TRACKLISTING

CD 1
Rachmaninov Piano Concertos 2 & 3

CD 2
Mozart Piano Concertos 6, 8 & 9
(K238, K246 & K271)

CD 3
Mozart Rondo in D major, K382
Piano Concertos 20 & 27 (K466 & K595)

CD 4
Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1
Chopin Piano Concerto No.2

CD 5
Bach Concerto No.1 in D minor
Brahms Piano Concerto No.2

CD 6
Beethoven Piano Concertos 4 & 5

CD 7
Schumann Piano Concerto
Introduction and Allegro appassionato*
Concert Allegro with Introduction*
First international CD release*

CD 8
Scriabin Piano Concerto
Rachmaninov Paganini Rhapsody
Bartók Piano Concerto No.3

CD 9
Scriabin Prometheus
Bartók Piano Concerto No.1
Previn Piano Concerto

CD 10
Bartók Piano Concerto No.2
Prokofiev Piano Concertos 1 & 2

Special Bonus CD — first ever release
Mozart Piano Concerto No.21 in C major (K467)

RECORDING INFORMATION

A new addition to the highly successful series of Decca Collector’s Editions. March 2003 marks the 40th anniversary of Vladimir Ashkenazy’s exclusive association with Decca as a pianist.

Ashkenazy shot to international fame when he was joint first winner (with the late John Ogdon) of the Second International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962.

In 1963 Ashkenazy defected from Russia and came to live in London, where he embarked on a recording career which, as a pianist, has scarcely been matched by any other one for the sheer breadth of repertory.

His first recording for Decca was the first of four recordings (one for RCA with Ormandy) he made of Rachmaninov’s huge Third Piano Concerto. A few weeks after this Ashkenazy recorded his equally legendary Tchaikovsky First Concerto —both recordings have achieved reference status and have never been out of the Decca catalogue. The following years would see complete cycles of concertos by Mozart, Beethoven (three cycles: with Solti, Mehta, and from the keyboard), Rachmaninov (two complete cycles: with Previn and Haitink), Prokofiev (with Previn), Bartók (with Solti) as well as other concertos by Schumann, Chopin and Scriabin.

His recordings of solo repertory would be, and continue to be, equally extensive and highly regarded.

This Ashkenazy anniversary edition also includes a bonus CD of a recording of Mozart's Piano Concerto No.21, K467 which is released here for the first time. It was recorded in October 1973 during a spare recording session with the London Symphony Orchestra after Ashkenazy had started directing Mozart concertos from the keyboard. At the time a suitable coupling had not been decided and in 1977 Ashkenazy began his complete cycle of the Mozart concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra. The edited tape of K467 remained largely forgotten until now, but Ashkenazy has agreed to its inclusion in this collection of concerto recordings spanning his forty-year association with Decca.