On 1 and 2 June, Pierre-Laurent Aimard performs two concerts devoted to Karlheinz Stockhausen at London’s Southbank Centre, where the pianist continues his three-year residency.
Honoring the 90th anniversary of the composer’s birth, the two programmes include Klavierstücke I‑XI, Kontakte for piano, percussion, and electronics, Zyklus for percussion, and the rarely-performed Mantra for two pianos and electronics. Joining Aimard for the concerts are HP fellow Tamara Stefanovich (piano), Dirk Rothbrust (percussion), and Marco Stroppa (sound direction).
Last summer, Aimard championed similar retrospectives dedicated to Stockhausen at Lucerne Festival and Musikfest Berlin, where his reading of the Klavierstücke was celebrated as “the performance of a lifetime.” Seen and Heard International commented: “I have no doubt that memories of hearing Pierre-Laurent Aimard play the first eleven Stockhausen Klavierstücke will remain with me forever […]. Not so much a performance of the year as of a lifetime, this recital proved just as all-encompassing and arguably still more necessary.”
