Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Homage a Messiaen - Deutsche Grammophon: 4777452 - download

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His dexterity is, of course, dazzling, but it is Aimard's range or timbre and colour that impresses most. — BBC Music Magazine, November 2008, 5 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 13th Oct 2008
Catalogue No: 4777452
Label: Deutsche Grammophon
Length: 59 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

November 2008

Disc of the Month

Messiaen: Preludes (8)

Work length36:28

$7.30

$9.90

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Recorded: 2008-02-22
Recording Venue: Vienna, Konzerthaus, Grosser Saal

1. La colombe

Track length2:20

$1.10

$1.50

2. Chant d'extase dans un paysage triste

Track length6:47

$0.85

$1.15

3. Le nombre léger

Track length1:37

$0.85

$1.15

4. Instants défunts

Track length4:27

$0.85

$1.15

5. Les sons impalpables du rêve

Track length3:55

$1.10

$1.50

6. Cloches d'angoisse et larmes d'adieu

Track length9:22

$0.85

$1.15

7. Plainte calme

Track length2:58

$0.85

$1.15

8. Un reflet dans le vent

Track length5:02

$0.85

$1.15

Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux Book 5

Work length10:23

$0.85

$1.15

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Recorded: 2008-02-22
Recording Venue: Vienna, Konzerthaus, Grosser Saal

9. La Bouscarle

Track length10:23

$0.85

$1.15

Messiaen: Catalogue d'Oiseaux Book 3

Work length6:38

$0.85

$1.15

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Recorded: 2008-02-22
Recording Venue: Vienna, Konzerthaus, Grosser Saal

6. L'Alouette Lulu

Track length6:38

$0.85

$1.15

Excerpt, Messiaen: Quatre Études de rythme

Work length6:06

$1.70

$2.30

Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Recorded: 2008-02-22
Recording Venue: Vienna, Konzerthaus, Grosser Saal

Ile de Feu 1

Track length1:54

$0.85

$1.15

Ile de Feu 2

Track length4:12

$0.85

$1.15

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About

Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s tribute to Olivier Messiaen coincides with the 100th anniversary of the composer’s birth on 10 December 2008 - A highlight of the Messiaen year

Aimard has a strong personal connection to Messiaen: he studied piano with the composer’s wife Yvonne Loriod from the age of twelve and won the Messiaen Competition in 1973. He has been a champion of Messiaen’s music throughout his career, one of the few pianists to keep this repertoire alive in the concert hall and bring new admirers to it

For this anniversary album, Aimard has selected the early 8 Préludes (1928–29), the tense Quatre Études de rythme (1949–50) and excerpts from the cycle Catalogue d’oiseaux (1956–58), showcasing the broad spectrum of Messiaen’s piano works. Aimard is widely acknowledged as being the pre-eminent interpreter of contemporary music with links to many of the greatest masters of our age, among them Boulez, Carter and Ligeti

In 2008 Aimard performs Messiaen’s repertoire in concerts all over Europe, the US and Japan. His readings have indisputable authority because of his personal association with the composer. He is the curator of the Southbank Centre's Messaien season which runs through to the beginning of 2009, and during his time in London he will also give concerts at the Wigmore Hall. In 2009 he will also take over the artistic direction of the Aldeburgh Festival.

Reviews

November 2008

His dexterity is, of course, dazzling, but it is Aimard's range or timbre and colour that impresses most.

2010

Pierre-Laurent Aimard knew Messiaen and studied with Yvonne Loriod, yet these personal associations result in playing of intense sobriety.
Indeed, the initial impression, in the first of the early Préludes, is of unusual restraint. While pianists anxious to underline the links with Debussy often opt for impressionistic washes of sound, Aimard achieves insight through clarity, a quality aided by superb sound-recording, with a rich range of meticulously graded dynamic levels, and just the right amount of space and resonance around the instrument.
Aimard's technical virtuosity comes through in the evenness of his voicing and the pearly delicacy with which Messiaen's intricate ornamental writing is projected. Nevertheless, when turbulence and incisiveness are required, as in the Ile de feu studies, they emerge naturally and inevitably.
Aimard never polishes away the rough edges of this music, and one only wishes that the other pair of studies in rhythm had also been included.
Messiaen was at his most ambitious in the grand perspectives of the 13-movement Catalogued'oiseaux, and the two items included here offer a particularly strong contrast. With 'La Bouscarle' – so much more mellifluous a title in French than 'Cetti's Warbler' – diversity is paramount, and although Aimard is characteristically lucid and uncompromising, not least in his timing of the silences near the end, this piece never seems one of the composer's more cogent inspirations. On the other hand, the ravishing alternation of chorales and cadenzas in 'L'Alouette Lulu' ('The Woodlark') is marvellously sustained in this mesmerising account, a miracle of tonal refinement and digital fluency.
It caps a disc that promises to give ever more subtle rewards on repeated hearing.

November 2008

I'll be very surprised if a more accomplished centenary tribute to Messiaen appears than this one. Pierre-Laurant Aimard knew the composer and studied with Yvonne Loriod… …Aimard achieves insight through clarity, a quality aided by superb sound-recording, with a rich range of meticulously graded dynamic levels, and just the right amount of space and resonance around the instrument.

2011 edition

[Aimard] plays all eight of the early Preludes (of 1928/9), readily finding Messiaen's special brand of intimate and extrovert impressionism.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Homage a Messiaen

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