Traveling piano brings world’s best to Logan
It is hard to be the world’s best.
It goes without saying then, that life must be hard for internationally-renowned concert pianist Krystian Zimerman.
“Krystian Zimerman is the best pianist I’ve ever seen [or] heard,” said Dennis Hirst, the artistic and administrative director for the Wassermann festival. “I don’t know if during the rest of my career, we will ever have someone of this stature come again. He’s just incredible.”
Last Friday Zimerman performed in Baltimore to rave reviews from local critics.
“If anyone wants to propose that Zimerman is actually the greatest pianist living today, you won’t get any argument from me. Not after his concert Friday night, a revelation of interpretive imagination. Make that interpretive daring. No, genius. That’s the only word for it,” wrote Tim Smith, a music critic for the Baltimore Sun.
Zimerman is set to perform on Tuesday, April 8. The concert will be held in the USU Performance Hall starting promptly at 7:30 p.m.
Zimerman originally planned a concert tour along the West Coast. Unlike most contemporary performers, he brings his own piano with him wherever he performs. As fate would have it, the piano is being shipped through Utah.
“Utah sits conveniently right in the middle and Zimerman’s piano has to come by. The organizers agreed to stop by the university as they came through and play for the festival,” Hirst said.
Zimerman will be performing five selections on Tuesday. The pieces include the “Sonata in C major, K. 330” by Mozart, “Valses Nobles et Sentimentales” by Ravel, “Three Preludes by Gershwin” and “Mazurkas, Op. 24” and “Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35” by Chopin.
“He is able to get the feeling out of the music and have it say what it’s supposed to, it’s incredible,” Hirst said.
Krystian Zimerman, a native of Zabrze, Poland, has had extensive educational and performance opportunities. International Creative Management, a talent and literary agency, wrote that Zimerman “made his first steps in music under his father’s supervision, and at the age of 7 started working with Andrzej Jasinski, a senior lecturer at the music conservatory in Katowice, Poland.”
Zimerman has played on every continent except Antarctica.
Currently there are only 50 available tickets costing $25-30. All available seats are located on the right side of the performance hall.Call Dennis Hirst at 797-3257 to purchase tickets or go to www.usu.edu/wassermann for more information.
-nebutler@cc.usu.edu