Pierre-Laurent Aimard & George Benjamin give U.S. premiere of composer’s new piano duet at 92NY (Nov 19)
(November 2025) — Next Wednesday, November 19 at New York’s 92nd Street Y, Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives the American premiere of DIVISIONS, a new piano duet by his friend Sir George Benjamin, who joins him on stage to perform it. Representing a rare opportunity to hear the eminent English composer together with his muse, their collaboration crowns the otherwise solo recital of Ravel, Obukhov, Boulez, and Benjamin with which Aimard makes his 92NY debut. After an account of the same program at London’s Wigmore Hall, The Guardian welcomed DIVISIONS as a work of “concentrated musical thought and pianistic imagination” that made a fitting climax to this “characteristically ambitious recital” from “one of the essential keyboard advocates of our era.”
Aimard has long championed Benjamin’s music. Their close friendship dates back to the composer’s student years in Paris, where Benjamin followed in Aimard’s footsteps, studying with both Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod, the French composer’s wife. Since then, Aimard has inspired a number of major compositions by Benjamin, who says: “All of my keyboard works since the mid-1980s have been conceived for him.” The most recent of these is DIVISIONS (2024–25), a Boulez Saal, Wigmore Hall, and Library of Congress co-commission for piano, four hands. Taking its name from a 17th-century English term for a set of keyboard variations, the work explores the conversational interactions that emerge when two pianists play together at the same instrument. Benjamin explains:
“DIVISIONS [may be understood] in terms of partitioning the single keyboard and the varied ways in which the four hands interact, separate, interpenetrate and cross – and also in terms of rhythm and structure, and the simultaneity of opposed strands and figuration. The title also implies friction, even potential discord – and there is often a marked contrast in the types of material given to the two players. I must stress, however, that there are absolutely no autobiographical implications to this, as Pierre-Laurent Aimard and I have been close friends and collaborators for decades.”
After giving the work’s world and UK premieres together, Aimard and Benjamin reunite on November 19 for its American premiere at the 92nd Street Y. The French pianist’s recital program also showcases Shadowlines (2001), one of Benjamin’s earlier compositions for him. Hailed as “the first major piano work of the 21st century” (The Boston Globe), this set of six canonic preludes is “precisely imagined for Aimard’s exceptional gifts” (The Guardian).
To complement Benjamin’s works, the pianist reprises his signature interpretation of the first Piano Sonata (1946) by Pierre Boulez, a youthful serial work in which Aimard consistently draws “captivating lyricism from the music” (The New York Times). Having shared a rich personal and professional history with the late French avant-gardist, Aimard has long been recognized as one of the foremost exponents of Boulez’s work, and has played a central part throughout this year’s international celebrations of the composer’s centennial.
He completes his program with Révélation (1915), an early work by mystic modernist Nikolai Obukhov, and Le tombeau de Couperin (1914–17) by the Russian expatriate’s one-time teacher Maurice Ravel. Music by the great French impressionist has long figured prominently in Aimard’s performances; as the UK’s Independent writes, “It is hard to imagine a pianist better qualified to play works by Ravel.”
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Early next year, Aimard gives the Spanish premiere of DIVISIONS in Madrid, with French pianist Lorenzo Soulès (Feb 9). He and Benjamin also reunite this winter at Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony, where the composer conducts Aimard in The Purple Fuchsia Bled Upon the Ground, a concertante work by Hindemith Prize-winning Italian composer Clara Iannotta (Dec 12).
Pierre-Laurent Aimard: engagements featuring Sir George Benjamin
Nov 19
New York, NY
92nd Street Y
Recital:
OBUKHOV: Révélation
BOULEZ: Piano Sonata No. 1
George BENJAMIN: Shadowlines – Six Canonic Preludes
RAVEL: Le tombeau de Couperin
George BENJAMIN: DIVISIONS for piano, four hands (U.S. premiere; with Sir George Benjamin, piano)
Dec 12
Munich, Germany
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir George Benjamin
Clara IANNOTTA: The Purple Fuchsia Bled Upon the Ground
Feb 9
Madrid, Spain
Recital with Lorenzo Soulès, piano
George BENJAMIN: DIVISIONS for piano, four hands (Spanish premiere; with Lorenzo Soulès, piano)
DEBUSSY: En blanc et noir
Yves CHAURIS: Sonata
Thomas LACÔTE: Cahier de filigranes
LIGETI: Three Pieces for two pianos