Frank Peter Zimmermann

Violin

Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation.  Praised for his selfless musicality, his brilliance and keen intelligence he has been performing with all major orchestras in the world for well over three decades, collaborating on these occasions with the world’s most renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Australia.

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Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Praised for his selfless musicality, his brilliance and keen intelligence he has been performing with all major orchestras in the world for well over three decades, collaborating on these occasions with the world’s most renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Asia, South America and Australia.

Highlights during the 2022/23 season include engagements with the Münchner Philharmoniker and Mikko Franck, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Daniele Gatti, Wiener Symphoniker and Thomas Guggeis, Orchestre National de France and Philippe Jordan, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and Paavo Järvi, Rundfunksinfonieorchester Berlin and Vladimir Jurowski, Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and Pablo Heras-Casado, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Dima Slobodeniouk, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Ryan Bancroft, a tour with the Berliner Barock Solisten, as well as a recital tour with pianist Martin Helmchen in a Bartók / Brahms program.

In 2010 he formed the Trio Zimmermann with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra; the trio performed in all major music centres and festivals in Europe. BIS Records released award-winning CD recordings of works for string trio by J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg and Hindemith.

Over the years Frank Peter Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography for EMI Classics, Sony Classical, BIS Records, hänssler CLASSIC, Ondine, Decca, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as recital repertoire. Many of these highly acclaimed recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide. Most recent releases include the two violin concertos of Martinů with the Bamberger Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša, coupled with the solo sonata of Bartók (BIS); the complete sonatas for piano and violin of Beethoven with Martin Helmchen (BIS); a sonata and two partitas of J.S. Bach (BIS); the two violin concertos of Shostakovich with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert (BIS; nominated for a Grammy Award);  and the violin concertos of J.S. Bach with the Berliner Barock Solisten (hänssler CLASSIC). In September 2021 the Berliner Philharmoniker released a special CD on its own label with Mr. Zimmermann’s performances of the Bartók, Beethoven and Berg concertos under conductors Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding and Kirill Petrenko resp. In 2022 it received both the Gramophone Award and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

He received a number of special prizes and honours, among which the “Premio del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena” (1990), the “Rheinischer Kulturpreis” (1994), the “Musikpreis” of the city of Duisburg (2002), the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (2008) and the “Paul-Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau” (2010).

Mr. Zimmermann has given four world premieres: Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto no. 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden (2015) with further performances with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both under Daniel Harding and with the New York Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, both under Alan Gilbert. He also premiered the violin concerto “en sourdine” by Matthias Pintscher with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Peter Eötvös (2003), the violin concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” by Brett Dean, who received the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the composer (2007) and the violin concerto no. 3 “Juggler in Paradise” by Augusta Read Thomas with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Andrey Boreyko (2009).

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Mr. Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was 5 years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers.

Mr. Zimmermann plays on the 1711 Antonio Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin”, which is kindly provided by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz”.

Representation

General Management: Nymus Artists
Germany: Michael Kocyan Artists Management
Spain: Duetto Management

Links & downloads


Concerts

  • June 7, 2023, 7:30 am
    Zürich, Switzerland
    Tonhalle Zürich
    Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
    Conductor: Paavo Järvi
    Elgar – Violin Concerto in b minor, op. 61

    http://www.tonhalle-orchester.ch
  • June 8, 2023, 7:30 pm
    Zürich, Switzerland
    Tonhalle Zürich
    Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
    Conductor: Paavo Järvi
    Elgar – Violin Concerto in b minor, op. 61

    http://www.tonhalle-orchester.ch
  • June 16, 2023, 8:00 pm
    A Coruña, Spain
    Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña
    Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia
    Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk
    Elgar – Violin Concerto in b minor, op. 61

    http://www.sinfonicadegalicia.com
  • June 17, 2023, 8:00 pm
    A Coruña, Spain
    Palacio de la Ópera de A Coruña
    Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia
    Conductor: Dima Slobodeniouk
    Elgar – Violin Concerto in b minor, op. 61

    http://www.sinfonicadegalicia.com
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Reviews

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“Er hat alles, was einen wirklich großen Künstler ausmacht, und das ist: Man bekommt, was man erwartet und ist gleichzeitig…” →“Er hat alles, was einen wirklich großen Künstler ausmacht, und das ist: Man bekommt, was man erwartet und ist gleichzeitig fasziniert, wie perfekt das Ergebnis alles Erwartete übertrifft, wie ein Künstler aus allseits Bekanntem wie Mozarts Violinkonzerten jenes Quantum Glück herauskitzelt, das man sich seit David Oistrakh so oft erhofft hat.” ←
– Süddeutsche Zeitung , 17/02/2015
“Throughout the performance the violinist was in full command of the piece’s sawing and darting passages. His tone, in the…” →“Throughout the performance the violinist was in full command of the piece’s sawing and darting passages. His tone, in the process, displayed a variety of colors, from dusky low notes to high phrases laced in silver. The second movement of the concerto is one of Bartók’s most beautiful passages. There, Zimmermann found the hints of yearning romanticism, unwinding the line with a singing tone that was answered with soft a blanket of sound by the BSO strings. The quicker section moved with a fittingly awkward, impish gate, and the third movement moved with an off-kilter lilt. The violinist’s gnarly runs, there, took on a fiery energy. Zimmermann’s blazing encore, Ernst Schliephake’s transcription of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G minor, Op. 23, No. 5, put a finishing touch on a thoroughly dramatic performance.” ←
– Boston Classical Review, 14/10/2016