Deutsche Grammophon Releases Pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s New Recording

French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard honors Franz Liszt's 200th birthday (October 22, 1811) with his most ambitious recording for Deutsche Grammophon to date, The Liszt Project. Over the course of more than two hours of music Aimard compares and contrasts works for solo piano by Liszt with a thought-provoking selection of works by Wagner, Berg, Scriabin, Bartók, Stroppa, Ravel and Messiaen. This is Aimard's fourth solo album for Deutsche Grammophon and follows his highly acclaimed recordings of Bach, Messiaen and Ravel. This 2-CD set will be available October 4, 2011. Click here to learn more.

2011 has and will continue to see many recordings and concerts that celebrate the 200th birthday of pianist, composer and conductor Franz Liszt. Pierre-Laurent Aimard honors Liszt in a distinctly personal fashion: the juxtaposition of Liszt with works by a wide-range of other composers. The first disc takes its inspiration from Liszt's monumental Piano Sonata in B minor. For comparison Aimard includes other single-movement sonatas by Berg, Wagner (Piano Sonata in A flat major - for the album of Frau Mathilde Wesendonck) and Scriabin (his startling Black Mass sonata). The other Liszt works included are a selection of late piano pieces, many as harmonically daring as the other composers' works.

The album pays homage not only to Liszt as a composer but also to him as a performer: Liszt is credited with being among the first performers to present recitals in the modern sense of the word and Aimard carries on the tradition. The second disc of the set is a true recital in that it does not just bring together a number of works but rather devises a larger musical essay based on a theme.

This second program is composed of pairs of pieces (Liszt with another composer) which also grandly trace an arc from dark to light. The CD begins with Liszt's piece about cypresses from Années de Pèlerinage III which is paired with a selection from Bartók's Four Dirges. While Liszt's harmonic influence is obvious in the latter, Bartók also explores new ground: he does not just inherit Liszt's legacy but expands on it. The CD continues with works by Stroppa and Ravel until it arrives at the coupling of Messiaen and Liszt with works describing the fluttering of wings. Messiaen's descriptive talents are well-known and such writing comes directly from Liszt's ever-curious exploration of the ability of music to describe and evoke extra-musical ideas.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard is celebrated not only for his brilliant technique and advocacy of 20th and 21st-century works but also his musical scholarship and fascinating recital programs. Of a previous recital pairing Bach and Elliot Carter, The New York Times noted: "It's hard to imagine the French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard giving a standard recital, the kind in which a group of unrelated works is paraded across the stage, each in its own compartment. Mr. Aimard has no problem programming unrelated works. But he likes breaking down the compartments and making the works interact." The Liszt Project is no exception and its insightful pairings and brilliant performances will surely make this recording the pinnacle of this year's Liszt celebrations.

www.deutschegrammophon.com

In Performance:

2012
February 16-18 Cleveland Orchestra Bartók: Piano Concerto no. 1
February 24, 25, 26, 28 Chicago Symphony Orchestra Schoenberg: Pierrot lunaire
March 1-4 Chicago Symphony Orchestra Schoenberg: Piano Concerto
March 22 Denver, CO Recital: Debussy, Schumann, Kurtág
March 24 Detroit, MI Recital: Debussy, Schumann, Kurtág
March 26 Santa Barbara, CA Recital Debussy, Schumann, Kurtág
March 27 San Francisco, CA Recital: Debussy, Schumann, Kurtág
April 21, 22 New York, NY Recital* (Works from The Liszt Project)

Need more Music Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Spring season, discounts & more...