When we chose to jointly honor three artists by awarding them the Ruhr Piano Festival Prize in 2017, we particularly sought to acknowledge the thrilling, successful fruits of an artistic friendship that has spanned decades. Maki Namekawa and Dennis Russell Davies performed the world premiere of Philip Glass’s “Four Movements for Two Pianos” at the 2008 Ruhr Piano Festival, followed by the world premiere of “Two Movements for Four Pianos” with the Labèque sisters in 2013, and Namekawa’s solo premiere of Glass’s “Piano Sonata” in 2019; all these works were commissioned by the Ruhr Piano Festival. The circle of world premieres now comes to a satisfactory close. With Dennis Russell Davies conducting the MDR Orchestra, Maki Namekawa will perform the world premiere of Glass’s new piano concerto, another work commissioned by the Festival – certainly a fitting way of closing this year’s 2022 edition!