Sonatas Haydn/Mozart/Beethoven

EDITORIAL REVIEWS
For his second recording on Deutsche Grammophon, the young Polish pianist, Rafal Blechacz, focuses on the sonatas of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven. After the great success of his first album for DG of Chopin Preludes, Blechacz has chosen works that he has performed many times in concert. The chosen selections are among those that have shaped his playing the most. The sonatas, while different in style, are all programmatically linked. The Beethoven and Haydn sonatas were composed at the same time, and Beethoven dedicated his sonata to Haydn. Blechacz was the sole recipient, at the age of 20, of all five first prizes in the 2005 Chopin Competition in Warsaw. According to one judge, Blechacz "so outclassed the remaining finalists that no second prize could actually be awarded."

REVIEW
Blechacz is a superlative pianist but an even finer musician, and this is playing of exceptional clarity and expressive beauty. Everything Blechacz does seems natural and organic, and his ability to phrase Chopin s long lines with an inner sense of time and space is a constant joy . Blechacz s playing exudes subtlety and musical insight . --BBC Music Magazine, London, December 2007 (CD review)

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Rafał Blechacz was born in Nakło nad Notecią, Poland, on 30 June 1985. At the age of five he began to learn the piano at a local music centre and three years later enrolled at Bydgoszcz's Artur Rubinstein Music School. Between 1996 and 1999 he won the top awards at a number of Polish national piano competitions. He completed his studies at the Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy in Bydgoszcz with Professor Katarzyna Popowa-Zydron in May 2007. 2002 Rafał Blechacz is awarded the second prize at the Artur Rubinstein International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz 2003 Co-winner of the International Piano Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan 2004 Wins first prize at the International Piano Competition in Morocco 2005 Awarded first prize at the 15th Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, and three special prizes: the Polish Radio Award for "Best Performance of the Mazurkas", the Polish Chopin Society Award for "Best Polonaise Performance", and the Warsaw Philharmonic Award for "Best Concerto Performance". Addition¬ally, he wins the prize founded by Krystian Zimerman for "Best Sonata Per¬formance" 2006 Performances include Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2 with the National Philhar¬monic Orchestra under Antoni Wit at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall, and Chopin's First Piano Concerto with the Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman in Zurich and with the Radio Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra under Arild Remmereit at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In November he undertakes a 12-concert recital tour of Japan. Blechacz appears to great acclaim at Poland's Chopin Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Verbier and La Roque d'Anthéron. In May Rafał Blechacz signs an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon 2007 Rafał Blechacz performs Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Russian National Orchestra led by Mikhail Pletnev on tour in Japan, with the Poznan Philharmonic Orchestra in Poznan, Poland, and with the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra in Copen¬hagen; Chopin's Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with the Orchestre du Capitole de Tou¬louse on tour in Germany and in Toulouse. Recital tours of Poland, Germany, Japan, and the Netherlands; further recitals at London's Wigmore Hall (broadcast by the BBC), at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid and in Zaragoza, the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brus¬sels, at Vienna's Konzerthaus, in Ferrara, and in Vilnius, Lithuania. His solo debut recording of works by Chopin was very well received by the critics and reached "platinum" status in Poland; in France the music magazine Diapason elected it a Diapason Découverte [Diapason Discovery] 2008 Concerts performing Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 1 with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano in Milan and the London Philharmonia under Sir Charles Dutoit in London's Royal Festival Hall; Chopin's Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Berne Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland and the New York Philharmonic under Marin Alsop in New York's Carnegie Hall; Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto no. 2 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and the Orquestra Simfónica de Barcelona at the city's Auditori; Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 4 with the Częstochowa Philharmonic in Częstoschowa and with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra in Berlin. Recital tours of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the USA; further recitals in Paris, Narbonne and Vancouver. Festival appearances at the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo in the USA, Verbier, La Roque d'Anthéron, and Salzburg Festival. Blechacz's new recording of an album devoted to the Viennese Classics - Haydn's Sonata in E flat major, Mozart's Sonata in D major, K. 311 and Beethoven's Sonata op. 2 no. 2 - is scheduled for release in the autumn 6/2008

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Number of Discs: 1

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