“Superlative playing… [Aimard] is clearly a musician in demand. From this performance, it is not hard to see why.”

Simon Barrow | Edinburgh Music Review, August 2024

“Pierre-Laurent Aimard journeys like a sleepwalker, suspended between dream and reality, revealing all those fragile, ephemeral, but also indelible things that arise from Schubert’s spontaneity. The performer (…) picks out the smallest note as if all of Schubert were contained therein. (…) An old-fashioned record, with depth and raw charm, where everything breathes poetry.”

Erwan Gentric | Diapason, August 2024

“Aimard find something special every time” – Performance ***** | Recording *****

BBC Music Magazine, July 2024

“Aimard elicits exactly those degrees and states of romantic longing, suffering and happiness that can be found in Schubert’s great piano and song compositions. […] and you listen to him with fascination, even spellbound.” – Rondo, Album of the Week

“(…) [Aimard] sounds like a natural Schubertian, imbuing the pieces with elegance and charm. His masterful control of tone and voicing, particularly in the left-hand accompaniment, adds a subtle layer of refinement.” – The Classic Review, Editor’s Choice for June

“Pierre-Laurent Aimard is uncompromising in his approach to the works performed here and sees them for what they really are: sophisticated light music. He emphasizes the dancing step throughout and really knows how to fill the composition with life in every phase, not neglecting moods and mood changes without ever exaggerating them. And so these ecossaises, German dances, ländler and waltzes offer a deeper insight into the composer’s complex emotional life, in addition to the dancing character.” – Pizzicato, Five Star Review

Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the French pianist, was staring up at the beautiful blue sky on Tuesday morning and playing the solemn strains of a Beethoven sonata…

The program felt, in these surroundings, appropriately nocturnal, the park’s forested paths a mirror of the moody depths and wary, milky, moonlit glints of Messiaen’s “L’Alouette Lulu” (“The Woodlark”), from his “Catalogue d’Oiseaux” (“Catalog of Birds”). From the beginning, Mr. Aimard’s playing was a study in reverberation; it was perceptible even through slipping headphones how the music expanded in space and time. I only regret that, just as he moved from “L’Alouette Lulu” into the classic, slowly unwinding first bars of Beethoven’s “Moonlight” Sonata, I accidentally turned off my phone.

Despite that unwelcome pause, Mr. Aimard’s point was clear: Messiaen’s forlorn yet slyly confident sounds were Beethoven’s, too. The transitions were crucial in this presentation; I think that by paying close attention to those, I experienced much of what Mr. Aimard wanted me to, even if I lost other aspects of the performance while trying to keep a halfway decent running pace. –The New York Times