For eight seasons, Fabio Luisi has been at the rostrum of the Danish National Symphony Orchestra as principal conductor, with his contract now extended until 2029. This comes as no surprise, given the extraordinary collaboration between the Italian maestro and this orchestra, which has built an impressive portfolio of performances across Europe, Asia, and the United States, alongside a remarkable discography. Notable among their recordings is the complete cycle of Carl Nielsen's symphonies, which won the Gramophone Award for "Recording of the Year 2023," as well as Nielsen's violin, flute, and clarinet concertos. Another major project is an extensive Arnold Schoenberg collection, featuring over ten hours of orchestral music, from which the first album-Transfigured Night-was released in 2024.

Beyond these projects, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, under Fabio Luisi's baton, will present a new concert in Copenhagen on Thursday, March 20. The program features one of the Italian conductor's favorite works-Richard Strauss's symphonic poem A Hero's Life, Op. 40. This expansive autobiographical piece portrays the composer himself as the hero.

Fabio Luisi holds a deep connection to this work, inspired by a landmark recording by conductor Rudolf Kempe with the Staatskapelle Dresden. Having conducted A Hero's Life with numerous orchestras, Luisi speaks of the privilege of recording it with the Staatskapelle Dresden himself, as a successor to Rudolf Kempe. On his website, he notes that in this recording, he chose "Richard Strauss's favourite ending, which depicts the hero's death-slow, comforting, with a solo violin. Typically, the so-called Zarathustra ending is performed with the full orchestra, adding a somewhat dry (though spectacular) sense of heroism. However, Strauss himself disliked this Zarathustra ending, referring to it as Staatsbegräbnis (a state funeral)."

It remains to be seen which ending Fabio Luisi will choose in his upcoming concert in Copenhagen on March 20. The evening will open with a Beethoven masterpiece-Piano Concerto No. 1 in C Major, Op. 15, featuring Piotr Anderszewski as soloist. A deeply expressive pianist, Anderszewski has mesmerized audiences time and again, whether through his interpretations of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations or Bach's Partitas. His unique reading of the Preludes and Fugues from Book II of The Well-Tempered Clavier has also been widely admired, alongside his albums featuring works by Szymanowski, Schumann, and Janáček. Additionally, he has recorded Mozart's piano concertos while conducting from the piano. The Polish pianist has great admiration for Sviatoslav Richter's recordings and deeply respects artists such as Yehudi Menuhin, Fritz Reiner, Carlos Kleiber, and Eugen Jochum. Though he dislikes living in London, he finds English audiences extraordinary-cultured, curious, and warm, contrary to expectations. He resides in France, a country he considers one of moderation, in contrast to his own self-described excessiveness. For Anderszewski, life would be dull without taking risks. He does not listen to other pianists and claims to be only minimally influenced by them-perhaps an egotistical stance, he admits, but in his words, he "prefers to play without references."