Musikfest 2: Pedal Power

Over the past several years, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has been responsible for some of the most ambitious, and most rewarding recital programmes at Musikfest, the most recent of which was a complete performance of Messiaen’s Catalogue d’Oiseaux. The programme for his second appearance at this year’s Musikfest may have seemed somewhat more conventional on paper, pairing Beethoven’s universally admired Hammerklavier sonata with Helmut Lachenmann’s less well-known but equally fascinating Serynade. If the two pieces had little in the way of superficial similarities, they were united by a shared desire on the part of their respective composers to explore the sonic potential of the keyboard instrument.

A cursory glance at Mr Aimard’s recent performances and best-known recordings offers a fairly clear idea of his musical preoccupations: in…