Two Piano Concertos

Polish-born British pianist and composer André Tchaikowsky was born in Warsaw as Robert Andrzej Krauthammer. Being from a Jewish family, he saw and survived the horrors of the Second World War, including the Warsaw ghetto and the Warsaw Uprising. After the war, Tchaikowsky studied composition both in Warsaw and Paris but it was his career as a concert pianist which eventually earned him a name in the music world. Although composing always remained as Tchaikowsky’s greatest passion, his music has remained seldomly played – also partially because the composer himself played his works very rarely in public concerts. Because Tchaikowsky could not dedicate himself to composition full-time, his legacy is small.

Tchaikowsky’s Prokofievian 1st Piano Concerto was completed in 1957 and was written under the influence of his mentor, Athur Rubinstein, who championed Tchaikowsky’s early career as a pianist. The premiere of the work in Belgium in 1957 was a major event. Perhaps under the influence of Szymanowski’s Sinfonia Concertante (1932), which was dedicated to Arthur Rubinstein, Tchaikowsky also wanted to give his new piano concerto the same title, but it remained unnamed, and without opus number.

Tchaikowsky’s 2nd Piano Concerto, Op. 4 was premiered by Radu Lupu and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in October 1975 and witnessed by many prominent pianists of the era who travelled to attend the première. Inspired by a play by Ibsen, this emotionally packed concerto is a powerful, complex and extraordinarily difficult work in the spirit of Alban Berg and Béla Bartók and has been hailed by commentators who have heard the work as one of the most remarkable piano concertos ever written.

The Piano Sonata (1958) was premiered in Chicago in 1959 under a pseudonym, as Tchaikowsky was reluctant to play his own works in concert but still curious about the reaction of the audience and music critics. This restless work is imbued with a searching character and a serene middle movement.

Described by the Gramophone as ‘a pianist in full flower of his mature, imaginative artistry’, Peter Jablonski is an award-winning Swedish pianist. In 2025 he was awarded prestigious Swedish Grammy for his critically acclaimed recording of Ronald Stevenson’s piano works, released on Ondine. 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 more than 30 tours of Japan. Discovered by Abbado and Ashkenazy and signed by Decca in his seventeenth year, he went on to perform, tour, collaborate, and record with many of the world’s leading orchestras and conductors and has appeared in concert and recitals in famous venues around the world, which include the Royal Festival Hall and the Barbican in London, Philharmonie Berlin, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Hollywood Bowl Los Angeles, Salle Pleyel Paris, Musikverein Vienna, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, among many others. In 2025 he was awarded prestigious Swedish Grammy for his critically acclaimed recording of Ronald Stevenson’s piano works, released on Ondine.

The Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice is one of the most significant symphony orchestras in Poland. The ensemble debuted on air on 2nd October 1935 and has enjoyed a constant presence in Polish Radio programming ever since. Over the subsequent decades, the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice has been consistently reinforcing its international renown, performing in the most prestigious concert halls the world over and collaborating with the greatest artists of our time, including Leonard Bernstein, Martha Argerich, and Artur Rubinstein. The orchestra was entrusted with the premieres of their works by such composers as Witold Lutosławski, Wojciech Kilar, Henryk Mikołaj Górecki, and Krzysztof Penderecki. Over the years, the orchestra has been led many exquisite conductors. Currently, the ensemble’s rich musical tradition is being continued under Marin Alsop’s artistic directorship.

Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic, Principal Guest Conductor of the Cracow Philharmonic, and one of the most versatile conductors of his generation, Łukasz Borowicz regularly leads the major European orchestras in the core Germanic repertoire as well as important Central and Eastern-European works. He conducts opera and has received numerous prizes for his over 130 recordings. From 2007 to 2015 he was Chief Conductor of the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Warsaw), and from 2006 to 2021 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic. He has been collaborating with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Katowice) for over twenty years, conducting numerous concerts and recordings. Borowicz’s recordings have been awarded four Diapason d’Or prizes and three ICMA prizes (2015, 2018 and 2025). Łukasz Borowicz is a Professor of the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Cracow.

World première recordings of Piano Concerto No. 1 and Piano Sonata

First studio recording of Piano Concerto No. 2

Sleeve notes in English