Pierre-Laurent Aimard: new Schoenberg & Beethoven albums, dates in L.A., recitals at 92NY & Library of Congress, Amsterdam residency, & more in 2026–27

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (photo: Richard Dumas for Alpha Classics)

(October 2026) — “One of the essential keyboard advocates of our era” (The Guardian), Grammy-winning French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard launches a new partnership with Alpha Classics this season. Having made his label debut earlier this month with Schönberg: Piano Works (Oct 2), he juxtaposes Beethoven’s music with more recent compositions on Beethoven the Avant-Gardist, to mark the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death next spring (March 26). Aimard features both composers in live performance, pairing Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” with Ives’s “Concord” Sonata during a season-long artistic residency at Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw; programming the “Appassionata” Sonata and “Emperor” Concerto in recitals and concerts throughout Europe; and performing and discussing Schoenberg and his legacy in both Vienna and Los Angeles next month. November also sees the pianist give a solo recital at New York’s 92nd Street Y and a complete account of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II in Santa Monica. He returns to North America in April for recitals showcasing the D.C. and Canadian premieres of Divisions, a piano duet by Sir George Benjamin, with whom he performs the work at Washington’s Library of Congress and Montreal’s Bourgie Hall. The two also give the duet’s Dutch premiereduring Aimard’s Muziekgebouw residency, before reprising it for a special concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony and Sir Simon Rattle. Other highlights of the pianist’s full and varied season include performances of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie with the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, and on tour with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Schoenberg: new album (Oct) & live events in L.A. & Vienna (Nov)

This October 2, Aimard made his Alpha Classics label debut with Schönberg: Piano Works, a solo piano collection tracing Arnold Schoenberg’s artistic evolution through five landmark compositions, from the Drei Klavierstücke (Op. 11), an Expressionist work dating from 1909, to Klavierstücke (Op. 33), written on the eve of the composer’s emigration to the States, by way of the Sechs kleine Klavierstücke (Op. 19), Fünf Klavierstücke (Op. 23), and Suite für Klavier (Op. 25). Marking the pianist’s first recording of Schoenberg’s music, the album has been more than four decades in the making; it was back in 1973 when, as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he first performed Opus 11 live on television. Although Schoenberg’s music was still only rarely understood at the time, Aimard had already developed the deep feeling for the composer’s work that has long made an impression on critics and audiences. When the pianist featured Schoenberg’s music in recital at the 2024 Berlin Musikfest, Seen and Heard International marveled:

“Here was a fantastical Schoenberg. … Aimard less argued than demonstrated beyond doubt that this music mattered.”

The pianist says:

“It is extraordinary that, in an era where everything is recorded multiple times, we still do not have a wide spectrum of choices for Schönberg’s music. It suggests there remains a profound misunderstanding of this repertoire – or perhaps that we simply need more time to absorb what is truly valuable.”

Watch Aimard discuss the recording further.

The great Austrian American composer’s work also features in Aimard’s live programming this season. During a fall stay in Los Angeles, he devotes an afternoon of performance and conversation to Schoenberg and his legacy in contemporary music in the “Piano Spheres” series (Nov 22), hailed as “a new music mainstay in Los Angeles cultural life” (Musical America). In Europe, Aimard performs selections from the new recording at Vienna’s Schoenberg Center, where he will discuss them with the center’s director, Dr. Ulrike Anton (Nov 11), as well as featuring the Fünf Klavierstücke in recitals in both Lausanne (March 9) and Berlin (March 11).

Beethoven: new recording (March) & live European performances (throughout season)

The recipient of a Gramophone Award for his recording of Beethoven’s complete piano concertos, in recital Aimard succeeds in conjuring “Beethoven the eternal modern and revolutionary in all his fire and glory” (The Times of London). He revisits the composer’s music with his second Alpha Classics title, Beethoven the Avant-Gardist. Underscoring Beethoven’s radical imagination and enduring influence as one of music’s great innovators, the album alternates four of the composer’s solo piano pieces – his final Piano Sonata (Op. 111), iconic “Appassionata” Sonata, 24 Variations on Righini’s arietta “Veni amore,” and Eleven Bagatelles (Op. 119) – with works by 20th- and 21st-century composers Scriabin, Stockhausen, Boulez, and Andrei Volkonsky. Marking the 200th anniversary of the composer’s death, the recording is due for release on March 26 next spring.

Aimard’s gift for juxtaposing the old with the new has long found critical favor. After a “Perspectives” recital at New York’s Carnegie Hall, with a program featuring selected Beethoven Bagatelles alongside music by Stockhausen, Ligeti, and Cage, The New York Times observed:

“During this unorthodox and fascinating program, as in his entire Perspectives series, Mr. Aimard invited listeners to hear musical resonances and connections through his ears and perceptions. A rapt audience on Friday night was happy to accept the invitation.”

Similarly, describing a single-day, three-concert marathon at London’s Wigmore Hall just last month, during which Aimard integrated the Bagatelles with selections from György Kurtág’s Játékok, Hong Kong’s Interlude writes:

“Aimard’s playing brings out the radical side of Beethoven, revealing how he stretches and blurs classical forms in ways that may anticipate Kurtág; at the same time, Kurtág’s concise poetry and beauty of sound find clear points of reference in Beethoven’s world.”

In Europe this season, Aimard pairs Beethoven’s Eleven Bagatelles and “Appassionata” Sonata with Stockhausen’s Klavierstück IX and Ligeti’s Musica ricercata at solo recitals in Utrecht (Jan 25), Barcelona (Jan 28), Bolzano (April 5), Milan (April 6), and Madrid(April 7), before juxtaposing Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” Sonata with another titan of the literature –Ives’s “Concord” Sonata – at solo recitals in Amsterdam (April 23; see below) and Boswil, Switzerland (April 25).

In concert, he performs Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto with the Kammerorchester Basel (Nov 7 & 8; May 22), Konzerthausorchester Berlin (March 5 & 7), and Kammerakademie Potsdam (March 13), as well as undertaking Beethoven concertos with the Sinfonia Varsovia at Warsaw’s Beethoven Easter Festival (March 14). After an account of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto at the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Times found that Aimard’s “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. … He made Beethoven’s bold cadenza sound as up-to-date as Boulez’s.”

North American dates: NYC & L.A. (Nov) & D.C. & Montreal (April)

Last November, when Aimard made his debut at New York’s 92nd Street Y, Concerto.net declared: “It was a revelation. But one expects nothing less.” This fall, the pianist returns to the Manhattan venue for a solo recital program (Nov 18), before embarking on a three-date stay in Los Angeles. Bookended by a masterclass at the Colburn School of Music (Nov 20) and his appearance in the “Piano Spheres” series (Nov 22; see above), this features his complete performance of The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book IIat Santa Monica’s Maestro Foundation (Nov 21). As noted by The New York Times, the pianist’s 2025 recording of Bach’s masterpiece shows him “at the apex of his musicianship: technique and imagination at the service of sheer expressive intensity.”

Aimard returns to the States next spring, when, following a two-day residency at New York’s Buffalo University (April 12 & 13), he gives two performances of a characteristically inventive recital program for his Library of Congress debut in Washington, D.C. (April 16) and his return to Montreal’s Bourgie Hall (April 18). The program’s centerpiece is the D.C. and Canadian premieres of Divisions, the piano duet co-commissioned by the Library of Congress, Pierre Boulez-Saal, and Wigmore Hall from Aimard’s 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 pianist’s otherwise solo recital of Beethoven, Ravel, Benjamin, and – in Montreal only – Mozart, represented by the Andante in F for mechanical organ.

After its London premiere, The Guardian welcomed Divisions as a work of “concentrated musical thought and pianistic imagination.” Likewise, after its New York one, the New York Classical Review found:

“The balance between cooperation and antagonism built to a suspenseful climax, hanging in the air as one was eager to hear how it would resolve. It did so with exciting force, Aimard rippling through fast, high phrases while Benjamin pounded bass notes. As challenging as the first hearing of something can be, one wanted to immediately hear this again.”

Of the same performance, Sequenza21 confided: “One hopes this serves double duty as rehearsals for a forthcoming recording.”

Amsterdam residency & other European highlights

Benjamin’s music also figures prominently in Aimard’s European lineup. He performs the composer’s Duet for piano and orchestra with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and Christian Karlsen in Saarbrücken, Germany (Feb 19) and – as the first half of a “Portrait of George Benjamin” in Munich that also features the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle – plays the composer’s Shadowlines, Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm, and Divisions, for which Benjamin again joins him at the keyboard (April 9).

Earlier this month, Aimard and the composer gave the Dutch premiere of Divisions on an otherwise solo recital program that also included the Dutch premiere of Cahier de filigranes by distinguished French composer Thomas Lacôte, the current incumbent of the organ position held for six decades by Messiaen, with whom Aimard and Benjamin both studied. The recital represented the start of Aimard’s prestigious, season-long tenure as the 2026–27 Artist in Focus at Amsterdam’s Musiekgebouw. The residency sees him return to the venue three more times this season. After a duo program of Robert Schumann, Schoenberg, and Carter with Gramophone Award-winning Austrian violinist Thomas Zehetmair (Nov 28), which also takes the two to Berlin’s Boulez-Saal(Dec 4) and Switzerland’s Warth-Weiningen (Dec 6), Aimard returns to Amsterdam for a rare account of Carter’s multilayered Double Concerto with harpsichordist Benjamin Kobler and Ensemble Musikfabrik under the baton of Bas Wiegers (Jan 14). He completes the Musiekgebouw residency with a formidable solo recital of two monumental yet very different piano sonatas: Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” and Ives’s “Concord” (April 23). A previous performance of the same two works drew a five-star review from The Times of London, which concluded:

“In Ives’s portraits of 19th-century America’s literary Transcendentalists …, as in the ‘Hammerklavier’, Aimard continually nurtured the sonata’s long span, embracing the composer’s disruptive power while respecting the need for elements to build; for the music, however chaotic, to make ‘sense’. Without that structural strength, the audience surely wouldn’t have clapped so loudly, or felt so uplifted and transformed.”

Aimard’s other European highlights include performances of Messiaen’s epic, other-worldly Turangalîla-Symphonie on a German tour of Dortmund, Essen, and Cologne with the Ingo Metzmacher and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Jan 22–24) and in subsequent concerts with both the Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (Feb 7) and the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (May 14).

Pierre-Laurent Aimard: 2026–27 engagements

Oct 16
Paris, France
Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France / Matthias Pintscher
György KURTÀG: Játékok for piano (selections for the left hand)
RAVEL: Concerto for the Left Hand

Oct 18
Paris, France
Musicians of the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France
György KURTÀG: Bagatelles Op. 14d for flute, double bass, and piano
R. SCHUMANN: Märchenerzählungen for clarinet, viola, and piano
György KURTÀG: Hommage à Robert Schumann for clarinet, viola, piano, and bass drum

Nov 7 & 8: concerts with Kammerorchester Basel
   Nov 7: Basel, Switzerland
   Nov 8: Vaduz, Liechtenstein
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”)

Nov 10
Vienna, Austria
J.S. BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II
Mark ANDRE: ...selig ist… (with SWR Experimentalstudio)

Nov 11
Vienna, Austria
Schoenberg Center
CD Presentation
Interviewer: Dr. Ulrike Anton

Nov 18
New York, NY
92nd Street Y
Solo recital
Program TBA

Nov 20
Los Angeles, CA
Colburn School
Masterclass

Nov 21
Santa Monica, CA
Maestro Foundation
J.S. BACH: The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II

Nov 22
Los Angeles, CA
Arts & Archives
Piano Spheres series
Performance and conversation centered on SCHOENBERG and his legacy

Nov 28–Dec 6: duo recital tour with Thomas Zehetmair, violin
   Nov 28: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Muziekgebouw; 2026–27 Artist in Focus)
   Dec 4: Berlin, Germany (Boulez Saal)
   Dec 6: Warth-Weiningen, Switzerland
SCHOENBERG: Phantasy for violin and piano, Op.47
R. SCHUMANN: Violin Sonata No. 2
CARTER: Duo for Violin and Piano
R. SCHUMANN: Violin Sonata No. 1

Jan 14
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Muziekgebouw (2026–27 Artist in Focus)
Ensemble Musikfabrik / Bas Wiegers
CARTER: Double Concerto (1961) for piano, harpsichord, and two chamber orchestras (with Benjamin Kobler, harpsichord)

Jan 22–24: tour with Mahler Chamber Orchestra / Ingo Metzmacher
   Jan 22: Dortmund, Germany
   Jan 23: Essen, Germany
   Jan 24: Cologne, Germany
MESSIAEN: Turangalîla-Symphonie

Jan 25 & 28: solo recitals
   Jan 25: Utrecht, Netherlands
   Jan 28: Barcelona, Spain
BEETHOVEN: 11 Bagatelles, Op. 119
LIGETI: Musica ricercata
STOCKHAUSEN: Klavierstück IX
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 23, “Appassionata”

Feb 7
Berlin, Germany
Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin / Maxime Pascal
MESSIAEN: Turangalîla-Symphonie

Feb 19
Saarbrücken, Germany
Deutsche Radio Philharmonie / Christian Karlsen
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 17, K.453
George BENJAMIN: Duet for piano and orchestra

March 5 & 7
Berlin, Germany
Konzerthausorchester Berlin / Iván Fischer
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”)

March 9 & 11: recitals
   March 9: Lausanne, Switzerland
   March 11: Berlin, Germany
J.S. BACH: Four Duets, BWV802–05 (from Clavier-Übung III)
R. SCHUMANN: Gesänge der Frühe
CARTER: Night Fantasies for piano
SCHOENBERG: Five Piano Pieces
LIGETI: Études for piano (selection)

March 13
Potsdam, Germany
Kammerakademie Potsdam / Joshua Weilerstein
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 3

March 14
Warsaw Poland
Beethoven Easter Festival
Sinfonia Varsovia

March 19 & 20
Stockholm, Sweden
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Dinis Sousa
BARTÓK: Piano Concerto No. 3

April 5–7: recitals
   April 5: Bolzano, Italy
   April 6: Milan, Italy
   April 7: Madrid, Spain
BEETHOVEN: Bagatelles, Op. 119 & 33
LIGETI: Musica ricercata
STOCKHAUSEN: Klavierstück IX
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 23, “Appassionata”

April 9
Munich, Germany
Recital (first half of concert with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle)
Portrait of George Benjamin
George BENJAMIN: Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm
George BENJAMIN: Shadowlines
George BENJAMIN: Divisions for piano, four hands (with George Benjamin, piano)

April 12 & 13
Buffalo, NY
Buffalo University
Details TBA

April 16 & 18: recitals
   April 16: Washington, DC (Library of Congress)
   April 18: Montreal, Canada (Bourgie Hall)
George BENJAMIN: Piano Figures
BEETHOVEN: Fantasia for piano, Op. 77
George BENJAMIN: Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm
RAVEL: Miroirs
MOZART: Andante in F for a small, mechanical organ (April 18 only)
George BENJAMIN: Divisions for piano, four hands (with George Benjamin, piano)

April 17
Montreal, Canada
Bourgie Hall
Masterclass

April 23 & 25: solo recitals
   April 23: Amsterdam, Netherlands (Muziekgebouw; 2026–27 Artist in Focus)
   April 25: Boswil, Switzerland
BEETHOVEN: Piano Sonata No. 29
IVES: Piano Sonata No. 2 (“Concord Sonata”)

April 27
London, UK
Wigmore Hall
Details TBA

April 29 & May 1
Ruhr, Germany
Klavier-Festival Ruhr
Recital
Details TBA

May 14
Frankfurt, Germany
Frankfurt Radio Symphony / Alain Altinoglu
MESSIAEN: Turangalîla-Symphonie

May 16
Brussels, Belgium
Belgian National Orchestra / James Feddeck
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 24

May 22
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Kammerorchester Basel / Krzysztof Urbański
BEETHOVEN: Piano Concerto No. 5 (“Emperor”)

June 1
Lucerne, Switzerland
Human Rights Orchestra
MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 22

June 26 & 27
Zürich, Switzerland
Boulez Messiaen Festival