A violinist of outstanding accomplishment and integrity, Frank Peter Zimmermann has for decades sustained achievement at the highest level as a concerto soloist, recitalist and chamber musician. As the New York Times has written, “Mr. Zimmermann's style is based on an absolutely clean technique and a true ability to let music unfold and develop at a natural pace.” Before recording any work in his repertoire, from essential masterpieces to intriguing rarities, Zimmermann has taken time to understand and define the meaning of every note in the context of his interpretation. As a consequence, each of these 30 albums – originally the fruit of his long collaboration with EMI Classics (and Teldec) – bears witness to the grace, insight and authority of his playing.

Since the mid-1980s, Frank Peter Zimmermann (b.1965) has numbered among the leading violinists of his generation, and among the most prominent German-born musicians. As a distinguished player of repertoire ranging from Bach to contemporary music, he continues to be in great demand as a concerto soloist with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, and as a recitalist and chamber musician at major venues.

Zimmermann is a musician of outstanding accomplishment and integrity. He has built and sustained his reputation with playing of grace, insight and authority – and without needing to become a “media personality”. Before he records a work, he takes time to achieve an understanding of every note and to be certain of the meaning it holds in his interpretation. As the American music critic David Mermelstein has written: “What this artist lacks in flash, he more than makes up for in subtle, learned, compelling musicianship.”

Zimmermann enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Warner Classics’ predecessor, EMI Classics, and the recordings in this 30-CD box were made between 1984 (when he was just 19 years old) and 2001. It contains all the recordings he made over that period for EMI, and also the one for Teldec.

Born in Duisburg, the son of professional musicians, Zimmermann always set his sights on becoming a violinist. He started playing the violin at the age of five and gave his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10.

He studied with Valery Gradov (a pupil of Leonid Kogan), Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers, and his great violin heroes during his development were David Oistrakh, Arthur Griumiaux and Nathan Milstein. He has said: “It's like the guy who wants to climb Mount Everest. The guides bring him up to a certain point, but for the rest of the journey he has to find his own way. That’s the life and way of an artist.”

While still a teenager, Zimmermann was given major concerto opportunities by Lorin Maazel and Daniel Barenboim, and he also cites Wolfgang Sawallisch as a conductor who furthered his early career.

Zimmermann says that the first piece of music he fell in love with was Schubert’s “Rosamunde” Quartet and that “For me, chamber music is the crown of classical music.” He has always preferred to collaborate with regular chamber partners (for example the pianist Alexander Lonquich, the viola player Tabea Zimmermann and the late cellist Heinrich Schiff). This set duly contains smaller-scale works to set beside the concertos.

Since the age of 20, Zimmermann has played a Stradivarius. Over the years he has been in possession of four of the legendary violin-maker’s instruments.

A succession of reviews from the New York Times, dating from 1986 to 2001, articulate the nature, quality and consistency of Frank Peter Zimmermann’s playing over the period concurrent with the recordings in this collection:

“ … technically impeccable. Indeed there was something rather awe-inspiring about the unhurried calm with which Mr. Zimmermann's left hand zeroed in on the notes in the highest positions, and there was a musical presence not to be denied in his measured approach … The new violinist is one of formidable attainments and we will surely be hearing him often.” – 1986 (when Zimmermann was 19 years old)

“Mr. Zimmermann's style is based on an absolutely clean technique and a true ability to let music unfold and develop at a natural pace.” – 1989

“Mr. Zimmermann brought technical wizardry, rich tone and romantic flair to his performance … More striking were his rhythmic integrity and rhetorical clarity. In the Gypsy-inflected Finale, he showed that panache and accurate rhythm were not incompatible. In the soulful, lyrically expansive Adagio, where many violinists smother the line with sumptuous tone, Mr. Zimmermann revealed the phrase structure of this music, without making it seem as though he was diagramming sentences.” – 1996 (in Bruch’s Violin Concerto no.1)

“Mr. Zimmermann's playing is consistently fine and clean-cut … The bounce of his line made the Beethoven finale a fresh delight, and at times a rhythmic connection, with a shift of emphasis, would carry the music from one section to another.” – 1999

“… pristine technique and a nice sense of balance between Romantic sentiment and Classical restraint.” – 2001 (Mozart's D major Violin Concerto)

The 30-CD box offers a wide range of repertoire, from ‘essential’ concertos by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius to comparative rarities that merit (re)discovery.

Among the landmark recordings in this collection are:
• Mozart - Violin Concertos (Jörg Faerber, conductor)
• Mozart - Violin Sonatas (Alexander Lonquich, piano)
• Paganini - 24 Caprices
• Sibelius - Violin Concerto · Prokofiev - Violin Concerto no.2 (Mariss Jansons, conductor)
• Ysaÿe - 6 Violin Sonatas

The breadth of Zimmermann’s musical interests is further attested by the (alphabetical) list of the other composers to feature in the set. It ranges from the 18th to the 21st century (Ligeti’s With Pipes, Drums, Fiddles, dating from 2000), and across Europe and Russia.