Tonight, the SF Symphony kicks off its 08-09 season. Watch out for cougars on the prowl wearing $12,000 Max Nugus dresses around civic center, it's the Opening Night Gala. And before you start your class warfare whining in comments, inflation is a killer. A grand won't get you much anymore, what, hardly 6 months of rent for a 1br in the Richmond?

Tomorrow, however, you can safely return to Davies Symphony hall: it's back to the regular, easy going atmosphere, where you can play dress up but you don't have to. Plus, it's a terrific program, featuring the Poulenc concerto for two pianos. Oh, we loved that piece last time, two years ago, and it's the same Dream Team who will perform, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. We are psyched. So we phoned Katia Labeque.

Full interview with Katia Labeque after the jump

We already had a conversation with her sister Marielle and at the time she was like: "we cannot be too choosy, the repertoire for two piano and orchestra is pretty limited. There’s Mozart, Poulenc and Mendelssohn.” We'd be happy if they played that fantastic Poulenc concerto every year, but we still volleyed that comment back to Katia. "We played [that concerto] with Michael here, and also with his orchestra in Miami. We always have great pleasure to perform it with Michael.

How about the repertory: "It's changing! Next year, we will have three new concertos. Through our foundation and through orchestras we've been partnering for a long time, we have a new commission from the LA Philharmonic for a concerto by Louis Andriessen, that we'll play January 15th at Disney Hall, with Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting. Then in September 2009, we play the sequel to the Pasión Según San Marcos [Ed: we are particularly pleased to link to someone called the Omniscient Mussel, we admit] of Osvaldo Golijov. It's the opening of the season in Seattle with the world premiere. Then April 5th, 2010, a new concerto by Joan Albert Amargós. So that's three new concertos in 2009-2010."

World premieres up and down the West coast, but not in SF! Dang. Anyhow, the Andriessen concertos, it's next up in January, you know what they say, objects in the calendar are always closer than they appear. How is it coming along? "We have bits of score, we have about 5mn of music. For now, we're just starting to put things together, it only arrived a few days ago. We have blocked 2 months to work on it."

"Joan Albert Amargos, he's also the one who made all the arrangements for our new CD with Mayte Martin." Yeah, we listened to that. These guys make flamenco swing. But, usually, isn't Katia the iconoclast, involved with John McLaughlin and getting Miles Davis to name song after her, and doesn't Marielle stick to classical? How did Katia drag Marielle into flamenco sung by the incredible Mayte Martin.

"We are very close to the Spanish traditions, we were born in the Basque country." We too are close to Hispanic traditions, we live in the Mission. Seriously, that CD, "it's related to classical music. There are pieces of Falla, Granados. Every great Spanish classical composer was close to their roots in traditional folk music. Amargos knows flamenco, and he is very attached to his roots. He is a composer who can write a symphony, write for orchestra. There is a bridge there between the folk music and the concert hall music."

Marielle was not involved, however, with Katia's latest iconoclaste effort: B for Bang, an album of, we were gonna say covers of the Beatles, but it's more re-invention. "The idea was to explore the direction the Beatles have opened. It's been 30 years since Sergeant Pepper. They had a very experimental approach. They mixed classical music, with Indian music, they had folk, pop, rock influences." It more White Album than Abbey Road, but it's pretty neat, check it out!

On a different topic, we were curious. Would the weak $$$ incentivize Euro performers to stay in the old country? After all, they don't work pro bono. "We have our audience here, we have musicians and orchestras whom we love, we even have a business in the US which we founded. We are payed in $, not in Euros, and it's not a matter of exchange rate that will keep us away."

Glad we got that cleared!