The Macallan Bravo Series: Jaap | The Labèque Sisters (22 & 23 November)
Music Director Jaap van Zweden leads the HK Phil, world renowned duo-piano team The Labèque Sisters and two premieres

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[18 November 2019, Hong Kong] A star duo-piano team The Labèque Sisters and two premieres, together with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra (HK Phil) will bring inspiration and innovation to Hong Kong’s musical landscape in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall on 22 and 23 November in concerts led by Music Director Jaap van Zweden.

This programme features the Asia premiere of Philip Glass’s Concerto for Two Pianos performed by headliners The Labèque Sisters, “the best piano duo in front of an audience today”, according to the New York Times. The duo last performed with the HK Phil in 2009. In addition to their performances with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, the French-born siblings are also noted for their work with leading contemporary composers including Philip Glass. The Labèque Sisters presented the world premiere of this concerto in 2015 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel.

The evening also features a work by Hong Kong composer Chan Kai-young, whose compositions have received enthusiastic responses from HK Phil and international audiences. Winner of numerous competitions including the HK Phil’s Composers Showcase in 2017, Chan’s nuanced and resonant music converses with societies and cultures, particularly the musicality of Chinese literature. Spiraling Dreamscape, which will receive its Hong Kong premiere on this programme, epitomises these qualities.

The concert will open with Wagner’s Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin, arguably the most gorgeous of Wagner’s operas, with this Prelude setting the tone. The concert also features Mussorgky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, a grand suite originally composed for virtuoso piano and later orchestrated by a long list of composers and transcribed for everything from saxophone choir to punk-jazz band. This time, we bring you Stokowski's own dazzling orchestration, opening the piece with low strings and woodwinds, creating deep, chorale-like textures.

The Macallan Bravo Series: Jaap | The Labèque Sisters is sponsored by The Macallan.

The concertwill be held on 22 & 23 November (Fri & Sat) at 8PM in the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall. Tickets are HK$580, $480, $380, $280 and are available at URBTIX. For enquiries, please call +852 2721 2332 or visit hkphil.org.

Artists
Jaap van Zweden, conductor [full biography]
Over the past decade, conductor Jaap van Zweden has become an international presence on three continents.  Currently Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, he is also Music Director of the New York Philharmonic – a post he has held since the 2018/19 season. Guest engagements this season include the Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony and Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

The Labèque Sisters, piano [full biography]
Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide. They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonia della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam  and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Marin Alsop, Alain Altinoglu, Semyon Bychkov, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Gustavo Gimeno, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Zubin Mehta, Juanjo Mena,Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Matthias Pintscher , Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.


JAAP! SERIES: THE MACALLAN BRAVO SERIES:
JAAP│THE LABÈQUE SISTERS
& 23 | 11 | 2019
FRI & SAT 8PM
Hong Kong Cultural Centre Concert Hall
HK$580 $480 $380 $280
Tickets are now available at URBTIX.
For ages 6 and above


The concert is sponsored by The Macallan.


Artists

Programme