Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Musikfest Berlin

The New York times hailed Pierre-Laurent Aimard as “a brilliant musician and extraordinary visionary". Which raises the question of how exactly the pianist is able to look further or deeper than other interpreters. Perhaps it is his ability to shed new light on the old and to contemplate the new in light of the old? In this programme, Pierre-Laurent Aimard builds a bridge that spans almost 400 years of music history. From the Dutch organ master Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck to the Hungarian György Kurtág to the fragile sound fabrics of the Berliner-by-choice Mark Andre.
In doing so, it becomes apparent that proximity and distance can be measured neither by temporal nor geographical boundaries. Mark Andre, who presents the confined interior of the piano as though it were an infinite landscape, has studied the Dutch composers' music intensively and thus laid the foundation for his own creative work. Traces of the past are also omnipresent in György Kurtág’s piano cosmos. In his miniatures, music history is unleashed, every impression leaving traces. If you like, you can discover an entire web of references in them – or abandon yourself to the enchanting poetry of these enigmatic "games", an ever-growing body of piano pieces.

• Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck: »Fantasia Cromatica« und weitere Werke
• György Kurtág: »Neue und bislang nicht publizierte Kompositionen aus den letzten Jahren«
• Mark Andre: »Contrapunctus« für Klavier (1998/99)

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Klavier

Zwei Solokonzerte geben tiefe Einblicke in das Werk des Komponisten Mark Andre. Aimard stellt im ersten Konzert Andres Klangwelten vor eine historische und geographische Kontrastfolie mit neuen Werken des Ungarn Kurtág und von Sweelinck.