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PiotrAnderszewski

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  • Piano

About Piotr

Anderszewski is regarded as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation and performs at major concert venues around the world.

He appears regularly with many of the world’s great symphony orchestras, with a special emphasis on play-directing. He has recorded Mozart concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the Sinfonia Varsovia, as well as Beethoven’s first piano concerto with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen.

Highlights of his 24/25 season include recitals at the London Barbican, Berlin’s Boulez Saal, concerto engagements with the Tonhalle Orchestra and Danish National Symphony.

Throughout his career Anderszewski has concentrated on the classic German/Viennese repertoire encompassing Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Webern. He is also drawn to 20th century central European music, particularly that of Szymanowski and Janáček.

An exclusive artist with Warner Classics since 2000 - his first recording for the label was Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, which went on to receive a number of notable awards. He has also recorded Grammy-nominated discs of Bach's Partitas 1, 3 and 6 and Szymanowski's solo piano works, the latter also receiving a Gramophone award in 2006. His recording devoted to works by Robert Schumann was named the BBC Music Magazine's Recording of the Year in 2012. Other Gramophone awards followed in 2015 for Bach English Suites and in 2021 for his specially-selected set of 12 Preludes and Fugues from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier Book 2. A live performance of the Preludes and Fugues from Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie has since been released on DVD. His latest album is dedicated to piano works by Janáček, Szymanowski and Bartók.

Anderszewski has collaborated with various instrumentalists, including Viktoria Mullova, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nikolaj Znaider and the Belcea Quartet. As a lieder partner he has worked with Matthias Goerne and most recently in recital with Ian Bostridge in Paris and Krakow featuring Schumann’s Dichterliebe.

Awarded the prestigious Gilmore Artist Award in 2002, Anderszewki’s artistic life has been the subject of several documentaries by the film maker Bruno Monsaingeon. 'Piotr Anderszewski plays Diabelli Variations' (2001) explores Anderszewski's particular relationship with Beethoven's iconic work. 'Unquiet Traveller' (2008) is an unusual artist portrait, capturing Anderszewski's reflections on music, the composers with whom he has a particular affinity and his Polish-Hungarian roots.In 2016 he found himself behind the camera directing "Warsaw is my name", a film dedicated to the city of his birth.

He is currently writing a book reflecting on his experience as a musician and performer.

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Contact

Laura Baker

Laura Baker

Senior Artist Manager
Maya Feldman

Maya Feldman

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

General management with Askonas Holt Partner managers: Impresariat Simmenauer (Germany, Austria & France) Amati (Japan) Resia Artists (Italy) Medem Music (Spain) Caecilia (Switzerland) Liliane Weinstadt (Belgium) Ying-Hsin Chen (China & Taiwan)

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Season Highlights

Oct 2024
Barbican
Works by: Schubert Beethoven Bartok
Mar 2025
Koncerthuset (Koncertsalen), Copenhagen
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 Fabio Luisi (Conductor) Danish National Symphony Orchestra
Apr 2025
The Glasshouse International Centre for Music, Gateshead
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1 Stephanie Childress (Conductor) Royal Northern Sinfonia
Jun 2025
Auditorium-Orchestre National de Lyon
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.1, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider (Conductor) Orchestre National de Lyon

Photos

News

Press

  • Solo Recital: Beethoven, Brahms, Bartok and Bach

    The Barbican
    Oct 2024
    • ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ This programme made largely of miniatures was one to treasure. Anderszewski is a remarkable pianist – no note is out of place, no chord not perfectly balanced ... even by Anderszewski’s meticulous standards it was an exceptional event. Anderszewski’s ability to crystallise a whole expressive world in microcosm was extraordinary The 14 Bartók Bagatelles ... were presented as vivid snapshots, glistening and utterly clear. The Chopin mazurka that followed as an encore, Op 59 no 2, might have belonged to another world altogether, yet in its own way it was just as remarkable.

  • Solo Recital in Singapore

    Victoria Concert Hall
    May 2024
    • Polish pianist Piotr Anderszewski has always been held in high esteem by connoisseurs for the piercing intelligence of his musicianship and the sensitivity of his playing. On the evidence of this re-cital, his extraordinary talents remain as strong as ever. It was clear from the outset that this recital was about the music, not the performer. All in all, a marvellous, moving recital from one of the world's most quietly brilliant performers.

  • Solo Recital

    Barbican
    Nov 2023
    • Performing his usual suspects of Bach, Szymanowski, Webern and Beethoven, he exhibited total control over and feel for the programme. He has previously recorded almost all of these works, and visibly knows them like the backs of his – very competent – hands. Anderszewski is completely in the moment and alive to every nuance in each piece, creating an electrifying evening.

  • Solo Recital

    Barbican
    Nov 2023
    • ★★★★☆ The Polish pianist is an understated presence but in his hands, a programme that also included Bach, Webern and Szymanowski, was muscular and full of ferocious energy amid meticulous playing.

  • Bartók - City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra

    Symphony Hall Birmingham
    Mar 2020
    • Anderszewski declaimed his opening melody as if improvising; the movement that followed was a thing of clear edges, bold primary colours and a Mozartian sense of proportion, vividly articulated by a particularly plangent-sounding woodwind section and Anderszewski’s way of admitting just the tiniest suggestion of a lift at the end of a phrase. In the Adagio religioso, too, Wellber gently teased out the texture of the opening string chorale – so often played at a breathless, homogenous whisper, but here very much alive and moving, with the cellos and basses softly tugging the music forward. The stillness that surrounded Anderszewski’s responses was all the more profound because of it: he placed lucid, luminous chords directly into the silence as if he was setting jewels into snow.

  • Haydn / Schumann - Scottish Chamber Orchestra

    Queen's Hall Edinburgh
    Oct 2019
  • Haydn / Schumann - Scottish Chamber Orchestra

    Queen's Hall Edinburgh
    Oct 2019
    • Anderszewski masterminded two keyboard concertos: Haydn’s chirpy Concerto in D, written with all the nimble delicacy befitting its intended execution on fortepiano or harpsichord; and the sweeping Romantic brushstrokes of Schumann’s Piano Concerto in A minor

  • Solo Recital

    Muziekgebouw Amsterdam
    Jan 2024
    • Zijn Bach is authentiek in de ware zin des woords, vormgegeven vanuit de weerklank die Bachs noten vinden in zijn eigen ziel, meer romantisch dan barok, meer zingend dan hamerend, fenomenaal in zijn heldere stemvoering, ontroerend door de expressieve en zangerige klank van de elegant in elkaar overvloeiende frases. ‘His Bach is authentic in the true sense of the word, designed from the resonance that Bach's notes find in his own soul, more romantic than baroque, more singing than hammering, phenomenal in his clear voicing, moving by the expressive and lilting sound of the elegantly flowing phrases.’ Anderszewski zette Bachs geniale noten uiteen in monumentale overpeinzingen en levendige dansbewegingen, waaraan hij door het natuurlijke verloop van zijn rubato en het aanbrengen van subtiele dynamische schakeringen een fascinerende dieptewerking verleende. ‘Anderszewski expounded Bach's brilliant notes in monumental reflections and lively dance movements, to which he added fascinating depth through the natural progression of his rubato and the application of subtle dynamic shades.’ Het metafysische verlangen naar het ontsluiten van nieuwe muzikale horizonnen maakt ook Anderszewski, om Monsaingeon te citeren, tot ‘een van de boeiendste musici van deze tijd. '‘The metaphysical desire to open up new musical horizons also makes Anderszewski, to quote Monsaingeon, 'one of the most fascinating musicians of our time'.’

Nicola Benedetti announces programme for 2025 Edinburgh International Festival

/13 March 2025

Nicola Benedetti today announced the programme for her third season as Director of the Edinburgh International Festival. This year’s festival sees performances from 22 Askonas Holt artists and touring partners as part of a programme that explores the well-timed theme of ‘The Truth We Seek’.

Nicola herself takes the stage for a number of performances, including to launch the First Night at the Hub, as well as alongside friend and former classmate Alexander Sitkovetsky as part of a tribute to former mentor Yehudi Menuhin. They join forces with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra and the Rising Stars of Strings for a special concert in which Nicola performs as soloist for Elgar’s Serenade for String Orchestra and Bartók’s Divertimento for String Orchestra before teaming up with Sitkovetsky for Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins.

The Askonas Holt Tours and Projects team brings two orchestras to the festival this year; Carnegie Hall’s NYO2 – one of three resident orchestras at the festival this year - make their festival debut led by conductor Rafael Payare. They are joined by Alisa Weilerstein for Shostakovich's Cello Concerto, as well as performing alongside their Scottish peers as part of a new three-year creative partnership with Carnegie Hall and its national youth ensembles.

We are also proud to be bringing the China National Centre for Performing Arts Orchestra with conductor Myung-Whun Chung to the Festival this year performing a programme of Saint-Saëns Symphony No.3, Chen’s Wu Xing and Ravel’s Piano Concerto with soloist Bruce Liu.

Edward Gardner returns to the festival conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra there for the first time. On the programme is Judith Weir’s Forest alongside Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Holst’s The Planets. They are joined by soloist Beatrice Rana and the National Youth Choir of Scotland.

Thomas Søndergård returns this year with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra to close the festival with Mendelssohn’s Elijah. He is joined by a host of soloists including tenor Ben Bliss in his festival debut, and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill.

Karina Canellakis also makes a return conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a programme of Messiaen's Les Offrandes oubliées, Stravinsky's Petrushka and Bernstein's Chichester Psalms. She is joined by counter-tenor Hugh Cutting who makes his festival debut this summer. Hugh also gives a recital with pianist George Ireland of everything from Baroque arias to specially commissioned contemporary works.

Also making her first appearance at the festival is violinist Vilde Frang. Vilde joins Sir Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra for Korngold’s Violin Concerto, which she performed for her return to the Berliner Philharmoniker earlier this season in Berlin and at Carnegie Hall. Members of the LSO also join Ian Bostridge for Britten’s Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo and Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge. Sarah Dufresne also teams up with the LSO for her festival debut singing Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica.

Samantha Clarke and Iestyn Davies join forces as the titlular characters in the European premiere of Opera Queensland’s production of Orpheus and Eurydice. The production is a modern reworking of Gluck’s 18th century tragédielyrique opera, and features acrobatic artistry from Australian contemporary circus company Circa. It also marks Samantha’s festival debut.

Tenor Giovanni Sala sings the title role in a concert performance of La clemenza di Tito for his festival debut with Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Maxim Emelyanychev. Giovanni last sang the role at Opera Monte Carlo this past January.

Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy also give their first performance together at the festival. They treat the audience to a recital of Messiaen’s Visios de l'Amen alongside arrangements by Kurtág and Busoni of Bach’s Chorales.

Piano enthusiasts will also have the opportunity to hear Piotr Anderszewski who returns this year with a recital that contrasts a selection of Brahms' Intermezzi with Bartók's Bagatelles. Malcolm Martineau too returns to the festival with baritone Florian Boesch for a classic programme of German Lieder.

The Edinburgh International Festival runs from 1–24 August. See their full line-up here.

Image courtesy of EIF © Laurence Winram

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