Musikfest 2: The Seekers

Over the past decade Pierre-Laurent Aimard has been a regular guest at Berlin’s Musikfest, and his concerts have tended either towards single works (or bodies of work by a single composer) of great scope and complexity – from Book One of Das wohltemperierte Klavier to Stockhausen’s Klavierstücke – or towards fascinating juxtapositions (for instance, the pairing of Beethoven’s Hammerklavier with Lachenmann’s Serynade). While the technical assurance of his playing is beyond reproach, it is the intelligence and discernment of his programmes that have been instrumental in helping to fashion a new canon of core repertoire for the twenty-first century, one in which Messiaen and Boulez can sit comfortably next to Chopin and Liszt.

One of Mr Aimard’s programmes for this year’s Musikfest offered the intriguing coupling of Schönberg’s complete…