Pierre-Laurent Aimard: authoritative new Kurtág recording, Carnegie Hall recital, & LA Philharmonic concerts in May; Aspen debut this summer

(May 2025) — For Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, today (May 2)brings the release by Pentatone of Kurtág: Játékok, comprising more than 80 selections from György Kurtág’s ongoing collection of playfully avant-garde miniatures. Recorded under the composer’s close artistic guidance over a two-year period in Budapest, the double album represents, Aimard says, “one of the major projects of my life.” He follows its release with a series of high-profile U.S. appearances, returning to New York’s Carnegie Hall for a solo keyboard fantasy recital (May 4), joining Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic for solo Boulez and concertos by Bartók and Ravel (May 8–11), and making his Aspen Music Festival and School debut with a three-program residency that culminates with an al fresco account of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’oiseaux(July 30–Aug 4). The Colorado festival marks the sole American engagement of Aimard’s otherwise all-European summer. As well as collaborations with Cologne’s Ensemble Musikfabrik and the Czech Philharmonic, highlights include tributes in Berlin, Baden-Baden, and Salzburg to his late teacher and collaborator Pierre Boulez, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year.

New Pentatone recording: Kurtág: Játékok

At 99, György Kurtág (b. 1926) is “the last survivor of an outstanding generation of postwar avant garde composers” (The Guardian). Aimard’s intimate artistic friendship with the great Hungarian modernist dates back almost five decades to 1978, just five years after Kurtág first embarked on Játékok (“Games”). Inspired by the spontaneous play of “children for whom the piano still means a toy,” this vast, ongoing piano collection “spoke to my innermost being in an incomparable way,” says Aimard, who has taught and performed selections from Játékok throughout his career. Only now, however, has he has committed these interpretations to disc. He explains:

“The rule I imposed on this album was not to publish anything that did not receive Kurtág’s unreserved approval, both during the recording and during the editing sessions, with the desire to create a testimony as faithful as possible.”

By capturing the composer’s intentions so closely, the new anthology is of incalculable importance to music lovers. “Aimard is our best guide on this journey, not least because Kurtág’s intense involvement in this project radiates great authority from his interpretation,” writes The Netherlands’ Opus Klassiek. “Having known most of these pieces since their inception, Aimard is uniquely qualified to undertake that project,” affirms Gramophone magazine. As The Guardian puts it, in a five-star review:

“Whole worlds of expression are encapsulated in just a few bars, and listening to Aimard’s exemplary performances provides as important an insight into Kurtág’s very personal musical thinking as any of his larger-scale, more ‘public’ pieces. Játékok is one of the major achievements of the last half century, and Aimard is the perfect guide to it.”

Earlier this spring, Aimard commemorated the Boulez centennial with a recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall. This prompted the New York Classical Review to note:

“The French musician is not only one of the finest keyboard artists of our day, but passionate about the modern and contemporary repertoire. He delivers great performances of challenging works and incorporates them into the classical tradition in a way that shows their stature. …  Another superlative performance.”

Now Aimard returns to Carnegie’s Zankel Hall to deconstruct the keyboard fantasy, a genre whose improvisatory roots let its composers’ imaginations run free, with a solo recital program of Sweelinck, Beethoven, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Ives, and Carter (May 4). After one of the pianist’s previous explorations of the fantasia form, TheSan Diego Union-Tribune marveled: “There have been few piano recitals this season so thoughtfully curated as the one that Pierre-Laurent Aimard gave. … A fascinating, unforgettable concert.”

Aimard and Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen are friends and musical partners of many years’ standing, whose recent recording of Bartók’s three piano concertos was a finalist for the 2024 International Classical Music Awards. At the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the two reunite to reprise their “revelatory” interpretation (The Sunday Times, UK) of Bartók’s Third and final Piano Concerto (May 9) and to perform Debussy’s seldom-programmed Fantaisie on a program that also features the pianist’s accounts of three of Boulez’s Notations for solo piano (May 8, 10, & 11).

Aimard returns to the States to make his Aspen Music Festival and School debut with a summer residency combining teaching with three public performances. After a solo program of Boulez, Schoenberg, Messiaen, and Debussy (July 30), he joins the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and resident conductor Timothy Weiss for Messiaen’s Couleurs de la Cité céleste (Aug 2). A former student of Yvonne Loriod, the late composer’s wife, Aimard is “a peerless interpreter of Messiaen’s music” (The Boston Globe). He completes the residency with a site-specific open-air performance of Catalogue d’oiseaux, the composer’s monumental piano collection depicting the birds of Europe (Aug 4). Aimard’s Pentatone recording of the Catalogue was recognized with the prestigious German Music Critics’ Prize, and his signature live renditions have been variously hailed as “a landmark statement” (The New York Times), “one of the exceptional recitals of the summer” (Chicago Tribune), and one of the “top ten musical events of the year” (The Guardian).

Boulez tributes and more in Europe this summer

Aimard’s Aspen debut punctuates a full summer in Europe, where he continues his series of Boulez tributes with three recitals featuring the composer’s music. At Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, he performs Boulez’s Third Piano Sonata alongside works by Ravel, Obukhov, and England’s George Benjamin, who joins Aimard on stage for the world premiere of his own new piano duet (June 21). In Baden-Baden, Aimard gives a solo recital of Ravel, Debussy, Schoenberg, Webern, and Boulez (June 3). Finally, at Austria’s Salzburg Festival, he alternates three of Boulez’s major solo works with those of his compatriots Debussy, Ravel, and Messiaen, before giving a late-night Bach recital (Aug 22).

Other highlights of the pianist’s European summer include Carter’s Double Concerto for Piano, Harpsichord, and Two Chamber Orchestras with Cologne’s Ensemble Musikfabrik(June 23), Ravel’s G-major Piano Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic (July 2 & 4), and returns to the Prague Spring Festival (May 22), Austria’s Styriarte (July 15), and Germany’s Ruhr Piano Festival. There he takes part in a performance of Messiaen’s transcendent Quatuor pour la fin du temps (June 29), after giving a duo recital of Ravel, Enescu, Messiaen, Birtwistle, and Knussen with his regular piano partner, Tamara Stefanovich (June 26). The two conclude the program with their interpretation of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen, of which The Guardian has written: “It was quite simply impossible to imagine it better done.”

Kurtág: Játékok

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano
Label: Pentatone
Digital release date (streaming; high-res downloads): May 2, 2025
Physical release date (2CDs): May 2025

György KURTÁG (b. 1926): Játékok (“Games”)
Disc 1: Books I, II, & 3 (1979); Books V & VI (1997); Book VII (2003)
Disc 2: Book IX (2017); Book X (2021); Book XI (work in progress)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard: upcoming engagements

May 2
Zurich, Switzerland
Kirche Fraumünster
MESSIAEN: Vingt regards sur l’enfant Jésus

May 4
New York, NY
Carnegie Hall (Zankel Hall)
Solo recital
SWEELINCK: Echo Fantasia No. 4
CARTER: Night Fantasies
CHOPIN: Polonaise-Fantaisie in A-flat, Op. 61
MOZART: Fantasia in C minor, K. 475
C.P.E. BACH: Keyboard Fantasia in C
BEETHOVEN: Fantasia in G minor, Op. 77
IVES: The Celestial Railroad

May 8, 10, & 11
Los Angeles, CA
Walt Disney Concert Hall
Los Angeles Philharmonic / Esa-Pekka Salonen
BOULEZ: Nos. 2, 4, & 7 from 12 Notations for solo piano
DEBUSSY: Fantaisie for piano and orchestra

May 9
Los Angeles, CA
Granada Theater
Los Angeles Philharmonic / Esa-Pekka Salonen
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3

May 22
Prague, Czech Republic
Prague Spring Festival
Kammerakademie Potsdam / Antonello Manacorda
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 1

June 3
Baden-Baden, Germany
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden
“100 – Celebration for Pierre Boulez”
Solo recital
BOULEZ: Piano Sonata No. 3
SCHOENBERG: Five Pieces, Op.23
WEBERN: Variations for Piano, Op. 27
DEBUSSY: Études (complete)
RAVEL: Miroirs

June 21
Berlin, Germany
Pierre Boulez Saal
“Boulez 100”
Recital
OBUKHOV: Révélation
BOULEZ: Piano Sonata No. 3
George BENJAMIN: Shadowlines
George BENJAMIN: new work for piano duet (world premiere; with George Benjamin, piano)
RAVEL: Le tombeau de Couperin

June 23
Cologne, Germany
Philharmonie
Ensemble Musikfabrik / Bas Wiegers
CARTER: Double Concerto for piano, harpsichord, and two chamber orchestras (with Benjamin Kobler, harpsichord)

June 26 & 29
Duisburg, Germany
Ruhr Piano Festival

June 26
Recital with Tamara Stefanovich, piano
RAVEL: Sites auriculaires
RAVEL: Entre cloches
ENESCU: “Carillon nocturne” from Suite No. 3, Op.18
KNUSSEN: Prayer Bell Sketch, Op.29
BIRTWISTLE: Keyboard Engine
MESSIAEN: Visions de l’Amen

June 29
MESSIAEN: Quatuor pour la fin du temps
(with Alena Baeva, violin; Nicolas Altstaedt, cello; Mark Simpson, clarinet)

July 2 & 4
Czech Philharmonic / Tomáš Netopil
   July 2: Litomyšl, Czech Republic (Smetana Litomyšl Festival)
   July 4: Bad Kissingen, Germany (Kissinger Summer Festival)
RAVEL: Piano Concerto in G

July 15
Graz, Austria
Styriarte Festival
Mark ANDRE: … selig ist …

July 27
Tuscany, Italy
Collegium Vocale Crete Senesi
Solo recital
Rep. TBA

July 30–Aug 4
Aspen, CO
Aspen Music Festival and School (debut)

July 30
Solo recital
BOULEZ: 12 Notations
DEBUSSY: Douze Études (selection)
BOULEZ: Piano Sonata No. 1
SCHOENBERG: Five Pieces, Op.23
BOULEZ: Incises
MESSIAEN: Quatre études de rythme

Aug 2
Aspen Contemporary Ensemble / Timothy Weiss, conductor
MESSIAEN: Couleurs de la Cité céleste

Aug 4
Solo recital
MESSIAEN: Catalogue d’oiseaux

Aug 22
Salzburg, Austria
Salzburg Festival

Aug 22 at 7pm
Solo recital
BOULEZ: 12 Notations
DEBUSSY: Douze Études (selection)
BOULEZ: Piano Sonata No. 1
RAVEL: “Une barque sur l’océan,” “Oiseaux tristes,” & “Noctuelles” from Miroirs
BOULEZ: Incises
MESSIAEN: Quatre études de rythme

Aug 22 at 10pm
Solo recital
BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II (selections)