Vladimir Ashkenazy

Vladimir Ashkenazy was born on July 6, 1937, in Gorky, Russia, and from 1943 onward he lived in Moscow. After the war he studied at the Moscow Conservatory under Lev Oborin. In 1955 he won second prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw, and the following year he took first place at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. These awards brought him to the attention of the international concert world, leading to invitations for tours through the United States and Canada. In 1962 he once again competed in Russia and won the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. A few months later, he emigrated to the West with his family. He settled in London in 1963, moved to Iceland in 1968, and has lived in Switzerland since 1982. Ashkenazy’s career can be divided into two phases, which gradually overlapped during the 1970s. In his early years he appeared primarily as a pianist and undertook several remarkable concert and recording projects. His preferred partner at the time was the violinist Itzhak Perlman, with whom he recorded all of Beethoven’s violin sonatas. Another major project was the complete recording of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas for the BBC in the mid-1960s. After moving to Iceland in 1968, he served for two years as artistic director of the Reykjavík Festival in addition to his regular concert tours. From the early 1970s onward, however, he devoted more and more attention to his second career as a conductor. Ashkenazy served as Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (1987–1994) and as Principal Guest Conductor of both the Cleveland Orchestra (1988–1994) and the Philharmonia Orchestra. He also appeared as a guest conductor with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and he worked regularly with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Until the end of June 1999 he was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, a post he had held since 1989. Beginning in 1998, he also took on the position of Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. Over more than three and a half decades as an exclusive Decca artist, Vladimir Ashkenazy has recorded an extensive range of core piano repertoire, including many works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Scriabin, as well as orchestral works as a conductor, from Mozart to Berg and from Schoenberg to Stravinsky. Many of his piano recordings have become reference interpretations, praised by critics for their brilliant technique, musical mastery, and sonic beauty. Ashkenazy’s deep love and enthusiasm for music can be felt in all his work, whether he approaches a composition as a pianist or as a conductor. A few examples: His Rachmaninov piano concertos with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra were described in the Penguin Guide to Compact Discs as follows: “The individuality of the solo playing, complemented by the poetry of Previn’s accompaniment, makes this immensely rewarding listening … one of Ashkenazy’s great achievements.” Gramophone wrote of the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini that it was “captivating from beginning to end.” Regarding Ashkenazy’s recording of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, the Penguin Guide noted: “of the highest nobility, tremendous power and eloquence, yet full of poetry—the playing in the central section of the slow movement is exquisite.” His recordings of Beethoven’s violin sonatas with Itzhak Perlman are among the best-selling classical CDs and are considered some of the most accomplished interpretations of these works.