Vladimir Ashkenazy

The first part of his long career as a musician was devoted to the piano. Building on the foundation of his studies at the Central School of Music and Moscow Conservatoire and his success in winning second prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955, first prize in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels in 1956 and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962, he spent three decades touring the great musical centres of the world, performing an ever-growing recital and concerto repertoire and appearing with chamber music partners such as Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zuckerman, Lynn Harrell, Elizabeth Soderstroem, Barbara Bonney and Matthias Goerne.

From the 1970s onwards, Ashkenazy became increasingly active as a conductor and held positions over the years with the Philharmonia Orchestra (Principal Guest Conductor), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Music Director), Cleveland Orchestra (Principal Guest Conductor) and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (Chief Conductor and Music Director), in addition to making guest appearances with some of the world's finest orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Philadelphia and Concertgebouw Orchestras. He continues to have a particularly close and rewarding relationship with the Philharmonia Orchestra which he led in the immensely successful Rachmaninov Festival at the South Bank Centre in London in May 1999. Over this and coming seasons, they will work together again in major series of works by Strauss, Sibelius and Prokofiev, and in January 2000 they embark on a major tour taking in the Far East, Australia and Japan.

In January 1998, Vladimir Ashkenazy took up the position of Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and since then has devoted himself to a broad range of tours, recordings and special projects with the aim of focusing appropriate attention on this great orchestra with its rich and individual musical tradition. The 1999/2000 season is an important one for them, coinciding as it does with the tenth anniversary of the 'Velvet Revolution', and over the coming months audiences around the world will have the opportunity to hear them in repertoire which is at the very heart of the orchestra's history and cultural identity - from Mozart and Mahler to Krasa, Janacek and Martinu - as they tour through the UK, Japan, United States and South America.

During a period of more than thirty years exclusivity with Decca, Vladimir Ashkenazy has recorded almost all of the major works of the piano repertoire including complete sets of concertos and other works by Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Scriabin as well as a huge range of works as a conductor, from Mozart to Berg, Schoenberg and Stravinsky. Many of his piano recordings have become benchmark versions, admired by critics for their wonderful technique, dedicated musicality and sheer beauty. His great love and enthusiasm for the whole field of music is evident across the spread of his recordings both as pianist and conductor.

To highlight a few classic cycles, his Rachmaninov Piano Concertos with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra was described by the Penguin Guide thus; "The individuality of the solo playing throughout, combined with the poetic feeling of Previn's accompaniments, provide special rewards...one of Ashkenazy's major achievements." Of the Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini, Gramophone said simply that they were "magical from beginning to end". Ashkenazy's Chopin Piano Sonata No.2 was described as "of the highest distinction, of great power and eloquence, yet with the poetry fully realised - the playing of the middle section of the slow movement is exquisite." (Penguin Guide); and the recordings that he made with Itzhak Perlman of Beethoven's Violin Sonatas remain a top recommendation on disc; "The musicianship and vitality of Perlman and Ashkenazy are matched by a poise and elegance that give consistent pleasure". The classic recordings of Rachmaninov's concertos Nos.2 & 3 and Beethoven's Spring and Kreutzer Sonatas have been newly remastered and released as part of the Decca Legends series.

Alongside his conducting activities, Ashkenazy continues to perform in recital throughout Europe, the Far East and America and to add to his recording catalogue with major releases. In 1999 Decca released his first piano recording under a new contract which was Shostakovich's immense 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op.87. Amongst the enormous acclaim he received for the recording was the following excerpt from The Guardian review: "Simply Brilliant... Ashkenazy is in complete control of every facet of these intriguing, deceptively modest pieces, whose whole is far greater than the sum of the parts; both the seriousness with which he has tackled his project and the unqualified success of the results are hugely impressive."

Vladimir Ashkenazy has two releases on Decca for autumn 1999. At the piano he has recorded a disc of Tchaikovsky piano works including The Seasons. With the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin comes a remarkable project, Alexander Nemtim's orchestration of Scriabin's The Final Mystery