MUSIC REVIEW : The Labeque Sisters Play Specialties at the Bowl

Mozart and Saint-Saens are longtime specialties of the piano-playing team of Katia and Marielle Labeque, who returned to Hollywood Bowl Wednesday night to re-display their expertise in music by these composers. Before a tiny audience--by Bowl standards--the sisters again gave pleasure-laden performances.

The E-flat Concerto for Two Pianos, K. 365, and “Le Carnaval des Animaux” are staples of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s winter and summer repertories, of course, and a contingent--51 players--of Philharmonic members, gamely conducted by Neal Stulberg, accompanied the Frenchwomen sturdily.

In both cases, the reduced size of the symphonic ensemble proved charming rather than limiting.

The same could not be said for the suite from Ravel’s “Ma Mere l’oye,” wherein these four dozen-plus instrumentalists seemed vastly underpowered, and not always clearly projected, in the outdoor location, despite otherwise unobtrusive sound-dispersal. One admired the quality of the playing, but not its slender aural packaging.

The Sisters Labeque played most fetchingly throughout, stylish and purling in the lyric intricacies of Mozart’s beloved double concerto, characteristically varied in the dramatic extremes of Saint-Saens’ joyous “Carnival of the Animals.”

They were assisted by several splendid, in-orchestra soloists, the most splendid being cellist Daniel Rothmuller (in “Le Cygne”) and clarinetist Lorin Levee.

The program began with a sprightly but well-controlled reading of Mozart’s Overture to “Cosi fan Tutte.”

Attendance: 6,314.