Albums

Harrison Birtwistle
musica viva vol. 29 - Responses. Sweet Disorder / Gawain's Journey

NEOS 11729
May 2019

György Ligeti, Tristan Murail, George Benjamin
musica viva vol. 22

NEOS 11422
June 2016

Helmut Lachenmann
musica viva vol. 23

NEOS 11423
November 2015

Peter Eötvös, Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Martin Smolka
musica viva vol. 15

NEOS 10705
May 2007

The composer György Ligeti called Pierre-Laurent Aimard the leading interpreter of contemporary music because his playing combines technical perfection and poetic feeling.

The pianist from Lyon was, by his own account, "magnetically attracted" to New Music from his earliest youth. He was crucially influenced by his studies with Yvonne Loriod, the wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. When he was just twelve, she introduced him to her husband, who became Aimard's "musical father".

In 1973 the artist won the Concours Olivier Messiaen and began an unparalleled international career. Three years later Pierre Boulez hired him as a solo pianist for the Ensemble Intercontemporain. Aimard has worked with nearly all the great composers of our time. He is also in demand as a performer of the "traditional" repertoire.