# Rafał Błechacz



## Proms Fanatic

I really enjoyed Rafał's recitals during the 2005 Chopin Competition where he swept the boards. Is he still active nowadays?


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## Musicophile

Proms Fanatic said:


> I really enjoyed Rafał's recitals during the 2005 Chopin Competition where he swept the boards. Is he still active nowadays?


Absolutely. I have three albums of him, and seen him live about 2 years ago (in an amazing week where I saw Pollini, Zimmerman and Blechacz live in 3 different solo concerts in 8 days. His Chopin Préludes are very very good.









He actually has this Martha Argerich Quote on his website:

_"He is a very honest, extraordinary and sensitive artist. Once when I heard Chopin's Preludes on the radio,
I didn't know who was playing but I loved the interpretation. It turned out to be Rafał Blechacz"_

http://www.blechacz.net/en-home

The Chopin concertos with the Concertgebouw are also quite nice.

Beware though, his polonaises were only so-so to my ear.


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## Headphone Hermit

his website has a lot of info http://www.blechacz.net/en-home - entirely unbiased, of course :lol:


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## WJM

Musicophile said:


> Beware though, his polonaises were only so-so to my ear.


It's a good album in my opinion, although I agree it's a bit dissapointing - good, but I expected better. Some parts seemed a bit rushed.

The one that bugged me the most was likely Op. 40 No. 1, which is a great performance untill the middle part begins - it sounds faster than the main theme, which doesn't seem right. This version however is more restrained (live 2014):


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## Guest

I saw him in concert a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed him. Among other pieces, he played Szymanowski's Theme and Variations Op.3 and Chopin's Preludes.


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## Musicophile

Kontrapunctus said:


> I saw him in concert a few years ago and thoroughly enjoyed him. Among other pieces, he played Szymanowski's Theme and Variations Op.3 and Chopin's Preludes.


His Szymanonwksi is very good.


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## WJM

http://tv.umk.pl/#movie=671

Rafał Blechacz plays Chopin's Ballade No. 3, live in Toruń (Poland), April 20th, 2010. I was there at this recital, and from what I remember he also played Chopin's Polonaise-Fantasie Op. 61, Nocturne in c sharp minor, and Scherzo Op. 20, and something of Mozart's and Debussy's.


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## WJM

Anyway, I just noticed... his name in the title is misspelled. It's Rafał Blechacz, not Błechacz.


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## WJM

Last two days Blechacz gave two recitals in Poland - in his native Nakło and nearby Bydgoszcz. I've seen him on the second one, he played Bach's Chorale BWV 147, Italian Concerto, Beethoven's Pathetique, Chopin's Waltzes Op. 64, Polonaises Op. 40 and Op. 53. I think he was amazing, he has a really beautiful tone, and again, comparing to his last recordings for DG, his Polonaises played live are much better than those in studio. Op. 53 was likely the best performance of this piece I've heard for some time, and I've heard this one so many times it's really hard to impress me anymore. Bach and Beethoven were also wonderful, and I was surprised to hear the first encore - Brahms Intermezzo, I've never heard Blechacz playing Brahms before. Two other encores were Chopin's Mazurka and Prelude.


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## Balthazar

Both Blechacz and his contemporary Daniil Trifonov are wonderful Chopin interpreters. I look forward to many years of performances by these two.


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## Albert7

Those guys need to some play for the Utah Symphony .


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## cna

I absolutely agree that his preludes are very very good. But I think he sometimes lacks in stamina(?) or oomph(?) when playing pieces like polonaise. (To me, Seong-Jin Cho's polonaise at the Gala concert of the 17th Chopin competition was very good.) But Rafal delivers the most delicate Chopin preludes I've ever listened to. According to Wikipedia, Rafal is pursuing a PhD.


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