LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN

Beethoven’s piano concertos represent one of the most important bodies of work in Viennese Classicism and document the composer’s development from his early to his middle creative period. And it was these five works that Krystian Zimerman and Leonard Bernstein planned to perform together for one of the conductor’s last major recording projects. Ultimately, only the final three concertos were recorded with Bernstein before his death in October 1990, and, rather than try and replace the irreplaceable conductor, Zimerman took over the direction of the first two concertos himself. The result is a uniquely beautiful and stirring recording of the entire cycle.