Pierre-Laurent Aimard speelt Beethovens Pianoconcert nr. 5

Pierre-Laurent Aimard's love for Beethoven

The versatile French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard is a welcome guest at the Matinee. He has previously performed works ranging from Bach to Bartók and from Liszt to Ligeti. Familiar with new music from an early age, he also developed a great love for the music of Beethoven. He now performs Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto , a heroic work with a dreamy middle section. Aimard is joined by the Kammerorchester Basel, which has proven for many years to be entirely at home in the music of the Viennese Classics.

Dvořák's Symphony No. 7

Additionally, Dvořák's Seventh Symphony is on the music stands. A work in which Dvořák invests more expressiveness and emotion than in his earlier symphonies. The Seventh is widely regarded as one of the most important symphonies of the post-Beethoven period. Dvořák received the commission for this composition from the London Philharmonic Society, which also 'ordered' the Ninth Symphony from Beethoven in 1817. In 1885, Dvořák conducted the premiere of his Seventh in London, and he hoped that this symphony would surpass all his previous works and 'stir up the world'.