Jonathan Plowright’s exploration of Polish piano music continues in this new Hyperion release of two concertante works, one by perhaps the most famous Pole of the first half of the 20th century, the other by a composer whose name will probably be unfamiliar to all but a few cognoscenti.

Jerzy Gablenz (1888-1937), born in Kraków to a musical family, was pressured into studying law rather than pursuing music professionally, despite early recognition of his gifts. With the outbreak of the First World War, Gablenz was left in Poland to manage a family business while his parents and sisters left for Vienna. He continued to compose and by 1926, the year of his D flat Piano Concerto, he had songs, piano and choral music, an opera and orchestral works, including two symphonies, to his credit. Much of Gablenz’s work was still unknown when he died, aged 49, in an aeroplane crash. The Piano Concerto was not premiered until 1977, in Santo Domingo through the efforts of Gablenz’s son, who lived there at the time.

It’s easy to understand why Plowright has chosen to champion this appealing work, with its variety of texture and mood, melodic invention and imaginative orchestration. The sense of dialogue between soloist and orchestra, inherent in any successful concerto, is apt without being predictable. Plowright’s artful handling of the challenges of the piano-writing disguises its occasional awkwardness. The three-movement work runs about 45 minutes, with a slow movement that’s something of a gem.

Jim Samson, in his largely sympathetic assessment of Paderewski for Grove, calls most of the music ‘overstated and under-realised’. Yet, at his best, Paderewski’s blend of gentle poetry and heroic dignity, while less varied in expression than either Chopin or Szymanowski, is nevertheless uniquely his own. The Polish Fantasy on Original Themes from 1893 is such a piece, and who better to interpret it than Plowright, who surely plays more Paderewski than any pianist outside Poland? In fact, in terms of sheer spontaneity, pliant rhythmic élan and delicacy of texture, I cannot imagine a more thrilling performance, or one that more fully captures Paderewski’s heartfelt message.

Łukasz Borowicz and the BBC Scottish are everywhere complicit in this happy enterprise. Combining an unfamiliar yet worthy work with Paderewski’s signature warhorse, freshly reconceived and proudly resplendent, makes this release a rare treat.