The German Record Critics’ Award: Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Berliner Philharmoniker

Frank Peter Zimmermann and the Berliner Philharmoniker have enjoyed a close creative partnership over many years, and his collaborations with the orchestra have always provided inspiration and opened up stimulating perspectives on music. The exclusive edition featuring violin concertos by Beethoven, Bartók and Berg, published by Berliner Philharmoniker Recordings, has now been awarded the prestigious German Record Critics' Award.

The jury’s statement reads: “We eagerly awaited this gift package: four of the most important violin concertos in music history, recorded live by Frank Peter Zimmermann with one of the best orchestras in the world. There is no reason beyond the music for this lavishly equipped edition. No anniversary. No PR strategy. There is only the ultimate claim to the expression of art.

Zimmermann has performed with the Berliner Philharmoniker more than eighty times since his debut concert with them in 1985. Even then, at nineteen, he was said to have been a full-blown top violinist: perfect, of course, with old-fashioned fullness and sweetness in tone, clear nuance, and authentic expression. All of it has only deepened since then, and has paradoxically both liquefied and consolidated.

Today, Zimmermann and his Stradivarius can be recognized after two minutes: by the lightness, the wit, and the knowledge of musical pronunciation. This is how he now, together with his philharmonic friends, makes what he calls:‘chamber music’. The result: four unique, unsurpassed reference recordings.”

Find out more about this recording on
www.berliner-philharmoniker-recordings.com