Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s recording of his long-term collaborator György Kurtág’s Játékok has been awarded with 5 stars and deemed “Recording of the Month” by BBC Music Magazine in it’s July issue.
In the review, Michael Church praises Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s wholehearted performance of György Kurtág’s epic piano cycle Játékok, writing that “at the age of 99 he no longer has the manual dexterity to play his own music, simple though it sounds. Hence the presence of Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the keyboard, a man who has spent four decades studying with Kurtág, and whose playing bears the master’s whole-hearted imprimatur.”
Michael Church also marvels at Kurtág’s composition “As he closes this 40-year creative arc, we find Kurtág using these pieces as his language of love, celebrating the longevity of some friends, and mourning the passage of others. Defying literal interpretation, he plucks notes out of the air, and with the aid of the sustaining pedal, infuses them with life.”
The album has also been awarded 5 stars by The Guardian and praised by Gramophone, who described him as ‘the perfect guide’ to the Hungarian composer’s unique soundworld.
Explore the album here.
