Fifty-five years after the release of their first recording, Katia and Marielle Labèque celebrate an extraordinary artistic journey with a new triple album that brings together new recordings and archive selections. Gustavo Dudamel also honors an anniversary, celebrating 150 years since the birth of the Manuel de Falla with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela. Legendary composer for stage and screen John Williams continues his collaboraton with an ensemble he has admired since childhood – The United States Marine Band (“The President’s Own”.) Last but not least, violinist Miclen LaiPang presents his debut solo album with pianist Nigel Yandell, while The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra joins the very welcome trend of recording Mel Bonis’s orchestral works.
New Releases June 23: Katia & Marielle Labèque, John Williams, and more
Fifty-five years after the release of their first recording, Katia and Marielle Labèque celebrate an extraordinary artistic journey with this new triple album, bringing together new recordings and archive selections spanning more than half a century. The Labèque sisters have consistently crossed boundaries between classical, contemporary, jazz, minimalism, and popular traditions. Commissioning works from composers such as Philip Glass and Bryce Dessner, performing on stages worldwide — from Mozart to minimalist composers — their openness has never wavered, and they have successfully combined artistic rigor with popular acclaim. On 55, Katia and Marielle Labèque demonstrate their enduring curiosity, their commitment to creation, and their unique role as bridges between eras, aesthetics, and musical worlds. With women composers not featured prominently enough in their back catalogue, 13 of the 25 new tracks are composed by 10 different women.
Recorded in 2025 in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Manuel de Falla’s birth and the 50th anniversary of the Venezuelan music education program El Sistema, Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela present three of Falla’s most iconic works: El amor brujo, featuring Spanish singer Pasión Vega; Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) featuring pianist Javier Perianes; and El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered hat). Together, they offer three distinct yet complementary visions of Andalusia, illuminating Falla’s engagement with Spanish musical identity.
Violinist Miclen LaiPang presents his debut solo album with pianist Nigel Yandell. The program is a deeply personal recital of repertoire representing styles and places that have played meaningful roles in LaiPang’s own life, featuring American spirituals and works by Amy Beach, Clarence Cameron White, Fritz Kreisler, Richard Strauss, Robert Schumann, Maurice Ravel, Franz Liszt, Felix Borowski, and Peter Tchaikovsky. Works such as Deep River and Nobody knows de trouble I’ve seen bring echoes of home, representing Miclen’s childhood and the United States, while Widmung, Liebesleid, and Waltzes from Der Rosenkavalier Waltzes are associated with his time in Germany and Austria, and Ravel’s Violin Sonata No. 2 with his current home in France. Miclen LaiPang performs on the Antonio Stradivari “Charles Castleman, ex-Marquis de Champeaux,” generously loaned by the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel.
Legendary composer for stage and screen John Williams has admired the United States Marine Band (“The President’s Own”) since childhood, and in recent decades, the maestro and ensemble’s mutual admiration has deepened amidst a series of collaborations marking the group’s major anniversaries. The culmination of this twenty-year relationship was Williams’s return to conduct the band’s 225th anniversary gala concert in July 2023 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts — the performance captured here in the third album of the collaboration issued by Naxos of America. The program features selections from Williams’s iconic scores for the films Jurassic Park, Lincoln, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Star Wars, and 1941.
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Rumon Gamba join the very welcome trend of recording Mel Bonis’s orchestral works, composed between 1891 and 1912. Their program features the three-part Les Femmes de Légende, the Suite en forme de valses, the Suite Orientale, Three Dances, Danse sacrée, and Les Gitanos. Soprano Elizabeth Watts is soloist for Noël de la Vierge Marie and Le chat sur le toit.
