Face to Face

A new concert format developed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard has been capturing audiences’ attention for some time now; yet it is not really all that new – for at its core, it reflects the very beginnings of public music-making.

Entitled ‘Face to Face’, this concert format made its debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2026.

Woven together through a perfect choreography of light, space and time, this concert experience – featuring a selection of small, intimate and perhaps even little-known masterpieces by the greatest composers – becomes a single, marvellous distillation of everything that is essential in music. And at the end of this experience, which permeates the entire human being, one realises that, at its core, music consists of far more than mere virtuosity, volume and technical perfection.

A remarkably positive concert review has appeared on nd-aktuell.de. In an article entitled ‘Aimard: on the art of curating a piano recital’, Berthold Seliger explains, with expert insight and refreshing honesty, why such concert evenings are so important...

...and the critic concludes with the following statement:

“What Schoenberg said to Webern about his ‘Six Little Piano Pieces, Op. 19’ applies to the entire programme of this piano recital: ‘You have to have time for my music. It’s not for people who have other things to do.’ The Salzburg audience took the time and was utterly enthralled. For ultimately, it is not about some sort of hocus-pocus; it is the music that is at the heart of it all. An evening that is simply crying out to be repeated and emulated.”