Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No. 1 op. 1 / Piano Concerto No. 2 op. 18

Critics' Choice Gramophone Magazine 2004

Gramophone Magazine - Recording of the Month (April 2004)

"Any new recording by Krystian Zimerman is an event and this disc is no exception - strangely these recordings have languished in DG's archives for seven and four years respectively. There are few pianists today who manage to combine Zimerman's mystique - created largely by his relative scarcity on the concert platform - with such a poetic naturalness in performance. You get the impression that nothing would induce him to give a performance of anything unless it has been scrupulously studied and absorbed so that every last detail has been considered and thought about. His year-long devotion to the Chopin concertos some years ago, for which he even founded a special orchestra, bears witness to that intensity of vision. This disc is as perfect an example as is possible of why great music still needs new recordings."
(Gramophone)

Deutsche Grammophon is releasing recordings of the Rachmaninov First and Second Piano Concertos that Zimerman has made with Seiji Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

This is the pianist's first new CD since the Chopin concertos were released in 1999. In that award-winning recording Zimerman, from the keyboard, conducts the Polish Festival Orchestra, which he formed expressly for a tour featuring the two concertos in the 150th anniversary year of Chopin's death. Zimerman is renowned for his exacting artistic standards and uncompromising approach to performance, endowing his every venture with a tremendous sense of occasion. The Rachmaninov concertos are no exception . . .

"[His] recital at the Festival Hall in June was final proof, if it were still needed, that Zimerman merits a place among the greatest pianists of all time."
The Guardian, 21 December 2001