The Liszt Project: Bartok, Berg - HBDirect Classical

Pierre-Laurent Aimard honours Franz Liszt's 200th birthday (October 22, 1811) with his most ambitious recording for Deutsche Grammophon to date. In this extensive 2-CD set, Aimard juxtaposes a selection of Liszt's works with compositions by Liszt's contemporaries and successors who were inspired by the Hungarian composer. Recorded live in Vienna's Konzerthaus over two evenings, Pierre-Laurent Aimard's Liszt project is a pinnacle of the Liszt Year commemorations.

"The brilliant French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard has an ingenious knack for juxtaposing old and new works to tease out fascinating resonances. “The Liszt Project” pays homage to Liszt in his bicentennial year by alternating his works, including rarities, with scores by Wagner, Berg, Scriabin, Ravel, Bartok, Messiaen and Marco Stroppa." -The New York Times

All Music Guide - Blair Sanderson
In Franz Liszt's bicentennial year, numerous recordings and reissues of his music have appeared as a matter of course, but perhaps none is as unique, intriguing, and instructive as Pierre-Laurent Aimard's 2011 album, The Liszt Project, which presents pieces by the Hungarian master with compositions by other composers that bear his influence. Such works as Liszt's widely emulated Sonata in B minor and some of his highly chromatic, tonally unstable pieces can be shown to have exerted a powerful effect on Richard Wagner, Alban Berg, and Alexander Scriabin, particularly in their piano sonatas. Furthermore, some of the more picturesque and evocative keyboard pieces have shaped the musical ideas and techniques of such modernists as Béla Bartók, Maurice Ravel, and Olivier Messiaen. Divided between two CDs, the program's organization makes clear the points of comparison between Liszt's pieces and those of others, and any attentive and imaginative listener can make the connections quite easily, if not through any theoretical knowledge then at least through recognition of similar harmonies and sonorities. Liszt is often cited as a catalyst in his time, having persuaded many of his colleagues and followers to adopt his innovative methods. But Aimard shows how far-reaching his personality truly was, a force composers reckoned with well into the 20th century. Deutsche Grammophon's reproduction is clean and resonant, and the piano's various tone colors are remarkably well-captured. N.B.: the back cover gives a misleading order of the pieces found on the CDs, but the correct track listing is given in the accompanying booklet.

Financial Times
Aimard has long established himself as the thinking person's pianist. His Liszt Project juxtaposes a selection of Liszt's works with compositions by contemporaries and successors who were inspired by him... It's a strong idea, sustained by the Frenchman's fastidious pianism, but it comes across more as a lecture-recital than a satisfying listening experience.

Gramophone Magazine
In the main, the later the Liszt the more impressive Aimard is... he is ideally persuasive that no composer stayed younger in his desire to make something new... Aimard's reading of the B minor Sonata is distinguished - intellectually satisfying, as it should be, as the most intelligent and far-reaching of all post-Beethoven sonatas on a large scale.

Classic FM Magazine
Aimard is a supremely intellectual pianist and his intense, rigorously thought-out playing illuminates the two programmes... Aimard's approach is purposefully cool in order to highlight the structural elements of the piece and while there's some exquisite hushed playing, the thunderous climaxes don't build with quite enough abandon.

BBC Music Magazine
This impressive double album is surely one of the most intelligent recorded contributions to the Liszt Bicentenary of 2011... Nothing in Aimard's performances is done for mere effect: throughout, he projects Liszt with a solidity and refinement of invention. A superb achievement.

Notes & Reviews:

Recording information: Wiener Konzerthaus, Vienna (05/2011).

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Works Details

Liszt, Franz : La Lugubre gondola I, for piano (in 6/8), S. 200/1 (LW A319a)

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Notes: Composition written: 1884.
Running Time: 5 min. 6 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1884

Wagner, Richard : Sonata for Piano in A flat major (for M. Wesendonck), WWV 85

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 10 min. 32 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 06/1853

Liszt, Franz : Nuages gris (Grey clouds)

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 3 min. 3 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1881

Berg, Alban : Sonata for Piano, Op. 1

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 8 min. 36 sec.
Period Time: Modern
Written: circa 1907-1908

Liszt, Franz : Unstern (Evil star)

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Notes: Composition written: 1886.
Running Time: 6 min. 3 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1886

Scriabin, Alexander : Sonata for Piano no 9 in F major, Op. 68 "Black Mass"

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 8 min. 36 sec.
Period Time: Post Romantic
Written: 1912-1913

Liszt, Franz : Sonata for Piano in B minor, S 178

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 31 min. 19 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1851-1853

Liszt, Franz : Aux cyprès de la Villa d'Este I, threnody for piano (Annés III/2), S. 163/2 (LW A283/2)

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 6 min. 11 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1877

Béla Bartók (1881 - 1945) : 4 Dirges, BB 58, Sz. 45 (Op.9a) :: 4. Nénie

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 3 min. 12 sec.
Period Time: Modern
Written: 1908-1911

Liszt, Franz : Légendes (2) for Piano, S 175 :: 1. Saint François d'Assise

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 10 min. 33 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1863

Stroppa, Marco : Miniture estrose :: Tangata manu

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 9 min. 34 sec.
Period Time: Contemporary

Liszt, Franz : Années de pèlerinage no 3, S 163

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 8 min. 3 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1877

Ravel, Maurice : Jeux d'eau

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 6 min. 3 sec.
Period Time: Modern
Written: 1901

Messiaen, Olivier : Catalogue d'oiseaux :: Le Traquet stapazin

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 13 min. 35 sec.
Period Time: Modern
Written: 1956-1958

Liszt, Franz : Années de pèlerinage, première année, S 160 "Suisse"

Performer: Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Piano)
Running Time: 15 min. 41 sec.
Period Time: Romantic
Written: 1848-1855

The Liszt Project: Bartok, Berg, Messiaen, Ravel, et al. / Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano

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