Pierre-Laurent Aimard in February: Bartók 2 with San Francisco Symphony & Salonen, Fantasia Recital at La Jolla Music Society & Kurtág Premieres at NY’s Bard College
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (photo: Marco Borggreve)
“In piano music like this he has no equal.” – The Guardian, of Aimard’s Bartók
(February 2023)—Over the coming weeks, Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to the States for three major engagements. He joins the San Francisco Symphony and Music Director Esa-Pekka Salonen for live performances of Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto (Feb 17–19) that will be recorded for release in their complete Pentatone Bartók cycle. In the “Signs, Games & Messages” festival at New York’s Bard College, the pianist pays tribute to his close musical associate György Kurtág with a free recital showcasing the U.S. premieres of music written by the nonagenarian composer during the pandemic (Feb 24). Finally, at California’s La Jolla Music Society, Aimard deconstructs the keyboard fantasy genre with a thoughtfully curated program of Sweelinck, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Volkonsky and George Benjamin (Feb 26). His next U.S. appearances come later this spring, when he performs Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with the LA Philharmonic and Eva Ollikainen (May 11–14). This engagement punctuates a succession of international salutes to Kurtág (in Amsterdam) and to the Hungarian composer’s compatriot Ligeti, in Paris, Seoul, Berlin and at Germany’s Ruhr Piano Festival. Another of the great modernists with whom Aimard worked most closely, Ligeti would have celebrated his 100th birthday this year.
Bartók 2 with Salonen & San Francisco Symphony
Aimard enjoys a longstanding artistic partnership with Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, highlighted by “Salonen/Aimard: Inspirations,” their celebrated 2017 series at London’s Royal Festival Hall. When the two collaborated on performances of Bartók’s First and Third Piano Concertos with the San Francisco Symphony last June, the San Francisco Chronicle reported:
“Together with the great French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the orchestra gave a craggy, brilliant performance. … To listen to Aimard in action is to feel the gears of a composition mesh in new ways. … What I love most about Aimard’s playing, though, is his ability to make a listener rethink notions of dissonance, complexity and rhetorical directness. He excels in music where these concerns are paramount.”
Now Aimard reunites with Salonen and the orchestra for three accounts of Bartók’s Second Piano Concerto (Feb 17–19). Like those of the First and Third, these live performances will be captured for release in their ongoing complete Bartók concerto cycle on the Pentatone label.
The Hungarian composer’s music is also the vehicle for Aimard’s upcoming residency at the UNAM International Piano Festival in Mexico City, which he concludes with accounts of Bartók’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion featuring fellow pianist Tamara Stefanovich (March 18 & 19). The two previously scored a Grammy nomination for their recording of the work with Pierre Boulez for Deutsche Grammophon.
Keyboard fantasy program at La Jolla Music Society
Aimard’s solo recital at California’s La Jolla Music Society (Feb 26) spans more than 350 years of music, offering an exploration of the fantasia, a genre whose improvisatory roots lets its composers’ imaginations run free. Last year, when he performed a similar program in Baltimore, the Washington Classical Review pronounced the recital “brilliant,” observing: “Aimard always curates his recitals with scholarly devotion,” and finding that his “broad variety of touch and dynamics” made even the “most complicated score sound eminently musical.” Indeed, in late January, when Aimard undertook the same program in Steinfurt, Germany, his balance of “head and heart and discipline” prompted the Westfälische Nachrichten to marvel:
“Every journalist’s handbook warns against superlatives, but this one is unavoidable: This performance by the world-class pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard can – indeed, must – be called the greatest.”
Aimard reprises the same program in Bilbao, Spain (April 26) and a related exploration of the piano fantasy is the vehicle for his return to London’s Southbank Centre two days later (April 28).
Celebrating Kurtág in New York and Amsterdam
Hungarian composer György Kurtág is one of the preeminent musical modernists with whom Aimard has collaborated most closely. The pianist has premiered and championed the composer’s works at venues including La Scala, and the New York Times cites Kurtág’s compositions as “examples of the contemporary repertory in which [Aimard] has few rivals.” Over the coming months, the pianist showcases Kurtág’s music in two upcoming events. The first of these is a free recital that forms part of “Signs, Games & Messages,” a three-day festival dedicated to the composer’s music at New York’s Bard College. Aimard opens the recital with a selection of solo piano works by Kurtág and Schubert, highlighted by the U.S. premieres of music written by the Hungarian composer during the COVID pandemic. He then completes his program with an account of Kurtág’s The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza, featuring soprano Tony Arnold (Feb 24). Aimard and Arnold reprise their interpretation of the song cycle at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, to conclude Kurtág Festival 2023, the venue’s “grand tribute to the master of the miniature.” (March 10) This was created in consultation with Aimard, who gives four performances of Kurtág’s music at the four-day festival (March 9 & 10).
Honoring Ligeti at 100 in Paris, Berlin and beyond
This year marks the centennial of the birth of Kurtág’s near contemporary and fellow Hungarian, the late György Ligeti, who considered Aimard “today’s leading interpreter of contemporary piano music.” The two shared an intimate working relationship until the composer’s death; Aimard inspired some of Ligeti’s most complex writing and is the dedicatee of several Ligeti Études, of which his complete Sony Masterworks recording was recognized with a Gramophone Award. The pianist undertakes a variety of timely collaborations to honor the milestone anniversary. He performs all 18 of the composer’s Études in a “Ligeti 100 Weekend” at the Paris Philharmonie (March 5), before joining jazz pianist Michael Wollny at the Berlin Philharmonie for an improvisatory take on the Études titled “Ligeti 100: A Musical Bow in Dialogues” (May 17). With both the Seoul Philharmonic under David Robertson (April 19 & 20) and the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic under Susanna Mälkki (May 28), Aimard reprises Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, as heard on his Grammy-nominated recording for Teldec. Finally, to conclude the anniversary events, he revisits the complete Études and gives a workshop in the Ligeti Birthday Project at Germany’s Klavier-Festival Ruhr (May 31 & June 1). It was he who collaborated with the festival to create the Ligeti Project, a free, multilingual, interactive website designed “both to help professional pianists deal with the challenges of Ligeti’s music, and demystify it for lay listeners” (The Independent, UK).
Beethoven 4 with LA Philharmonic
The recipient of a Gramophone Award for his recording of Beethoven’s complete piano concertos, Aimard returns to the U.S. next May for performances of Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto with Icelandic conductor Eva Ollikainen, Chief Conductor of the Iceland Symphony, leading the LA Philharmonic (May 11–14). The pianist previously collaborated with the orchestra on Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, where his “illuminating French clarity and precision” cut “through a forceful orchestra with the skill of a master sushi chef intent on cultivating the subtle flavor of freshness. In the slow movement, Aimard supplied the twinkle of stars. … He made Beethoven’s bold cadenza sound as up-to-date as Boulez’s” (Los Angeles Times).
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Pierre-Laurent Aimard: upcoming dates
Feb 17–19
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Symphony / Esa-Pekka Salonen
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 2
Feb 24
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY
Bard Conservatory
Recital with Tony Arnold, soprano: “Signs, Games & Messages”
György KURTÁG
Feb 26
La Jolla, CA
La Jolla Music Society
Recital
MOZART: Fantasia for Piano No. 3 in D minor, K. 397
SWEELINCK: Fantasia chromatica, SwWV 258
MOZART: Fantasie for Piano in C minor, K475
VOLKONSKY: Musica stricta (Fantasia ricercata)
MOZART: Fantasie in F minor (Fragment) K. Anh 32
C.P.E. BACH: Fantasia for Keyboard in C, Wq 59/6
MOZART: Fantasia in C minor, K. 396
BEETHOVEN: Fantasia for piano, Op. 77
George BENJAMIN: Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm for piano
March 5
Paris, France
Philharmonie de Paris
LIGETI: Études – Books I, II and III
March 9 & 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kurtág Music Festival
March 9
Játékok I – “Elementary Experiments”
With Lorenzo Soulès and Fabian Müller, piano
György KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok, Vol. 1, 2 & 3 for solo piano
György KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok, Vol. 4 for piano four hands
György KURTÁG: Eight pieces for piano, Op. 3
György KURTÁG: Splinters, Op. 6d
March 9
Játékok II – “Subtle Poetry”
With Tamara Stefanovich, piano con supersordino
György KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok, Vol. 9 & 10
György KURTÁG: Recent unpublished pieces for solo piano
György KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok for two pianos
March 10
Játékok III – “Vivid Contrast”
György KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok, Vol. 5, 6 and 7
BEETHOVEN: Selection of Bagatelles (Op. 33, Op. 119, Op. 126)
March 10
Kurtág – “Key Vocal Works”
György KURTÁG: Samuel Beckett: What is the Word (with Gerrie de Vries, mezzo-soprano)
György KURTÁG: The Sayings of Péter Bornemisza (with Tony Arnold, soprano)
March 15–19
Mexico City, Mexico
UNAM International Piano Festival
March 15: Recital
March 16: Masterclass
March 18 & 19: BARTÓK: Concerto for Two Pianos and Percussion (with Tamara Stefanovich, piano; Orquesta Filarmónica de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México)
March 24–27
Tour with Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra / Thomas Zehetmair
MOZART: Concerto for Piano No. 27 in B-flat, K. 595
March 24: Aschaffenburg, Germany
March 25: Stuttgart, Germany
March 26: Göppingen, Germany
March 27: Dornbirn, Austria
March 31
Freiburg, Germany
Recital with Jörg Widmann, clarinet
BERG: Four Pieces, Op. 5
György KURTÁG: Selections from Játékok
SCHUMANN: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
WEBER: Grand Duo Concertant
April 19 & 20
Seoul, South Korea
Seoul Philharmonic / David Robertson
DEBUSSY: Images
LIGETI: Concerto for piano and orchestra
April 26
Bilbao, Spain
Recital
MOZART: Fantasia for Piano No. 3 in D minor, K. 397
SWEELINCK: Fantasia chromatica, SwWV 258
MOZART: Fantasie for Piano in C minor, K475
VOLKONSKY: Musica stricta (Fantasia ricercata)
MOZART: Fantasie in F minor (Fragment) K. Anh 32
C.P.E. BACH: Fantasia for Keyboard in C, Wq 59/6
MOZART: Fantasia in C minor, K. 396
BEETHOVEN: Fantasia for piano, Op. 77
George BENJAMIN: Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm for piano
April 28
London, UK
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
Recital
SWEELINCK: Echo Fantasia (Dorian)
MOZART: Fantasia for Piano No. 3 in D minor, K. 397
CARTER: Night Fantasies
CHOPIN: Polonaise no. 7 in A-flat “Polonaise-fantaisie,” Op. 61
MOZART: Fantasie in F minor (Fragment) K. Anh 32
C.P.E. BACH: Fantasia for Keyboard in C, Wq 59/6
BEETHOVEN: Fantasia for piano, Op. 77
George BENJAMIN: Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm for piano
May 4
Antwerp, Belgium
Recital with Jörg Widmann, clarinet
May 11, 13 & 14
Los Angeles, CA
LA Philharmonic / Eva Ollikainen
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58
May 17
Berlin, Germany
With Michael Wollny, piano
Ligeti 100 – “A Musical Bow in Dialogues”
May 28
Berlin, Germany
Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic / Susanna Mälkki
LIGETI: Concerto for piano and orchestra
May 31 & June 1
Ruhr, Germany
Klavier-Festival Ruhr
Ligeti Birthday Project
May 31: recital
LIGETI: Études – Books I, II and III
June 1: workshop
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© 21C Media Group, February 2023