ANASTASIA BELINA
ARTIST MANAGER
PETER JABLONSKI
Grażyna Bacewicz (1909–1969) was an outstanding figure in 20th-century music, a major Polish composer and a versatile musician. This album by the award-winning pianist Peter Jablonski, pianist Elisabeth Brauß, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Nicholas Collon includes some rarely recorded gems: the composer’s Piano Concerto together with the late Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in its first digital recording. Also included is the composer’s homage to Bartók, Music for Strings, Trumpets and Percussion, as well as the composer’s early exuberant Overture written during the German occupation of Poland.
Peter Jablonski's recording of piano works by Grażyna Bacewicz was awarded the French Academy Charles Cros Award
in December 2022.
'Motoric energy and folk rhythms combine in the Polish composer’s exhilarating works, which pianist Peter Jablonski brings magically to life.' Erica Jeal, The Guardian ★★★★★
'Jablonski plays effortlessly with a profound and grand sound.'
Jukka Isopuro, Helsingin Sanomat
Jablonski’s piano albums have received an enthusiastic response and his previous album releases received Editor’s Choice from the Gramophone magazine in 2021 and 2022.
This album was co-organised together with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the international cultural programme marking the centenary of Poland’s regained independence. Financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland as part of the multi-annual programme NIEPODLEGŁA 2017–2022.
Peter Jablonski is an award-winning internationally acclaimed Swedish pianist. He is among the leading pianists of his generation, and during the last thirty years on international stages has performed with over 150 orchestras, given over 2000 concerts, and has been on 25 tours of Japan. Discovered by Abbado and Ashkenazy and signed by Decca in his seventeenth year, he went on to perform, collaborate, and record with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, which include the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Mariinsky, La Scala Philharmonic, Tonhalle Zurich, Orchestre Nationale de France, NHK Tokyo, DSO Berlin, Warsaw Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Andris Nelsons, Daniel Harding, Kurt Sanderling, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Riccardo Chailly, Daniele Gatti, and Myung-Whun Chung.
He has performed and recorded the complete piano concertos by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Bartók, and all piano sonatas by Prokofiev. Hailed an ‘unconventional virtuoso’ (Present Arts), during his three-decade-long career he developed a diverse repertoire that includes works by Barber, Gershwin, Szymanowski, Lutosławski, Copland, Stenhammar, with most recent additions of such composers as Valborg Aulin, Elfrida Andrée, Alexey Stanchinsky, Ronald Stevenson, and Grażyna Bacewicz.
He worked with composers Witold Lutosławski and Arvo Pärt, and had a number of works composed for, and dedicated to him, including Wojciech Kilar’s Piano Concerto, for which he won the Orpheus award for the world premiere performance at the Warsaw Autumn Festival. He remains a supporter of today’s composers and regularly gives world premieres of new works.
Jablonski’s extensive discography includes recordings he has made for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Philips, Altara, Octavia, and Ondine labels. He received numerous awards for his recordings, which include the Edison award for best concerto recording of Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto, Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, and Lutoslawski’s Paganini Rhapsody with Ashkenazy and RPO for Decca. He was presented with the Grammophone Classical Music Award for his Deutsche Grammophone recording of works by Cécile Chaminade with Anne Sofie von Otter and Bengt Forsberg.
Peter Jablonski is the recipient of the Litteris et Artibus medal for his services to culture, granted to him by the King of Sweden, Carl XVI Gustaf. He is also the winner of the prestigious prize Svenskar i Världen (International Swedish Personality of the Year), receiving it before ABBA and Astrid Lindgren.
In May 2022, Jablonski was voted in to the Royal Swedish Music Academy. Highlights of the 2022/23 season included performances of Grażyna Bacewicz Piano Concerto for Two Pianos with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Bacewicz's Piano Concerto with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (NOSPR), a recital tour of Sweden, and appearances in concerts and recitals in Poland and Japan.
Peter Jablonski will begin his 23/24 season with the Bacewicz residency with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in September 2023. Other engagements include Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3, directed from keyboard, with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, a tour of Japan, recitals in Sweden, UK, and his continuing stewardship of the Karlskrona International Piano Festival.
June 2023. Not to be altered without permission.
Territory: Worldwide