Pierre-Laurent Aimard

“[His] crystalline technique was exemplary, his tone elegantly understated, the music blissfully unhurried and full of nuances that underlined the tragedy every bit as much as the poetry ... the total absence of egotism on Aimard’s part as he applauded the efforts of conductor and orchestra further revealed the profound integrity of this extraordinary musician.” (The Guardian, April 2006)
 
"Aimard returned in the second half with Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Left Hand... Ravel accepted the constraint as a challenge, and he gives the left hand a workout, with many passages deftly mirroring the effect of two-handed playing. Aimard’s performance was alert, sharply etched, and remarkably virtuosic." (Boston Globe, January 2010)

"The orchestra’s playing reached its zenith during a Ravel second half... Mr. Aimard returned for a brilliantly detailed, spirited rendition of the crafty, eloquent Piano Concerto for the Left Hand."
(The New York Times, February 2010)

"Under its new director Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the Aldeburgh Festival is set to be a high-minded affair. Gone are the wacky music-theatre events in aircraft hangars and the late-night electronica. Aimard's festival is more a lofty two-week symposium where Haydn, Birtwistle, Schumann and Stockhausen converse across the centuries." (The Daily Telegraph, June 2009)