The giving of gifts: Pierre-Laurent Aimard on György Kurtág

“Some colleagues will say it’s too much… but during the recording, I must confess: I know his level of demand. I tried to be the best I could. But we worked so much on the pieces again, and sometimes we had to re-record a single, apparently easy piece so many times.”

The legendary French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is telling me what it was like to record György Kurtág’s Játékok (Games) under the composer’s famously demanding gaze. “I thought at such moments, maybe my colleagues are right! But then listening to the results, and going through the process, I thought no: he was really right.”

The recording in question, one of several Aimard has made recently for the Dutch label Pentatone, brings together 81 of the miniatures in the remarkable diary-cum-workshop-cum-pedagogy that is Játékok. Kurtág turns 100 this week. The energy he is still able to bring to a project like this will not surprise anyone who has experienced the eternal youthfulness of his slightly younger years (I remember a clearly audible gasp from the Royal Festival Hall audience when he leapt onto the stage in his 80s – eschewing the steps – after a performance of Grabstein für Stefan). Yet I am surprised he remains that demanding of such a close and experienced associate – Aimard has played his music for almost 50 years. “Of course! This is why I continue to go on working with him!’

Tim Rutherford-Johnson’s interview can be read on Bachtrack.