Rafał Blechacz, photo: Felix Boede / Deutsche Grammophone
With a noble, authoritative take on Chopin, Szymanowski and Beethoven, Rafał Blechacz performs in Japan's cultural centres: Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
The 27-year-old pianist began to play at the age of 5. Today he tours the world’s great music halls, interpretating Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Szymanowski and Debussy. He has performed with the best symphonic orchestras under the direction of such acclaimed conductors as Valery Gergev, Mikhail Pletnev, Charles Dutoit, David Zinman, Marek Janowski and Jerzy Maksymiuk.
Commenting on Blechacz's talent, critics point to his serious intent, huge enjoyment and nobility, which give the music shape and driving momentum and "are almost disturbing when we recall how young he is", as Jürgen Otten comments in an introduction to one of the artist’s recordings.
Blechacz's appearance and sincerity give him the air of a diligent student who is performing his duty. However, as Philip Kennicott wrote following his first concert in Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, "Blechacz is a student only in the deeper sense: a musician in service to the music, searching its depths, exploring its meaning and probing its possibilities."
His luminous renditions of mazurkas and polonaises bring up the question of nationality in music. Does being Polish change his interpretation of Chopin? Asked about the issue by Aleksandra Sagiel from the European Magazine, the virtuoso pianist replied: "On the one hand being Polish makes it easier for me to play mazurkas because I know Polish folklore, on the other hand there are so many artists who aren’t Polish and play a Polish composer’s pieces beautifully. Above all it’s about musical intuition, about grasping the identity of the piece – having knowledge about the age it was written in, the composer’s biography. At the end of the day it’s a universal language."
Rafał Blechacz (born 1985) graduated from the Artur Rubinstein State School of Music in Bydgoszcz and is currently represented by the Deutsche Grammophon label. At the age of 20, in 2005, he won the International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, his most noteworthy prize to date. The judges were so taken that they awarded no second place. A collection of honours complemented Blechacz's first prize: awards for best mazurka, best polonaise, best concerto and best sonata. Blechacz was the first Pole to win the prize (given every five years) since 1975, when Krystian Zimerman won. He has released four CDs: Chopin’s Préludes (2007), which gained platinum status within two weeks of its release and won the German Echo Klassik and French Diapason D’or awards, Sonatas by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven (2008), performed with the Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Jerzy Semkow, which won the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and reached double platinum status in Poland, Chopin Piano Concertos (2009) and most recently Debussy / Szymanowski (February 2012).
The repertoire for Blechacz's Japanese tour includes:
Fryderyk Chopin: Nocturne op. 32-2 No. 10, Polonaise op. 40, Mazurkas op. 63
Karol Szymanowski: Sonata No. 1 c-moll
Ludwig van Beethoven : Sonata No. 7 D-dur
J.S. Bach: Partita No. 3 a-moll
The tour itinerary:
- the 8th of February - J.S. Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Szymanowski Recital at the Kyoto Baroque Hall
- the 10th of February – same recital at the Yokohama Minato Mirai Hall
- the 11th of February – same recital at the Aichi Prefectural Arts Center in Nagoya
- the 13the of February – same recital the Seoul Arts Center
Sources: based on the Polish language article for culture.pl, culture.pl, Deutsche grammophone, Rafał Blechacz website, Washington Post, TimesUnion
Editor: Marta Jazowska