Krystian Zimerman Piano Recital

Krystian Zimerman came to fame when he was awarded First Prize in the Chopin Competition at the age of 18. He has since enjoyed a world-class career working with the world’s most prestigious orchestras and giving recitals in the top international concert halls.

Born into a family with a music-making tradition, musicians met almost daily in Zimerman’s home to play chamber music, and this experience afforded him an intimate, natural, everyday contact with live music. He took his first steps in music under his father’s supervision and, aged seven, began working formally with Andrzej Jasinski, then a senior lecturer at the conservatoire in Katowice.

He has collaborated with many pre-eminent musicians – chamber partners such as Gidon Kremer, Kyung-Wha Chung and Yehudi Menuhin, and conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Seiji Ozawa, Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, André　Previn, Pierre Boulez, Zubin Mehta, Bernard Haitink, Stanisław Skrowaczew and Sir Simon Rattle. As part of the Chopin 200 celebrations in 2010, Zimerman gave the Chopin Birthday recital in London’s International Piano Series on the anniversary of the composer’s birth. In 2013, to mark the centenary of Lutosławski’s birth, Zimerman performed the Piano Concerto – which the composer wrote for him – in a number of cities worldwide, including a performance at London’s Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Zimerman transports his own piano for every recital, a practice which has made audiences more aware of the complexities and capabilities of the instrument. Performing on his own familiar instrument, combined with his piano-building expertise (acquired in Katowice and developed through close co-operation with Steinway’s in Hamburg), helps him minimise any distractions from purely musical issues.

Krystian Zimerman lives with his wife and family in Switzerland where he has spent the greater part of his life. Dividing his time between family, concert life and chamber music, he limits himself to 50 concerts per season. He takes a comprehensive approach to the music profession, organising his own management and studying hall acoustics, the latest sound technology and instrument construction. He has also applied himself to the study of psychology and computer science.

He has developed a similar approach to recording, a process which he controls at each stage. During his long collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon his recordings have earned him many top awards. In 1999 he recorded the Chopin Concertos with an orchestra specially formed for this project, and with whom he then toured throughout Europe and America, performing the Concertos to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Chopin’s death. His most recent recording is a disc of chamber music to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Polish composer Grazyna Bacewicz, whose music he has championed.