This album continues the successful collaboration of Krystian Zimerman and Sir Simon Rattle; for their DG recording of Brahm’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Berliner Philharmoniker they received the German Record Critics' Award.

Lutoslawski’s Piano Concerto was completed in 1988 and is dedicated to Krystian Zimerman, who also first introduced it to Salzburg audiences in the same year, in 1992 DG released a first version of the concerto with Lutoslawski as conductor and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. The piece features extremely virtuosic demands, its dense pianistic gestures at times recall the piano concertos of Bartók and Prokofiev.

The Second Symphony received its first complete performance in Katowice on 9 June 1967, when the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra was conducted by the composer.