Pianist Zimerman star attraction as Easter Beethoven Festival opens in Warsaw

Zimerman is billed as the soloist in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety for orchestra and piano, with the Warsaw Philharmonic orchestra conducted by its Music Director Jacek Kaspszyk.

The concert at Warsaw’s National Philharmonic Hall also includes Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony.

Zimerman is a resident of Switzerland. His previous visit to Poland was in 2014 for the opening of the new hall of the National Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra in the southern city of Katowice.

Later this year, the acclaimed pianist is scheduled to perform Bernstein’s The Age of Anxiety in Baden-Baden, Lucerne, Berlin and Salzburg, in a series of concerts to mark the centenary of the birth of the legendary conductor and composer.

Despite a gap of two generations, Zimerman and Bernstein worked closely for 13 years, in the early stage of the Polish pianist’s career. They gave many concerts and made numerous recordings together. Zimerman was the last soloist to appear alongside Bernstein on the conductor’s podium prior to the American composer’s death in 1999.

Zimerman, 61, began his spectacular international career after winning the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1975.

The Easter Beethoven Festival, which runs until Good Friday, 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 the Israel Camerata Jerusalem orchestra.

(mk/gs)