Pierre-Laurent Aimard – Dedicatee of Birtwistle’s New Piano Concerto – Performs U.S. Premiere with Boston Symphony (Feb 12-14)
It was for Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a key figure in the music of our time, that Sir Harrison Birtwistle composed his new concerto Responses: sweet disorder and the carefully careless (2014). The Grammy Award-winning French pianist has already served as soloist in premieres with three of the four orchestras by which the piece was commissioned, in concerts in Munich under the directorship of Stefan Asbury, in Porto with Peter Eötvös, and in London, where his “revelatory and brilliantly executed” (The Times of London) UK premiere performance highlighted “Birtwistle at 80” celebrations at the Royal Festival Hall. His conductor there was Vladimir Jurowski, with whom Aimard reunites in the New Year to give the American premiere of Responses in three performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra – the fourth of the ensembles that co-commissioned it – at Boston’s Symphony Hall (Feb 12–14).
Sir Harrison Birtwistle (b. 1934) is one of the contemporary composers that Aimard – as performer, programmer, and commissioner – has most consistently championed. Ten years ago, during the English composer’s 70th birthday celebrations at London’s Royal Festival Hall, he gave what the Financial Times recognized as “a composer’s dream performance” of Birtwistle’s first piano concerto, Antiphonies. Now, a decade on, the composer – having created his second piano concerto expressly for the pianist – confirms this assessment, stating: “Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s playing is extraordinary and I hardly have to say anything to him. He realizes the dreams of the composer – certainly, this composer.”
Responses draws on Birtwistle’s Gabrieli-inspired ensemble piece, In Broken Images (2012). Like the earlier work, his new concerto makes extensive use of the medieval hocket principle, by which a single melody is shared between voices. “The piece is a dialogue,” he explains:
“The whole piece is about hocket: it’s full of it. The piano is able to play one of the voices of the hocket, so allowing it to be heard throughout. The piano here is like a frame and the orchestral response is the window.”
Birtwistle took his concerto’s subtitle – Sweet disorder and the carefully careless – from an essay collection by Princeton architect Robert Maxwell, which he describes as capturing “the essence of what I’m doing. It’s a resonant phrase. I identify with his ideas on modernism but I take it on a simple level too.”
The critical reaction to the UK premiere of Responses was phenomenal. In a five-star review, The Times called the concerto “overwhelming and uplifting.” The Arts Desk agreed, pronouncing it “completely intoxicating.” “From the first scintillating rattle of tambourine, crasher and castanet machine, into which the piano bursts with a swift flourish, to the final, hushed violin harmonics, shape and intention are clear,” amplified The Guardian. “The 27 minutes went by in a flash. … I can’t wait to hear Responses once more,” confided the Classical Source.
As for the pianist, critics agreed that “Aimard played superbly” (Classical Source). The Guardian called his performance “fluent and commanding,” the Arts Desk admired “his crystalline brilliance and intellectual command,” and the Independent declared:
“With Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the keyboard, [Responses] got the best possible airing: no pianist alive can rival this French maestro as an advocate for writing of this post-Messiaen kind.”
Indeed, as The Telegraph concluded, “This was one of those rare concerts where all the parts felt exactly right.”
A video of Aimard in rehearsal for October’s world premiere of Responses with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Stefan Asbury is available here, featuring an exclusive interview with the composer.
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The French pianist returns to the States in March to showcase the work of another contemporary composer with whom he has enjoyed a long and exceptionally rich personal and professional history: his compatriot Pierre Boulez. At just 19, at the composer-conductor’s invitation, Aimard became a founding member of Ensemble Intercontemporain, Boulez’s IRCAM-based chamber orchestra, and he played with the group for many years, participating in a number of important premieres. Together with pianist Tamara Stefanovich, Aimard and Boulez were honored with a Grammy nomination for their recording of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos, and when Aimard and Stefanovich played Boulez’s own piano works together in London, the Independent declared their performance “as definitive as it gets.” Now the two pianists present formidable all-Boulez programs in Berkeley’s Cal Performances series (March 12), at Chicago’s Symphony Center (March 15), New York’s Carnegie Hall (March 16), and the Carolina Performing Arts at Chapel Hill (March 18), with a preview at Cornell University (March 8). They later reprise this program at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ (March 25) and Italy’s Ravenna Festival (June 7).
Meanwhile, high-resolution photos of Aimard are provided here, further details of his upcoming engagements are listed below, and more information is available at the artist’s web site: www.pierrelaurentaimard.com.
Pierre-Laurent Aimard: upcoming engagements
Jan 9–24
European Well-Tempered Clavier tour
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Jan 9: Oviedo, Spain
Jan 11: San Sebastián, Spain
Jan 13: Madrid, Spain
Jan 15: Barcelona, Spain
Jan 17: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Concertgebouw)
Jan 24: Munich, Germany
Jan 29
Salzburg, Austria
Elliott Carter: Quintet for Piano and Wind Instruments
Mozart: Quintet for Piano and Winds in E-flat
Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Pierre-Laurent Aimard
Feb 1
Salzburg, Austria
Elliott Carter: Instances
Mozart: Concerto for Piano No. 27 in B-flat
Eliott Carter: Epigrams
Mozart: Concerto for Piano No. 26 in D, “Coronation”
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Feb 12, 13, 14
Boston, MA
Boston Symphony Hall
Birtwistle: Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless for piano and orchestra (U.S. premiere)
Boston Symphony Orchestra / Vladimir Jurowski
Feb 17–20
UK tour with Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D
Feb 17: Leicester
Feb 18: Basingstoke
Feb 19: London (Royal Festival Hall)
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
Feb 20: Cardiff (St. David’s Hall)
Feb 24
Bremen, Germany
Philharmonische Gesellschaft Bremen
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Feb 26
Hamburg, Germany
Hamburg Laeiszhalle
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Messiaen: Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (excerpts)
Kurtág: Játékok (selections)
March 2
Frankfurt, Germany
Alte Oper Frankfurt
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
March 6
Paris, France
Tristan Murail: Le désenchantement du monde
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France / Pierre-André Valade
March 8
Ithaca, NY
Cornell University
Barnes Hall
Boulez: Sonata for Piano No. 1
Boulez: Structures, Livre II, for Four Hands (with Tamara Stefanovich, piano)\
Messiaen: Visions de l’Amen
March 12–18
U.S. all-Boulez recital tour with Tamara Stefanovich, piano
Boulez: Douze Notations
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 1
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 3 (Formant 3: Constellation-Miroir; Formant 2: Trope)
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 2
Boulez: Incises
Boulez: Une page d’éphéméride
Boulez: Structures, Livre II, for Four Hands
March 12: Berkeley, CA (Cal Performances)
March 15: Chicago, IL (Symphony Center, presented by Chicago Symphony)
March 16: New York, NY (Carnegie Hall / Zankel Hall)
March 18: Chapel Hill, NC (Carolina Performing Arts)
March 25
Amsterdam, Netherlands with Tamara Stefanovich, piano
Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ
Boulez: Douze Notations
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 1
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 2
Boulez: Incises
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 3 (Formant 3: Constellation-Miroir; Formant 2: Trope)
Boulez: Une page d’éphéméride
Boulez: Structures, Livre II, for Four Hands
April 6
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Mariinsky Theatre
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D
Ravel: Piano Concerto in G
April 8
Saint Petersburg, Russia
Mariinsky Theatre
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
April 23
Bogota, Colombia
Teatro Mayor
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I
Kurtág: Játékok (selections)
Ligeti: Études (selections)
May 3
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Teatro Colon
Ligeti: Musica ricercara
Ligeti: Études (Books 1-3)
May 5
São Paulo, Brazil
Sociedade de Cultura Artística
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I (selections)
Messiaen: Vingt regards sur l’enfant-Jésus (selections)
Kurtág: Játékok (selections)
May 6
São Paulo, Brazil
Sociedade de Cultura Artística
Debussy: Études (selections)
Ligeti: Études (selections)
Chopin: Trois nouvelles études
Bartók: 3 Études, Op. 18
Scriabin: 3 Etudes
May 27–June 2
European tour with Philharmonia Orchestra / Esa-Pekka Salonen
Messiaen: Turangalila Symphony
Ravel: Piano Concerto for the Left Hand in D
May 27: Paris, France (Théâtre des Champs-Elysées): Messiaen
May 28: London, UK (Royal Festival Hall): Messiaen
June 1: Luxembourg (Philharmonie): Ravel
June 2: Vienna, Austria (Konzerthaus Vienna): Ravel
June 7
Ravenna, Italy with Tamara Stefanovich, piano
Ravenna Festival
Boulez: Douze Notations
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 1
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 2
Boulez: Incises
Boulez: Piano Sonata No. 3 (Formant 3: Constellation-Miroir; Formant 2: Trope)
Boulez: Une page d’éphéméride
Boulez: Structures, Livre II, for Four Hands
June 12-18
Aldeburgh Festival
www.facebook.com/pierrelaurentaimard
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© 21C Media Group, January 2015