In 2002 Rafał Blechacz was awarded the second prize at the Artur Rubinstein International Competition for Young Pianists in Bydgoszcz. In 2003 he was co-winner of the International Piano Competition in Hamamatsu, Japan, and the following year he won first prize at the International Piano Competition in Morocco. In 2005 he was 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. Additionally, he won the prize founded by Krystian Zimerman for Best Sonata Performance.

2006 saw performances including Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the National Philharmonic 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 undertook a 12-concert recital tour of Japan. He appeared to great acclaim at Poland’s Chopin Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, Verbier and La Roque d’Anthéron, and in May he signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon.

In 2007 Rafał Blechacz performed 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 Copenhagen; Chopin’s Concertos nos. 1 and 2 with the Orchestre du Capitole de Tou¬louse on tour in Germany and in Toulouse. The year included 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 Brussels, at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, in Ferrara, and in Vilnius, Lithuania. His solo début 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].

During 2008, Rafał Blechacz appeared in concerts performing Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano in Milan and the Philharmonia under Charles Dutoit in Southbank Centre’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. The year also included recital tours of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and the USA; further recitals in Paris, Narbonne and Vancouver; and 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, K311 and Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 2 No. 2 – was released in the autumn.