Pierre-Laurent Aimard - Kurtag: Jatekok - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, one of today's most visionary pianists, presents the second book of Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a cornerstone of the piano repertoire. Following his acclaimed interpretation of Book I (released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2014), Aimard brings his signature clarity, insight, and depth to this second collection of 24 Preludes and Fugues, exploring Bach's extraordinary harmonic and contrapuntal imagination. With a lifelong dedication to both early and contemporary music, Aimard approaches the Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II not merely as a historical masterpiece but as a vibrant and endlessly inventive work. His performance highlights Bach's ability to blend expressive lyricism with intellectual rigor, creating a deeply engaging and illuminating listening experience.A renowned champion of twentieth-century music, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has released multiple acclaimed albums in his exclusive contract with PENTATONE, including Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux (2018) and Visions de l'Amen (2022), along with Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata & Eroica Variations (2021). He also joined Tamara Stefanovich in Etudes and Frames (2023), with music by Vassos Nicolaou, recorded Bartok's Piano Concertos with the San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen (2023), Schubert Landler (2024), and Kurtag Jatekok (2025).

Pietro Giannotti, who in the title page of Op. 1 (entirely written in Italian) is described as native of Lucca, was born in that independent Tuscan city, in an unspecified year between the end of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth. We do not have any information about his education or his musical pursuits before his activities in France began, in 1728, when he moved to Paris. From the subsequent year to 1758 we know that he served as a double-bass player at the Academie Royale de Musique. A much-appreciated performance of his as a violinist is documented at the InchConcert spirituelInch of 28 March 1749; on this occasion he also played some pieces of his own. He remained in Paris until his death, on 19 June 1765. In Paris he published about twenty works, all of instrumental chamber music. In all likelihood, Giannotti also carried out his activities within private circles, in the house of an influential French nobleman, as is demonstrated by his first publication, to which we must now turn our attention Op. 1 is dedicated to Jean-Charles de Crussol (1675-1739), seventh Duke of Uzes and French peer, scion of an ancient aristocratic family, who was not only a patron but also an InchamateurInch who practised music for his own enjoyment. Pierluigi Mencattini, accompanied by the ensemble Labirinto Armonico (already protagonists of the edition of the sonatas by Giovanni Antonio Piani, tc 671690) in this double CD performs the full version of the Op. I collection.

Renowned pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard's recording of Olivier Messiaen's Catalogue d'Oiseaux created a sensation when first released on PENTATONE in 2018, and now returns to the market in an attractively-priced stereo re-issue. Aimard had intimate ties to the composer himself and his wife, Yvonne Loriod, for whom Messiaen wrote the Catalogue, a grand hymn to nature from a man who never ceased to marvel at the stupefying beauty of landscapes or the magic of bird song. With his Catalogue, Messiaen tried - in his own words - Inchto render exactly the typical birdsong of a region, surrounded by it's neighbours from the same habitat, as well as the form of song at different hours of the day and night,Inch suggesting an almost scientific approach to his subjects. The idea of 'reproduction' may have been central to Messiaen's conception of the Catalogue d'Oiseaux, but in the finished work we hear a great composer at work, a master of innovative structures who finds an astonishing range of piano sonorities. Thanks to Aimard's ability to evoke this colourful opus, his interpretation has turned into an absolute reference recording. This first within Aimard's exclusive partnership with PENTATONE received many accolades, including a Jahrespreis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Since then, recordings of Beethoven (2021), Bartok (2023, with San Francisco Symphony and Esa-Pekka Salonen) and Schubert (2024) have appeared on PENTATONE, as well as piano four hands albums with Tamara Stefanovich (Visions in 2022 and Nicolaou Etudes & Frames in 2023).