Born: April 4, 1969 in Warsaw, Poland
Early days. Anderszewski- a son of Polish father and Hungarian mother- began studying the piano at age six. He attended conservatories in Lyon and Strasbourg, the Academy of Music in Warsaw, and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. He further honed his skills in Italy, in a series of master classes lead by Fou Ts'ong, Murray Perahi, and Leon Fleisher.
Career. Anderszewski first came to public attention at the Leeds Piano Competition in 1990, he failed to win any prize but succeeded in garnering attention with his semi-final performance of the unusually difficult cycle of Beethoven's "33 Diabelli Variations". He made his acclaimed London recital debut six months later at the Wigmore Hall. He went on to make a number of recordings for Harmonia Mundi, Accord and Philips before signing exclusively to Virgin Classics in 2000. Anderszewski has given several concerts in England (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra), Ireland, Germany (series of Beethoven concerts with the Muenchener Philharmoniker in 1996), France, Austria, Portugal, Italy, and in Poland. Orchestras with whom Anderszewski has performed include the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Royal Concertgebouw and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 2001 in Paris he performed the 4th Sinfonia "Concertante" of Karol Szymanowski, under the direction of Charles Dutoit. His repertoire also includes the "Metopes", "Masks", "3rd Piano Sonata", and "Mazurkas" of this composer. He also directed festivals dedicated to Szymanowski's music at the Theatre des bouffes du nord in Paris (2005), Carnegie Hall, New York (2010), the Wigmore Hall in London (2005 and 2010) and the Philharmonic Hall in Lodz, Poland (2010).In addition, Anderszewski has established a significant reputation for directing from the keyboard and has collaborated with many chamber orchestras including the Sinfonia Varsovia, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The pianist's first solo album was published by CD Accord and contained recordings of the works of Bach, Beethoven and Anton Webern. Next he would record the works of Bach for the Harmonia Mundi label. This was followed by recording the "Diabelli Variations" by Virgin Classics. The record received excellent reviews, and Virgin decided on another album for which Anderszewski recorded two of Mozart's concertos. Anderszewski's chamber collaborations so far have been primarily with violinists: his sister Dorota Anderszewska (currently leader of the Orchestre National de Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon), Viktoria Mullova, Augustin Dumay, Gidon Kremer, Frank Peter Zimmermann and Henning Kraggerud. He also appears regularly with the Belcea Quartet. Anderszewski has been living abroad, primarily in Paris, since 1990. He speaks four languages.
Awards and prizes. His album containing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Anton Webern, recorded for the CD Accord label, was enthusiastically received by critics and won the pianist the "Fryderyk '96" Polish Recording Industry Award. He has also been a recipient of the Szymanowski Prize (1999) and the Royal Philharmonic Society's Best Instrumentalist award in 2001. In April 2002 Anderszewski received the prestigious Gilmore award, given every four years to a pianist of exceptional talent. His disc of solo piano works by Szymanowski won the Classic FM Gramophone Award for Best Instrumental Disc in 2006. He has been featured in two documentary films by Bruno Monsaingeon, one (2001) capturing a performance of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, and another (2008) following Anderszewski as he travels, by train, across Europe on a concert tour
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This article uses, among others, material from the Wikipedia article "Piotr Anderszewski." Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License:
Wikipedia (includes discography)
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Virgin Classics (includes fragments of his performances)
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