Watch World Piano Day 2022 Virtual Festival

Deutsche Grammophon will present its third international virtual festival to celebrate World Piano Day on 29 March 2022. This year, rather than just a one-day festival, the comprehensive programme opening on 24 March and ending on 29 March, includes six piano concerts from Deutsche Grammophon’s world-class pianists on DG Stage, a film of rediscovered performances from legendary artists, and a specially curated collection of piano albums on sale in the DG Store.

“Music crosses all boundaries to touch people from so many places and backgrounds,” noted Dr Clemens Trautmann, President Deutsche Grammophon. “We’re delighted to be an integral part of World Piano Day for a third year running. Our inaugural online festival in March 2020 and its successor last year both reached global audiences of well over a million piano lovers. This year’s festival, which includes brand-new productions, exclusive premieres and a fantastic selection of archive recordings, celebrates the limitless beauty of great pianism. I would like to thank all pianists and partners involved in this wonderfully uniting project.”

Deutsche Grammophon’s World Piano Day virtual festival

Deutsche Grammophon’s World Piano Day virtual festival opens on 24 March with Maurizio Pollini performing Beethoven’s last three Piano Sonatas, Opp.109-111 filmed at the Herkulessaal in Munich. Pollini reflected, “Having played these works many, many times in the last 40 years, I’ve continually discovered new riches in every detail.”

On 25 March watch Grigory Sokolov performing Haydn and Schubert from the Haydnsaal in the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt (where Haydn worked for nearly 30 years). The concert is a masterclass in technical skill, musical beauty, and pianistic virtuosity.

On 26 March watch Daniil Trifonov performing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach from the Philharmonie in Berlin. The concert includes Bach’s Chaconne in D Minor, arranged by Brahms for keyboard, and the monumental Art of Fugue which spans the vast range of human emotion evoked by Daniil Trifonov with every note.

Daniel Barenboim will perform his personal selection of favourite Études and other works by Chopin, filmed at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, on 27 March. The legendary pianist and conductor’s profound interpretations of the Polish composer’s music have held audiences spellbound for over seventy years.

On 28 March Yuja Wang performs Rachmaninov, Scriabin and Prokofiev filmed at the Berlin Philharmonie. Watching her mother, a dancer, rehearsing Swan Lake as a child started Wang’s love of Russian music.

On 29 March, World Piano Day, watch Víkingur Ólafsson performing a selection of Bach’s large and small keyboard works, Beethoven’s C Minor ‘Pathétique’ and two of Philip Glass’ Etudes filmed at Reykjavík’s Harpa concert hall. The works not only reshaped the musical form of their time, but also revolutionised the status of the piano as an instrument.

Rediscovered performances by legendary pianists

Also on World Piano Day an exclusive hour-long film of rediscovered performances by some of the world’s most legendary pianists will be released digitally for the first time on Deutsche Grammophon’s YouTube channel. The film features close-up shots of the hands of iconic artists including Vladimir Horowitz and Wilhelm Kempff, and performances by Hélène Grimaud, young Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Daniel Barenboim, Maria João Pires and Maurizio Pollini.

World Piano Day, founded by German composer, performer and record producer Nils Frahm in 2015, takes place annually on the 88th day of the year, symbolic of the number of piano keys.

For further details of Deutsche Grammophon’s World Piano Day festival click here.

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