An interview with Krystian Zimerman

Did you need persuading to record this cycle again?

On the contrary; I wanted to do it from the moment I finished my recording with Leonard Bernstein! I had to make so many compromises then.

Unitel recorded it on video and practically destroyed the acoustic of the Musikverein – they put carpet on the walls and so on. I had to play three concertos, live, in one session. Then shortly before we were supposed to record Nos 1 and 2, Bernstein died and I decided to conduct them myself.

This new recording presented some challenges, didn’t it?

We faced issues I’d never had before and we had to find crazy solutions. The orchestra had a serious issue in staying together, because of the distancing required; I slept for five weeks in a car, because I didn’t want to part with my piano. Then my tuner fell while getting off of the train and practically couldn’t use one of his hands – I did 95 per cent of the work at the instrument. It was 22 hours a day and I was sleeping between the sessions, 15 minutes here and there. So it was really tough, but I quite enjoyed it.

You had great partners in

Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, though…

I love this orchestra; they were so devoted to what we were doing. And the atmosphere during the recording was absolutely fantastic. Our first rehearsal and recording was on my 64th birthday. Simon started to play the C minor Concerto, which slowly morphed into ‘Happy Birthday’, and they were all laughing. It was a great start to the project.