Pierre-Laurent Aimard is a remarkable pianist, and this concert, taped live at Carnegie Hall in December 2001 (and only barely touched up), is living proof. The Berg actually sounds perfectly Classical, the Beethoven is clearly, beautifully played (with only the final movement slightly lacking in thrills), and the Liszt is less aggressively showy than it can be. The two Debussy "watery" works are gorgeous--misty yet easy to make out--and the Ligeti come across as approachable, sensible, and fascinating, instead of mere clusters of sound, which can often be the case. And nobody beats Aimard in Messiaen: the seven-minute piece of Vingt regards whets one's appetite for the whole work. Aimard is never a sentimentalist and he never dances on the keys; the playing is full-bodied and exciting. This was clearly quite an event, but it works just as well piece-by-piece. Highly recommended.