Highlighting the première recordings of Etudes 16-18, this is the perfect remedy for over-exposure to Ligeti’s polyrhythms and abounds in thrilling contrasts. Above all, it sensitises the ear in a remarkable way to Ligeti’s innovations in phrasing and musical structure.

The Ligeti pieces are offset by two entirely different but significant elements. The first is the complex, predominantly vocal music of the Aka Pygmies from sub-Saharan Africa, a crucial structural element of which is an instrumenal ostinato in fast time, against which the voices set short-breathed phrases of irregular length. 

The second element are Steve Reich’s Clapping Rhythm for two sets of hands, where the same rhythm is heard in different canonic relationships to itself, and Music For Pieces of Wood, which applies the processes of gradual rhythmic addition and subtraction to the same rhythmic pattern. Both techniques had consequences for Ligeti’s Etudes, but the implication of a direct relationship between Reich (who more likely drew his inspiration from Ghanaian Hunting music) and the Aka Pygmies is not quite right.

There are marvellous insights to be found in the juxtapositions here, moving in both directions: the effect of hearing Clapping Music followed by the Aka Pygmies’ Bobangi, where two pieces of iron hammer out a similar rhythm for its ostinato background, followed immediately by the ostinato of Ligeti’s Fourth Etude, which is in the same ‘key’ as Bobangi.

Aimard’s playing of the Ligeti is without parallel, but this is no surprise. Just as rewarding, though, are Clapping Music and Music For Pieces of Wood, where he is found clapping and playing overdubbed on himself. Inauthentic, perhaps, but by far the most exciting (and revealing) accounts of these two pieces I have ever heard.

At just 51 minutes, this disc is perfect for anybody hungry for a new kind of listening experience. It is also a perfect introduction to the very particular world of Ligeti’s piano études.