MASTER OF HIS CRAFT

It’s early December 2020 and in LSO St Luke’s, Krystian Zimerman and his piano technician are hard at work. The piano – Zimerman’s own, with which he usually travels – is opened and the entire action is removed. A large steel case the length of the keyboard is unclipped. Inside it is another action, which they slot into place. This is the beginning of a surreal, unforgettable and frankly miraculous occasion: the recording of all five Beethoven piano concertos with the socially distanced London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Simon Rattle and Zimerman himself, in the middle of a pandemic (see picture opposite).

In the brief window of opportunity between Lockdown 2 in November and Lockdown 3 in mid-December, they are presenting the concertos in three streamed concerts online (on Deutsche Grammophon’s online platform, DG Stage) and ultimately releasing them on disc, currently cited for July. There’s a small audience in the balcony and as the lucky ducky writing the booklet notes for the recording, I’m fortunate to be up there for some of the dress rehearsals. The plan had been to give a marathon of all five works in one evening at the Barbican on 17 December, but