Krystian Zimerman was recently awarded the renowned “Praemium Imperiale”: under the patronage of the Japanese imperial family, that prize honors selected artists of worldwide renown in a wide range of artistic fields. Thus, in the field of music, Zimerman joins the imposing ranks of previous prize holders such as Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Maurizio Pollini, or Claudio Abbado. It is a privilege for us to welcome Zimerman for his 12th appearance at the Ruhr Piano Festival, for he deliberately limits his number of annual appearances and only performs with his own grand piano to meet his high-quality standards as a music perfectionist. Zimerman, the recipient of the 2014 Ruhr Piano Festival Prize, is capable of revealing unsuspected depth and beauty, even in ostensibly familiar works. “I do not play the notes: I play the reason why the composer wrote them”: that is how Zimerman describes his unique art of interpretation.