The Ruhr Piano Festival’s homage to Ligeti begins with a special event. In collaboration with an ensemble of young musicians conducted by Susanne Blumenthal, Pierre-Laurent Aimard will offer a presentation of Ligeti’s Piano Concerto, which he studied under Ligeti’s own supervision. Aimard is a passionate teacher who loves to transmit knowledge and explain music to audiences; thus, in the first part of the evening, he will offer a lecture introduction to this work featuring a number of examples taken from the concerto’s five movements. After the intermission, Aimard’s prizewinning pupil Lorenzo Soulès will perform the entire work, accompanied by an ensemble of students from two different conservatories: the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne, and the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen.