classical music: pierre-laurent

classical music: pierre-laurent

classical music:

Pierre-laurent

Bach, Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Deutsche Grammophon, 2008

Satisfactory...
. This new release of Bach's Art of Fugue is good; adequate; satisfactory. I do hope people will enjoy it, and that it may be a good introduction to esoteric art. Bach's recherché Art of Fugue is cerebral, purely abstract art which can really only be fully ...

Messiaen: Turangalîla - Symphonie / Nagano, Aimard, Kim

Olivier Messiaen, Kent Nagano, ...

Teldec, 2001

Nagano Sets the New Standard!
There are simply few words that can describe the absolute magnificence of this recording. Nagano assembles this vast mosaic in the most masterful way I can imagine. It is at once breathtaking and orgiastic! The Berlin Philharmonic is playing at their highest ...

György Ligeti Edition 3: Works for Piano (Etudes, Musica Ricercata) - Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Gyorgy Ligeti, Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Sony, 1997

Perfect Ligeti.
The own György Ligeti was asked about who was the pianist more complete in his piano works; he talked about Pierre-Laurent Aimard, whose a close relation with the XXth Century music is very well known (Boulez, Messiaen, Berg, Schönberg, Carter...) all around the world. ...

Complete Webern

Anton von Webern, Clemens Hagen, ...

Deutsche Grammophon, 2000

5 Star music. Some very good performances, some are aimless.
Webern's music demonstrates a level of craft, in which few composers ever contend. The more that I listen to the works of Webern, the more I hear that each note must be just as it is. There is nothing wasted in this music. The expression is never vague, always intense. ...

György Ligeti Edition 4: Vocal Works (Madrigals, Mysteries, Aventures, Songs) - The King's Singers / ...

Gyorgy Ligeti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, ...

Sony, 1997

where's the dead weight?
This is an amazing disc, one of the best in Sony's monumental Ligeti Edition series. On Sony's Ligeti Edition 4, the _Nonsense Madrigals_ were premiered. These six pieces for six voices, composed in the late-80s/early-90s, are some of the composer's finest ...

György Ligeti Edition 6: Keyboard Works (Piano, Harpsichord, Organ) - Irina Kataeva / Pierre-Laurent Aimard / ...

Gyorgy Ligeti, Elisabeth Chojnacka, ...

Sony, 1997

More 'sci-fi' inspired music
This 6th installment of the Gyorgy Ligeti Edition contains one (Harmonies) of Ligeti's three pieces used by Stanley Kubrick in the '2001' soundtrack. For that reason alone, this CD is a bit more interesting than some of the others in this series. To me, as a ...

The Ligeti Project

Omar Ebrahim, David Geringas, ...

Warner Classics, 2008

Highly recommended box-set
This box should probably be your first choice if you want to get acquainted with the works of Ligeti. The recordings in this box are overseen by Ligeti himself, and they were supposed to be definitive recordings that after his death could show conductors how his music ...

Olivier Messiaen: Vingt Regards sur l'Enfant-Jésus

Olivier Messiaen, Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Teldec, 2000

Indescribably Beautiful
My concert-going days go back to hearing Artur Schnabel in 1947, and when I say that a recital I heard a year ago by Pierre-Laurent Aimard in which he played five of the 'Vingts Regards' is among the greatest musical experiences I've ever had, it is against that ...

Hommage a Messiaen: 8 Preludes/Selection From Quatre Etudes De Rythme
Olivier Messiaen, Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Deutsche Grammophon, 2008

The centenary of Olivier Messiaen's birth provides an occasion for surveying his place in the landscape of musical creation. This recording, which brings together some relatively neglected pieces from his abundant output, represents both an act of homage to the composer and a reflection on the special position his works occupy in 20th-century ...

Ives: Concord Sonata; Songs

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Susan Graham, ...

Warner Classics, 2004

It takes a Frenchman to capture an American masterpiece!
The "Concord Sonata" of Charles Ives has been described as "the greatest work written by an American." It's a big sprawling, glorious mess of a thing, inspired by the Transcendental writers Emerson, Hawthorne, Alcott and Thoreau. I first heard the ground-breaking ...

Beethoven: Triple Concerto; Rondo in B flat; Choral Fantasy

Clemens Hagen, Ludwig van Beethoven, ...

Warner Classics, 2004

Best Recording I've Heard of the Beethoven Triple Concerto
I have to go back a while to recall a truly memorable performance of the Beethoven Triple Concerto I've either heard as a recording or live performance. The finest recording I've heard until now was an absolutely rhapsodic, vibrant interpretation with the Beaux Arts ...

African Rhythms

Gyorgy Ligeti, Steve Reich, ...

Teldec, 2003

If you like experiments...
...then this is the right place to start. And if you like cross-overs, this is one of the more laudable efforts to consider. The basic idea behind this CD is brilliant: An exciting confrontation really, a comparison, between contemporary culture and rhythms, and ...

Santiago De Murcia Codex
Santiago de Murcia, Ensemble Kaspberger, ...

Astree, 2005

Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5

Ludwig van Beethoven, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, ...

Teldec, 2003

A captivating collaboration
I certainly had high expectations for this set of Beethoven piano concertos, even before I had actually purchased the discs. I've always admired Harnoncourt's monumental Beethoven symphony cycle from the early 1990's with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, so I knew what ...

Ravel: Gaspard de la nuit; Carter: Night Fantasies; Two Diversions; 90+

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Elliott Carter, ...

Warner Classics, 2005

Ravel & Carter, brilliantly conceived and performed
Pierre-Laurent Aimard is a leading performer and interpreter of the contemporary piano repertoire. His recording of Ligeti's etudes, for instance, in the Ligeti Edition series, is amazing (see my review). This particular disc is a brilliant concept, combining two ...