Pierre-Laurent Aimard et le COE
5-12 Mars 2019

Vous trouverez ci-dessous de plus amples informations sur ce projet, en Anglais.

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe is joined by French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard in one of their signature programmes, juxtaposing two Mozart’s Piano Concertos with two of Elliott Carter’s chamber music works, featuring COE soloists and leader on this tour, Candida Thompson. Together, they perform at the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin on 9th March – this will be the second time this year following our concert in January with Robin Ticciati, then at the Cologne Philharmonie on the 10th and at the Cité de la musique in Paris on the 11th.

In Berlin and Paris, the Orchestra and Pierre-Laurent will perform Carter’s quintet for piano, oboe (Philippe Tondre), clarinet (Romain Guyot), bassoon (Matthew Wilkie) and horn (Chris Parkes), Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15, Carter’s very last work “Epigrams” for violin (Candida Thompson), cello (Richard Lester) and piano and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25. In Cologne, Carter’s quintet will be replaced with Haydn’s Symphony No. 7 “Le Midi”.

American composer Elliott Carter passed away in 2012 and was particularly prolific in his later years, composing more than 40 works in his 90’s and another 20 after he turned 100 in 2008. In recognition of his contribution to music, Elliott Carter was twice awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The programme has been devised by Pierre-Laurent who knew and worked very closely with Carter. In Pierre-Laurent’s words: “By turns lyrical, dramatic, complex, amusing and poetic, this grand master of polyphony understood the challenges of his time and entertained us with great intelligence.” And “Mozart and Carter are two composers focussed on everything human; their music is vital, dramatic, sometimes theatrical. The various characters are juxtaposed in Mozart and superimposed in Carter with great versatility.”

The COE and Pierre-Laurent Aimard have formed a very close relationship over the years and have performed many concerts together across Europe and the USA since their first project in 2000 with Nikolaus Harnoncourt at the Styriarte Festival in Graz (Austria). They have worked together every year in major venues including Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, New York’s Lincoln Center, London’s Royal Festival Hall, the Cité de la musique in Paris and the Berlin, Cologne and Luxemburg Philharmonies. They have also performed together at international festivals such as the Salzburg Mozartwoche, the Styriarte, Berlin’s Musikfest and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York.

Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the COE have recorded a number of CDs including Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos. 1-5 and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto (featuring Thomas Zehetmair and Clemens Hagen) and Choral Fantasy with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 6, 15 and 27 with Pierre-Laurent directing from the piano. In speaking about the COE, he has said: “This is a very unique orchestra. They are people from a very fine culture and incredibly refined musically. It’s a pleasure to share music with them – an indestructible joy.”