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
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MARTINU, B.: Piano Concertos Nos. 2 and 4 / Les fresques de Piero della Francesca / Overture (Kolinsky, Basel Symphony, Ashkenazy)
Sinfonieorchester Basel, Robert Kolinsky, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Ondine on Nov. 2, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concertos Nos. 19 & 24
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 17, 1981
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20, Piano Concerto No. 6 (Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt Edition – Decca Recordings, Vol. 11)
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1968
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, Tsar Saltan - Suite, The Flight of the Bumble Bee
Christopher Warren-Green, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concertos No. 3 in D Minor, Op. 30 & No. 4 in G Minor, Op. 40 - Sony Classical Masters
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on Jul. 16, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Sep. 6, 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les 24 études de Chopin (Mono Version)
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on Jan. 1, 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Piano Music
Joseph Banowetz, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Sanderling, Adam Wodnicki
Classical - Released by Toccata Classics on Jan. 1, 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Borenstein: Violin Concerto, If you will it, it is no dream & The Big Bang and Creation of the Universe
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Irmina Trynkos
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Sep. 1, 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps; Concerto for 2 Pianos; Sonata for 2 Pianos; Scherzo à la russe (Andrei Gavrilov — Complete Recordings on Deutsche Grammophon, Vol. 9)
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Andrei Gavrilov
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Apotheosis: The Best of Einojuhani Rautavaara
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Richard Stoltzman, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Leif Segerstam, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mikko Franck
Classical - Released by Ondine on Oct. 4, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.2/Dvorák: Serenade for Strings
The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.3; St. Antoni Variations/Dvorak ; Carnival Overture
The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berg: Altenberg-Lieder; 7 Frühe Lieder; 3 Pieces from 'Lyric Suite', etc.
Brigitte Balleys, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Sir Georg Solti
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Sep. 6, 1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony No.1/Dvorák: Othello Overture
The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wagner: Siegfried Idyll / Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Vladimir Ashkenazy, English Chamber Orchestra
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Dec. 1, 1983
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2; Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
BLACHER, B.: Concertante Musik / Furstin Tarakanowa Suite / 2 Inventions / Music for Cleveland / Clarinet Concerto (Ashkenazy)
Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Dimitri Ashkenazy, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Classical - Released by Ondine on Jan. 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Walking In The Air - The Music Of Howard Blake
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan. 1, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony & Valse-Scherzo in C Major
Boris Belkin, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Mangora Classical on May 20, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo