Pierre-Laurent Aimard: "The Liszt Project"

The 2011 hullabaloo over Liszt's bicentennial may have been supplanted by Glassmania and Cage fever in 2012, but we're still excited about the New York performance of this commanding French pianist's "The Liszt Project." Aimard unveiled his two-part recital last May in Vienna, and released a double disc of the recording on Deutsche Grammophon last October. Instead of paying ostentatious tribute to the hyperactive Romantic composer, Aimard mixes some of Liszt's signature piano works with pieces by Wagner, Berg, Scriabin, Bartók, Stroppa, Ravel and Messiaen. The resulting experience establishes the prescient composer as a critical bridge between high Romanticism and Modernism.