Hommage A Messiaen (Incls 'Preludes pour piano')

"I'll be very surprised if a more accomplished centenary tribute to Messiaen appears than this one. Pierre-Laurant Aimard knew the composer and studied with Yvonne Loriod… …Aimard achieves insight through clarity, a quality aided by superb sound-recording, with a rich range of meticulously graded dynamic levels, and just the right amount of space and resonance around the instrument." Gramophone Magazine, November 2008

"His dexterity is, of course, dazzling, but it is Aimard's range or timbre and colour that impresses most." BBC Music Magazine, November 2008 *****

"Pierre-Laurent Aimard knew Messiaen and studied with Yvonne Loriod, yet these personal associations result in playing of intense sobriety.
Indeed, the initial impression, in the first of the early Préludes, is of unusual restraint. While pianists anxious to underline the links with Debussy often opt for impressionistic washes of sound, Aimard achieves insight through clarity, a quality aided by superb sound-recording, with a rich range of meticulously graded dynamic levels, and just the right amount of space and resonance around the instrument.
Aimard's technical virtuosity comes through in the evenness of his voicing and the pearly delicacy with which Messiaen's intricate ornamental writing is projected. Nevertheless, when turbulence and incisiveness are required, as in the Ile de feu studies, they emerge naturally and inevitably.
Aimard never polishes away the rough edges of this music, and one only wishes that the other pair of studies in rhythm had also been included.
Messiaen was at his most ambitious in the grand perspectives of the 13-movement Catalogued'oiseaux, and the two items included here offer a particularly strong contrast. With 'La Bouscarle' - so much more mellifluous a title in French than 'Cetti's Warbler' - diversity is paramount, and although Aimard is characteristically lucid and uncompromising, not least in his timing of the silences near the end, this piece never seems one of the composer's more cogent inspirations. On the other hand, the ravishing alternation of chorales and cadenzas in 'L'Alouette Lulu' ('The Woodlark') is marvellously sustained in this mesmerising account, a miracle of tonal refinement and digital fluency.
It caps a disc that promises to give ever more subtle rewards on repeated hearing." Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

Pierre-Laurent Aimard's tribute to Olivier Messiaen coincides with the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth on 10 December 2008 - A highlight of the Messiaen year.

Aimard has a strong personal connection to Messiaen: he studied piano with the composer's wife Yvonne Loriod from the age of twelve and won the Messiaen Competition in 1973. He has been a champion of Messiaen's music throughout his career, one of the few pianists to keep this repertoire alive in the concert hall and bring new admirers to it.

For this anniversary album, Aimard has selected the early 8 Préludes (1928-29), the tense Quatre Études de rythme (1949-50) and excerpts from the cycle Catalogue d'oiseaux (1956-58), showcasing the broad spectrum of Messiaen's piano works.

Aimard is widely acknowledged as being the preeminent interpreter of contemporary music with links to many of the greatest masters of our age, among them Boulez, Carter and Ligeti.