Nov. 19, 2019

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (2019)

Beethoven the Avant-gardist

Full price: $20-$66

"Aimard’s prodigious technique allows you to hear not the work behind the work of art but its poetry… his performance had extraordinary power and clarity." —Chicago Tribune

Hailed as "a brilliant musician and an extraordinary visionary” (Wall Street Journal), world-renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is as recognized for his unparalleled, powerful technique as he is for his sensual interpretations of music from every age.

For more than 80 years, the Artist Series has brought the globe's finest jazz, classical, world music and dance performers to Boulder. Many of these performances sell out; order your tickets today to guarantee the best seats.

Performance date and time:

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m.

Buying options:

Save 15-30% with season tickets Available in the Full Artist Series, Classic Series, Choice Option, or as an Add-On to any other season ticket order. Single ticket discounts available for groups (10+), seniors (65+), youth (K-12) and CU Boulder faculty, staff and students. Learn more

Program:

(Updated Oct. 30, 2019)

Messiaen: VI. L’alouette-lulu from Catalogue d’oiseaux
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 2 (“Moonlight”)
Messiaen: V. La chouette hulotte from Catalogue d’oiseaux
INTERMISSION
Sweelinck: Fantasia cromatica, SwWV 258
Benjamin: Shadowlines
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 28 in A Major, Op. 101

View Full Program

Please note that there will be no Pre-Concert Talk for this performance.

Other

Pierre-Laurent Aimard

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (2019)

“Aimard and Stefanovich muted those doubts, building up a cathedral out of stained-glass colours, piano tracery, rhythmic vaults, and thick trunks of sound. A Messiaen chord is a crystalline, faceted thing, full of internal symmetries that shimmer and glint. Just one would be enough to contemplate for a while, a snowflake on a fingertip. Instead, they come in flurries, piling up before your ear. […] To hear them play Visions is like listening with superpowered ears, each detail magnified and limpid, and at the same time arranged into an expressive structure.”

Justin Davidson, Vulture

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (2019)

“The masterly French musician divided his recital Tuesday night at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center between Beethoven’s Opus 106 and a selection of piano pieces by the great Hungarian modernist Gyorgy Ligeti that pose formidable technical and intellectual demands of their own. It was in every respect a triumphant conclusion to this season’s University of Chicago Presents Ligeti series, a series built around the participation of Aimard, who was Ligeti’s preferred interpreter of his keyboard works […] What Aimard delivered was deeply satisfying, a 'Hammerklavier' those lucky enough to hear it will long remember.… Aimard is among the greats of his generation.“

Chicago Tribune

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (2019)

“It was a wonderfully intelligent performance, which carefully probed the deeper resonances of a work that some still perceive as flippant. Aimard dazzled with his dexterity in the outer movements, but the strikingly weighty tone he adopted for the adagio exposed a streak of dark, troubling melancholy beneath the wistful surface poise.”

The Guardian

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano (2019)

"Hailed as 'a brilliant musician and an extraordinary visionary' by the Wall Street Journal, Aimard is widely recognized for his unparalleled, powerful technique."

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