Aimard makes “Mostly Mozart” debut, Aug 9 & 10

Pierre-Laurent
Aimard assumes the roles of pianist and conductor when he makes his
long-anticipated Mostly Mozart debut at Lincoln Center on August 9 and 10 with
the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (also making its Mostly Mozart debut). The extraordinary
French musician balances two Viennese classics by Haydn and Mozart with a
modern masterpiece in each evening’s program.  For the first concert the new work is Gyorgy Ligeti’s Chamber
Concerto for 13 Instruments. This concert, part of the “Lincoln Center 50
Years” celebration, will mark the first time the music of Ligeti – the
Hungarian master who died in 2006 – is performed at Mostly Mozart. The following
evening, Aimard will explore Karlheinz Stockhausen’s chamber work Kontra-Punkte with members of the
orchestra.

Aimard
wanted each program to feature a seminal work by Haydn, a Mozart piano
concerto, and a newer work, all of which demonstrate prominent common themes of
rhythm, time, and counterpoint.   Haydn and Mozart both used the forms of their time and included
comic twists or humorous games of musical manipulation in these pieces. These
techniques appear in the work of many contemporary composers, including Ligeti.

Aimard,
who has performed and recorded much of Ligeti’s fiendishly difficult music,
including the Chamber Concerto and the piano etudes, opens the first concert with
Haydn’s D major “Clock” symphony, followed by the F major Mozart piano
concerto, K. 459, which he conducts from the keyboard.  For the next evening’s concert, Aimard
leads Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony and Stockhausen’s Kontra-Punkte before returning to the
keyboard to play and conduct Mozart’s Piano Concerto No.17 in G major, K.453.

Aimard
recently completed the first of three years that he will spend as artistic
director of England’s esteemed Aldeburgh Festival.  His programming and performances received virtually
unanimous praise. In the U.S, the Chicago Tribune, one of many U.S. newspapers
that have applauded his recent work, wrote: “The brilliant French pianist
boldly goes where few, if any, of his colleagues have gone before.”

Aimard’s
Mostly Mozart Festival concert details

Sunday,
August 9, 2009 at 5:00pm

Pierre-Laurent
Aimard, conductor and pianist (Mostly Mozart debut)

Alice
Tully Hall, Starr Theater

Chamber
Orchestra of Europe (Mostly Mozart debut)

Haydn:
Symphony No.101 in D major (“The Clock”)

Ligeti:
Chamber Concerto for 13 Instruments

Mozart:
Piano Concerto No.19 in F major, K.459

Monday,
August 10, 2009 at 7:30pm

Pierre-Laurent
Aimard, conductor and pianist

Alice
Tully Hall, Starr Theater

Chamber
Orchestra of Europe

Haydn:
Symphony No.45 in F-sharp minor (“Farewell”)

Stockhausen:
Kontra-Punkte

Mozart:
Piano Concerto No.17 in G major, K.453

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© 21C Media Group, July 2009