[1] He was born Lajos Kentner in Karwin, Austrian Silesia (present-day Karviná, Czech Republic), to Hungarian parents.
[5] In 1935 he moved to England permanently with his wife, the fellow Hungarian pianist Ilona Kabos, and they made their home in London.
[1] In November 1942, Kabos and Kentner gave the world premiere of Bartók's Concerto for Two Pianos, Percussion and Orchestra in London.
He and Yehudi Menuhin (his second wife's brother-in-law) gave the first performance of William Walton's Violin Sonata, at Zürich on 30 September 1949.
[8] His playing was heard in Richard Addinsell's Warsaw Concerto from the soundtrack of the 1941 film Dangerous Moonlight.