Pierre-Laurent Aimard returns to Philadelphia

[Ricordanza]

After attending French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s recital in December 2010, I was eager to hear him again. His masterful performances of Ravel and Chopin on that evening left me wanting more. And even if I wasn’t enthusiastic about the music of Olivier Messiaen, Aimard’s superb pianism in that composer’s Eight Preludes made an indelible impression.

On Tuesday evening, November 13, Aimard returned to Philadelphia to present a program of Debussy, Schumann, Heinz Holliger, and even a little Elliott Carter.

It was certainly fitting, on the 150th anniversary of Debussy’s birth, that the first half of the program was devoted to his Twelve Preludes of Book II. The term “Preludes” suggests a series of miniatures, but some of these works are veritable tone poems for piano. With his enormous technical command and dynamic range, Aimard gave us engrossing performances of these works. Especially enjoyable for me were the opening Prelude, Brouillards (Mists), La puerta del viño, Ondine, and the brilliant concluding piece, Feux d’artifice (Fireworks).

An ardent advocate of contemporary music, Aimard began the second half of the recital with a set by Heinz Holliger entitled Elis, Three Nocturnes for Piano. Decidedly atonal, with some non-keyboard elements (the pianist stands up on a couple of occasions to pluck strings inside the piano), these works struck me as more of a curiosity than an emotionally involving experience. But it wouldn’t be an Aimard recital without a taste of the avant garde.

Yet, I must admit that the part of the program I was most anxious to hear was one of my favorites from the Romantic repertoire, Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes. Although more precisely described in their alternate title, Etudes in the form of variations, the word “symphonic” is not misapplied, for these variations are truly symphonic in scope and fully exploit all the resources of the piano. Along with the 12 variations of Opus 13, Aimard included the five posthumously published variations, inserting them in between the seventh and eighth variations of the main set. Unsurprisingly, Aimard met the immense technical and musical challenges of this great work. But his individual touches throughout rendered this a memorable performance, fully deserving of the tremendous ovation he received.

For his one encore, Aimard announced that he would play a work by the “irreplaceable” Elliott Carter, another committed modernist, who recently died at the amazing age of 103.