Zimerman to open Warsaw’s Easter Beethoven Festival
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
25.02.2018 09:00
World-famous Polish pianist Krystian Zimerman is billed as the soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 “The Age of Anxiety” for orchestra and piano in a concert inaugurating the Easter Beethoven Festival in Warsaw on March 16.
![The National Philharmonic in Warsaw. Photo: Szczebrzeszynski [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](http://external.polskieradio.pl/files/571cd96e-9471-4f51-8556-931efa5d93cc.file "The National Philharmonic in Warsaw. Photo: Szczebrzeszynski [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons")
The National Philharmonic in Warsaw. Photo: Szczebrzeszynski [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra will be conducted by its Music Director Jacek Kaspszyk. The programme of the concert also includes Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.
Unveiling the programme of the festival, its general director Elżbieta Penderecka said: "I‘ve been waiting for Zimerman for 22 years, since the first edition of the event, and I’m extremely happy we’ll have such a great artist, our compatriot, at the opening concert."
Sixty-one-year-old Zimerman rocketed to international fame having won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1975.
A resident of Switzerland, he now gives relatively few public concerts. His recording career is based on an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His latest CD featuring Schubert sonatas won him the 2018 International Classical Music Award.
The programme of the Easter Beethoven Festival, which ends on Good Friday, March 30, comprises 13 symphonic concerts and two recitals.
Featured stars include US conductor Leonard Slatkin, violinist Anne Sophie Mutter, cellist Steven Isserlis, Polish pianist Szymon Nehring and Israel Camerata Jerusalem.
The event’s motto is “Beethoven and grand anniversaries”. This year marks the centenary of Polish independence and the 85th anniversaries of the birth of celebrated composers Krzysztof Penderecki and the late Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. Polish music accounts for a fair share of the festival programme.
The event, now in its 22nd year, is the brainchild of Elżbieta Penderecka, the wife of Krzysztof Penderecki. (mk/pk)