of Bryce Dessner's many other projects is Dream House Quartet, a collaboration with pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque and composter/musician/producer David Chalmin. They made their North American live debut at NYC's Town Hall on Sunday (4/23), playing works by Meredith Monk, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Thom Yorke, and Bryce and David themselves.

Cultural Attaché

David chalmin introduces dream house quartet.

Late last week I spoke with Chalmin about the Dream House Quartet, his musical partners (one of whom, Katia, has been his life partner for 20 years) and Thom Yorke of Radiohead whose Don’t Fear the Light, Part 1 & 2 is being performed on their tour. What follows are excerpts from my conversation with Chalmin that have been edited for length and clarity.

Deutsche Grammophone

Dream house quartet debut ep is released on deutsche grammophone.

Their first EP for DG features music by Chalmin, Dessner and Meredith Monk. Formed in 2018, Dream House Quartet fuses decades of musical mastery of classical and contemporary forms. Its members – world-renowned pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque; Grammy-winning guitarist, composer and founding member of The National Bryce Dessner; and composer, musician and producer David Chalmin – perform radical new commissions from visionary composers and key contemporary works of the last 50 years.

Dream House Quartet's first EP for DG features music by Chalmin, Dessner and Meredith Monk.

The New York Times

These sisters have transformed the piano duo.

Katia and Marielle Labèque have been playing, and enlarging, the two-piano repertory for over 50 years.

The Guardian

Minimalist dream house review – thom yorke joins labèques for flamboyant, fx-infused miniatures.

Marielle and Katia Labèque lead a hypnotic programme that included Max Richter, The National’s Bryce Dessner and Timo Andres

Evening Standard

Rock meets classical as thom yorke's otherworldly vocals return.

“The quartet settled into a surprisingly accessible performance of light and shade, during which the pair playing propulsive chords on their grand pianos tended to out-rock the scratchy, sinuous guitars.”

Thom Yorke’s Contemporary Classical Debut Is a Daring Triumph

“Electrifying pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque played a suite of old and new compositions. Bryce Dessner’s “Haven,” jumpy and shrill, with guitars that jittered up and down arpeggios, and pianos that promised redemption….The sisters played with monstrous energy...”

"The Basque sisters are among the greatest pianists today, as great in the classical repertoire as they are in contemporary music. Their album Minimalist Dream House paid tribute to the pioneers of minimalist music (Philip Glass, Terry Riley) as well as to their heirs (Radiohead, Aphex Twin).we will remember the world premiere of Haven by Dessner, more classical, and the Particules n°5 and 6 by Chalmin, ......a rare moment, precious, where horizons are mixed at the same time learned and warm, cerebral and graceful."

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