Pierre-Laurent Aimard's performance suggestions are based on his close collaboration with György Ligeti.
The ‘Ligeti’s comments’ function allows you to call up his corrections, additions and explanations in the interactive score, none of which are to be found in the printed score. This critical online edition, compiled by Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Tobias Bleek, takes into account the following sources:
Pierre-Laurent Aimard on Ligeti's performance suggestions
Suggestions from and explanations by the composer that Pierre-Laurent Aimard wrote down during their joint working sessions and reviewed for our interactive score. More information on their collaboration and the performance notes can be found in this video as well as in the section ‘Performing Ligeti’.
First page of the autograph fair score of Entrelacs (Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)
Revised version of the fair score, which served as a production master for publication and is preserved today in the Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel.
A copy of the autograph fair score with annotations by the composer. (György Ligeti Collection, Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)
“Never too loud or too clearly defined”
“rather poetic”
“poetic-melodic”
“innocently”
bring out “the complexity of the layers”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“Quarter note (crotchet) = first 96, then 104”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“Quarter note (crotchet) = 104”
Source: Copy of the autograph fair score with annotations by the composer. (Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)
“Define the interlaced tonalities: never completely mix them”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
György Ligeti: Étude 12, bar 10, right hand, beginning
Sources for correct version: autograph fair score, copy of the autograph fair score with Ligeti's annotations, notes by Pierre Laurent-Aimard
“The background always very piano”
“Accents increasingly louder, the background relatively calm”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“a capricious moment”
“a lively melody – each group with its own character”
“played with much fantasy”
“stuttering”
“f (mf): lyrical”
“with small crescendi/decrescendi”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“sixteenth notes (semiquavers) almost nothing”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“the phrases marked tenuto to the fore”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“the phrases marked tenuto to the fore”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“very capricious and angry”
“freely”
“a bit mad”
“the groups in semiquavers stubbornly”
“give an ‘interior life’ to the accents and the small crescendi and decrescendi”
“right hand louder than the left hand”
Left hand: “well accented but not too much”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
“right hand: explain, (in vain). As if you aren’t really able to articulate”
Source: Notes by Pierre-Laurent Aimard
György Ligeti: Étude 12, bar 81, left hand, 9th-12th semiquaver (sixteenth-note)
Sources for correct version: autograph fair score, copy of the autograph fair score with Ligeti's annotations, notes by Pierre Laurent-Aimard
A neuroscientist on Ligeti’s piano music
Eckart Altenmüller – music physiologist and neuroscientist – talks about what happens in the brain of a pianist when they play a Ligeti étude.
First page of the autograph fair score of Entrelacs (Paul Sacher Foundation, Basel)
György Ligeti: Étude 12, bar 10, right hand, beginning
György Ligeti: Étude 12, bar 81, left hand, 9th-12th semiquaver (sixteenth-note)
