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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Tchaikovsky: Romeo and Juliet; Francesca da Rimini; Capriccio Italien
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Sonata No.1 / Chopin Variations
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Sonata in D
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3; Classical Symphony; Autumnal
Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 20.09.1975
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Piano Concerto No.1; Sonata for 2 Pianos & Percussion
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vovka Ashkenazy, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sir Georg Solti
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 29.05.1984
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto / Wieniawski: Violin Concerto No. 2
Joshua Bell, The Cleveland Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.10.1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphonies Nos. 4, 5 & 6
Philharmonia Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 13 "Pathétique"; No. 21, Op. 53 "Waldstein" & No. 26, Op. 81a "Les Adieux"
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances; Russian Rhapsody
Vladimir Ashkenazy, André Previn
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 20.04.1980
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bartók: Piano Concertos; Violin Concertos
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Kyung Wha Chung, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Sir Georg Solti
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Scriabin-Nemtin: Preparation for the Final Mystery
Ernst Senff Chor, Chœur de chambre de Saint-Pétersbourg, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov/Shostakovich/Lutoslawski: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini/Piano Concerto No.1/Paganini Vars
Peter Jablonski, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO), Sir Georg Solti
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 06.09.1973
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Trios 5-7, 9 & Variations on an Original Theme
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell
Klassik - Erschienen bei Warner Classics am 06.10.2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Fantasie in C; Etudes Symphoniques
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 29.03.1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11
Vladimir Ashkenazy, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5; Dreams
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.02.1987
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Enescu/Bartók/Szymanowski etc.: Works for Violin & Piano
Ida Haendel, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Nos.9 & 10
Itzhak Perlman, Vladimir Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1977
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ashkenazy Duets
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Vovka Ashkenazy
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Russian Delights - Borodin: Polovtsian Dances / Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini; Capriccio italien / Rimsky-Korsakov: The Tale of Tsar Saltan Suite
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 05.08.1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo