Rafal Blechaz

Rafał Blechacz has been deeply associated with the music of Fryderyk Chopin across his whole career. His devotion to the music of his great compatriot began long before 2005 when he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition. Blechacz complements the two large works with Chopin’s haunting F sharp minor Nocturne and his exquisite Barcarolle.
On the recording he has placed the Nocturne in F sharp minor op. 48/2 between the sonatas and added the Barcarolle to conclude the album. He points to a particular harmonic progression which is shared between the restless, foreboding Nocturne and a moment in the Sonata No. 2’s first movement (‘one bar is almost exactly the same,’ he says). As for the Sonata No. 3 and the Barcarolle, these share the powerful influence of Italian bel canto opera, which had been crucial to Chopin ever since his student days in Warsaw, when he fell in love with a young singer; he remained passionate about opera for the rest of his life.

Celebrated by his Chopin awarded recordings and cited by critics as one of those talents that only come along every few decades - has now turned to Bach. The now 31-year-old winner of the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, has been immersed in Bach since his childhood and has cultivated a strikingly natural eloquence in his mature interpretations of the composer’s keyboard works.

Celebrated by his Chopin awarded recordings and cited by critics as one of those talents that only come along every few decades - has now turned to Bach. The now 31-year-old winner of the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition, has been immersed in Bach since his childhood and has cultivated a strikingly natural eloquence in his mature interpretations of the composer’s keyboard works.

Eight years and a series of high-profile discs and recitals since he won all the prizes at the 2005 Chopin piano competition in Warsaw, Rafał Blechacz is still difficult to assess.

Except for some Polish songs and a few works for cello and piano trio, Chopin devoted his life to the creation of a richly melodic and harmonically original literature for the keyboard. From dances of his Polish homeland (such as the polonaise and the mazurka) to original "free" forms (such as the ballade), his music is still loved today and studied by both composition and keyboard students. ~ Blue Gene Tyranny

Pianist Rafał Blechacz is returning with beautiful, ecstatic and very colorful French/Polish chamber music repertoire. For his first ever chamber music recording on DG he teams up with the supreme musicianship of Korean violinist Bomsori Kim.