Vladimir Ashkenazy
Russian-born Vladimir Ashkenazy has been a towering figure both as a pianist and as a conductor, with interpretations cutting a wide swath across Beethoven, the Romantics, and Russian music. His repertoire extends back to Bach and occasionally forward to contemporary pieces.
Ashkenazy was born July 6, 1937, in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) in the Soviet Union. His father was a pianist, but it was his mother who encouraged his pianistic gifts. Ashkenazy made his debut at eight in Moscow and enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory in 1955, becoming a student of Lev Oborin. An early breakthrough was a gold medal at the Brussels Queen Elizabeth International piano competition in 1956. Ashkenazy toured the U.S. in 1958 as the so-called Thaw under Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev opened opportunities in the West. Back in Moscow, Ashkenazy married Icelandic pianist Dody Johannsdottir. The pair defected during a 1963 tour of Britain, and Ashkenazy soon began a recording career with the associated Decca and London labels, on whose roster he would remain for decades. He became an Icelandic citizen in 1972 and has also lived in Switzerland. In the early 1970s he began conducting as well. Ashkenazy became principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London from 1987 to 1994, of the Czech Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003, and of the Sydney Symphony in Australia from 2009 to 2013, as well as other groups, and he has been widely visible as a guest conductor, including in Russia after the fall of the Soviet Union.
Ashkenazy's piano playing is bright and incisive, with clear articulation and an intellectual depth that does not interfere with the production of warm feeling. He has exceptional control over tone color. His recorded repertory is vast, including complete cycles of the piano concertos of Mozart, Beethoven (three separate times), and Rachmaninov (twice), as well as of the piano sonatas of Beethoven, the piano works of Chopin, and the difficult sonatas of Scriabin. Ashkenazy's productivity has hardly dropped in old age, nor did the technical difficulty of the works he essayed, although he has been less likely to appear in public on the piano. Still recording for Decca, he issued a version of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, in 2007. The year 2011 alone saw no fewer than 19 Ashkenazy releases as pianist or conductor, including those of such taxing works as the Mahler Symphony No. 6. In 2017, Ashkenazy celebrated his 80th birthday with a new recording of Bach's French Suites, and his historical performances were well treated by recording companies. In 2018, new releases of two of Rachmaninov's symphonies, performed live by the Philharmonia Orchestra, appeared on the Signum Classics label. On January 17, 2020, Ashkenazy announced his retirement from public performing.
© James Manheim /TiVo
-
Brahms: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2
Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Dec 1, 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ashkenazy Plays Beethoven
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Oct 25, 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scriabin: Symphony No. 2 / Piano Concerto
Peter Jablonski, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: The Piano Concertos
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No.6
Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1982
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 6 & 20
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1968
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra; Tod und Verklärung
Vladimir Ashkenazy, The Cleveland Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Aug 19, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.5; Serenade for Strings
Philharmonia Orchestra, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1; Symphony No.4
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, Lorin Maazel, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Russian Cello Sonatas
Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Dreams Of Love - The Ultimate Romantic Piano Album
Alicia de Larrocha, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jorge Bolet, Radu Lupu, Pascal Rogé, Jean-Yves Thibaudet
Classical - Released by Decca - London on Jan 12, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1-5
Lynn Harrell, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Sep 21, 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Previn: Piano Concerto; Guitar Concerto
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Eduardo Fernández, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, André Previn
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Dec 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos.1 & 3
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.4/Handel Variations & Fugue
The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin in the Car
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Frédéric Chopin
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Jul 9, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach - Beethoven; Piano Works
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Feb 5, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No.10/Chamber Symphony
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classical Cooking
Sir Neville Marriner, Charles Dutoit, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by UME - Global Clearing House on Jul 9, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas Nos.6-8
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo