Orchestre De Paris - Katia Et Marielle Labèque by Adams, Muhly, Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff, Od (2021/2021), Dirigent Maxim Emelyanychev, Philharmonie de Paris, Paris, France

Partnering with Days Off for the first time, the Orchestre de Paris will accompany pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque for a tailor-made programme along with a momentous event: the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Concerto for Two Pianos. Since its creation, Days Off has always been a playing field for curious and inventive musicians, those whose labels need to be peeled off, cut up and pieced back together like a puzzle. Genre-blending is something Nico Muhly has done before at the festival, performing the fabulous Planetarium alongside Sufjan Stevens and Bryce Dessner in 2012 and 2017. This year, the brilliant New York composer brings to the Philharmonie de Paris a first taste of In Certain Circles, concerto pour deux pianos, a marvel of finesse performed by two of the greatest pianists of our day, Katia and Marielle Labèque. It was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and Orchestre de Paris, which will also play Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances (1940) and the stunning piece The Chairman Dances by American composer John Adams, written in 1985, at the same time as his mythic opera Nixon in China.