Rafał Blechacz

Profound thought and feeling merge in Rafał Blechacz’s music-making to create interpretations of irresistible energy and penetrating insight. The Polish pianist’s artistry is recognised as rare and arises from his total command of the keyboard and ability to unlock his instrument’s full expressive range. Those qualities have supported his artistic and professional development and he stands today among the world’s finest pianists, in high demand for the honesty and vision he brings to performances. Blechacz was born in the small town of Nakło nad Notecią in northern Poland in 1985. He showed early signs of musical talent and began piano lessons at the age of five. Having first enrolled at the Arthur Rubinstein State Music School in Bydgoszcz, he progressed to study at the city’s Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music, graduating in 2007 from Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń’s piano class. Blechacz’s outstanding technical and artistic attributes secured a sequence of competition successes, beginning in 2002 with second prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz, continuing the following year with joint first prize at the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition, and culminating in outright victory at the 2005 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, becoming the first Polish musician to receive the top prize since Krystian Zimerman 30 years earlier. The eloquence and intensity of Blechacz’s Chopin Competition performances, delivered within months of his twentieth birthday, were rewarded not only with the winner’s medal but also with a clean sweep of the event’s four special prizes and the Audience Award. He signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2006, following Zimerman to become the second Polish pianist to join the yellow label’s international roster of artists. The new relationship was launched in 2007 with Blechacz’s debut solo album, a coupling of Chopin’s complete Preludes and two Nocturnes op.62. The release went on to win Echo Klassik and Diapason d’Or Awards. Reinforcing his position among the great interpreters of Chopin, his performances and discography are rich in works by his fellow countryman, complete with critically acclaimed albums devoted to the composer’s piano concertos and polonaises. But his repertoire choices also reflect his passion for the music of, among others, J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Debussy, Liszt, Mozart, Schumann and Szymanowski. In 2016, Blechacz took a sabbatical from performing to complete a doctorate in philosophy at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, exploring aspects of the metaphysics and aesthetics of music. He returned to the concert platform in 2017, where highlights have since included performances in Japan, China, South Korea, and Taiwan; performances with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla in the UK, Germany, and Belgium; and an extended series of recitals that took him back to Japan, as well as across Europe and North America.