Passion and precision: Aimard plays Schoenberg and Ives

By David Grundy, 03 September 2024

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“a gesture that looked like a tennis player’s fist-pump”

Reviewed at Philharmonie: Kammermusiksaal, Berlin on 2 September 2024

Schoenberg, 3 Pieces for piano, Op.11

Schoenberg, Six Little Piano Pieces Op.19

Schoenberg, 5 Pieces for piano, Op.23

Schoenberg, Piece for piano, Op.33a

Schoenberg, Piece for piano, Op.33b

Schoenberg, Suite, Op.25

Ives, Piano Sonata no. 2, “Concord, Mass., 1840–60”

Crawford Seeger, Piano Study in Mixed Accents

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Piano

Salonen leads an electrifying Boulez tribute in New York

Susan Stempleski, 3rd October

The Philharmonic continues its celebration of the composer-conductor’s centennial with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as soloist in an innovative program juxtaposing selections by the modernist maestro with pieces by Debussy.

****1

Reflections on Ravel: a three-course piano feast in Ciboure

Mark Pullinger, 2nd September

At the Festival Ravel, Bertrand Chamayou, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Hyunji Kim perform all the solo piano works at the Église Saint-Vincent, a stone’s throw from the house where Ravel was born.

****1

A novel take on a familiar tune: Tianyi Lu conducts Tchaikovsky 5

Ian Cochrane, 12th March

Tianyi Lu triumphs in her return to Montreal with a distinctive approach to Tchaikovsky's Fifth. Pierre-Laurent Aimard gives a spirited performance of Bartók's Third Piano Concerto.

***11

Dazzlingly dexterous Ravel from Aimard and Vӓnskӓ in Philadelphia

Cameron Kelsall, 7th March

The Philadelphia Orchestra's concert also served as a tribute to Michael Tilson Thomas, who was to have conducted the performance before withdrawing for cancer treatment.

****1

Elim Chan and the RSNO thrill in three-concerto programme

David Smythe, 18th August

At the Edinburgh International Festival, Alison Balsom plays Wynton Marsalis's Trumpet Concerto, Pierre-Laurent plays Schoenberg's Piano Concerto before the RSNO plays Lutosławski's lively Concerto for Orchestra to finish.

****1

Red rocks, interstellar calls, exotic birds... in Cincinnati

Sam Jacobson, 1st March

The Cincinnati Symphony vividly brings to life sprawling vistas of the American West in a stellar performance of Messiaen’s vast Des Canyons aux étoiles…

****1

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David Grundy

David Grundy is a poet and scholar based in London. He is the author of A Black Arts Poetry Machine: Amiri Baraka and the Umbra Poets (Bloomsbury Academic, 2019) and coeditor, with Lauri Scheyer, of Selected Poems of Calvin C. Hernton (Wesleyan University Press, 2023).

Passion and precision: Aimard plays Schoenberg and Ives in Berlin