Recorded at the 5th International Fryderyk Chopin Piano Competition in the Warsaw Philharmonic Concert Hall, 21 February–20 March 1955, this latest recording in the celebration of the Chopin Piano Competition features pianist Lidia Grychtołówna. Accompanied by the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Arnold Rezler, Lidia performed Chopin’s Piano Concerto in E minor, coupled on this recording with other solo piano works.

Lidia Grychtołówna is one of the most outstanding Polish pianists. Not only a laureate of the 5th Chopin Competition in 1955, but also of other important piano competitions, such as the Robert Schumann in Berlin (1956), the Ferruccio Busoni in Bolzano (1958) and the Rio de Janeiro (1959). A highly esteemed interpreter of the works of Chopin, as well as Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann, she was blessed with great musical talents: perfect pitch, excellent memory and great sensitivity. When her mother played the three-year-old Lidia a Chopin mazurka, the little girl gazed at every key that she struck, and when she had finished, she heard coming from the other room the very same mazurka, which the little girl was piecing together, note by note, much to her amazement!