Schönberg: Piano Works

The French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, a leading figure in contemporary classical music and an insightful interpreter of the core piano repertoire, has joined Alpha Classics and launches the partnership with an album that has long been close to his heart: Schönberg's piano works.

He has waited more than forty years to record them - a journey that began in 1973 when, as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, he performed Schönberg's Opus 11 live on TV after winning the Olivier Messiaen Competition. At a time when the composer's music was often misunderstood, Aimard developed a lasting connection to its originality and expressive power. In this long-awaited recording, he traces the composer's artistic evolution through five landmark piano works, from the Expressionism of Op. 11 (1909) to Op. 33b (1931), written on the eve of Schönberg's emigration to the United States and reflecting both Brahmsian tradition and a world in transition.