Christian Zacharias plays Chopin and conducts Dvorák

Between the piano and the orchestra, intimate ties are woven for a fiery Chopin concerto.

Used to the sweltering heat of the summer nights in the Parc de Florans, the German pianist-conductor Christian Zacharias directs the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra from his piano in Chopin's Concerto n°2. Between his piano playing and the orchestra, of which he has been the director for a decade, intimate ties have been woven in which distinctions are abolished.

Chopin's concerto, interpreted that evening, seems to spring forth from a single entity. In spite of everything, Zacharias remains a pianist (born in 1950, he was trained in Paris by Vlado Perlemuter) and all the better: "his" Chopin is deeply musical and better than the baton of a conductor, his fingers on the keys carry the orchestra along in an irresistible flow. In the second part, the Serenade for Strings Op. 22 by Dvorak is conducted by a Zacharias still without a baton but without the piano either. He is also good, just as a conductor.