Pierre Boulez was Olivier Messiaen’s student, and while his creative life followed a very different course, something very special happened whenever Boulez conducted Messiaen’s music in concert. That was certainly the case in Frankfurt in 1990, when Boulez directed the superb young players of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in the dazzling Chronochromie, and joined another supreme Messiaen interpreter – pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard – to perform Oiseaux Exotiques with his own Ensemble Intercontemporain. No one understood Messiaen’s music more profoundly than Boulez, and a documentary-style introduction from musicologist Michael Nupen sets the context for this uniquely authoritative celebration of two of France’s greatest postwar composers.
RCO: Nelsons conducts Beethoven and Skrjabin
Andris Nelsons is leading the Concertgebouworkest in a programme dedicated to the intriguing mythological figure of Prometheus. He is conducting “Prométhée, le poème du feu”, a large-scale symphonic poem by Skrjabin scored not just for symphony orchestra, but also for piano and chorus, while a light organ provides colours to accompany the music. In the only ballet Beethoven ever wrote, “Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus”, Prometheus imparts art and civilisation to mankind. The conflict between the masses and a leader forms the basis of Brett Dean’s trumpet concerto “Dramatis personae”, which culminates in an exciting dialogue between soloist Håkan Hardenberger and the Concertgebouworkest. PROGRAM Beethoven: Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus; Skrjabin: Prométhée, le poème du feu; Dean: Dramatis personae
Pierre-Laurent Aimard in Tokyo
“A brilliant musician and an extraordinary visionary” (Wall Street Journal) French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is widely acclaimed as an authority in music of our time while recognized also for shedding fresh light on music of the past. His international schedule of concerts and recordings is complemented by a career-long commitment to teaching, giving concert lectures and workshops worldwide. In this recital, a special concert for music students given at the Tokyo University of the Arts, the pianist performs works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Schubert and György Kurtág.
W.A. Mozart: Concerto For Two Pianos
Mozart’s Concert for two pianos belongs to the most artful and ambitious works of this genre. Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tamara Stefanovich, these days two of the leading interpreter’s of Mozart’s Music, performed this work at the “Mozartwoche 2008” in Salzburg. Jonathan Nott conducts the Camerata Salzburg. Also on the programme: Mozart’s Serenade D Major KV 185 „Antretter-Serenade“. At the age of 16, Pierre-Laurent Aimard was awarded the chamber music prize of the Paris Conservatoire. In the same year he won the first prize at the international Olivier Messiaen Competition. In 1977, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he became a founding member of the Ensemble InterContemporain. In addition to his work with contemporary music, Aimard has recorded the five Beethoven piano concertos with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, at the invitation of Harnoncourt. Tamara Stefanovich enjoys a busy performance schedule which includes recitals, music festivals and concert performances with some of the world’s leading symphonic and chamber orchestras.
Magic Moments of Music – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays Ravel
The name Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) is still inextricably linked with Maurice Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major. The way Benedetti Michelangeli articulates the trill chains, for example, is considered unique. At the same time, Benedetti Michelangeli is a great mystery: he was notorious for his numerous cancellations. The smallest discrepancies on the instrument, a small change in the room climate from rehearsal to concert were enough to cancel a performance. His reputation, as one of the greatest of his guild, is undisputed. Pianist Krystian Zimerman remembers his artistic exchange with Benedetti Michelangeli. For Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the Italian pianist is a declared source of inspiration as a magician of acoustics. Serge Celibidache, the son of Sergiu Celibidache, provides insights into the special artistic friendship of the two perfectionists. While Marina Baranova goes in search of Benedetti Michelangeli’s grand piano in Bavaria, Cord Garben, his producer, remembers the not always easy collaboration. Jazz musician Stefano Bollani, an admirer of Benedetti Michelangeli, explains how the composer Ravel was inspired by jazz music.
Quatuor pour la fin du temps
With Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras and Jörg Widmann, four outstanding soloists dedicated themselves to Olivier Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la fin du temps”, a unique work of music history, and performed it together at the “Meetingpoint Music Messiaen” that was built on the site of the former prisoner of war camp just outside of German-Polish town Görlitz/Zgorzelec, exactly where the camp’s so-called “theater barrack” once stood. It was there that Messiaen composed the quartet and on January 15, 1941 performed it for the first time in front of fellow prisoners.