Vladimir Ashkenazy

Born in Gorky—now known as Nizhny Novgorod—on July 6, 1937, Russian pianist and conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy rose to prominence through interpretations spanning Beethoven, the Romantic era, and Russian composers, while his programming reached as far back as Bach and occasionally embraced newer works. His father played the piano, yet it was his mother who nurtured his talent; he gave his first Moscow recital at age eight and entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1955 under Lev Oborin. A decisive early success came with the gold medal at the 1956 Queen Elizabeth International Piano Competition in Brussels. During Nikita Khrushchev’s Thaw he toured the United States in 1958; upon returning to Moscow he married Icelandic pianist Dody Johannsdottir. While on a 1963 British tour the couple defected, after which Ashkenazy launched a long-term association with the Decca and London labels that lasted for decades. He acquired Icelandic citizenship in 1972 and has maintained a residence in Switzerland. Conducting entered his schedule in the early 1970s; he later served as 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 from 2009 to 2013, while appearing as a guest with numerous ensembles, including Russian orchestras after the Soviet collapse.

Ashkenazy’s keyboard style is marked by brightness, incisiveness, and lucid articulation, qualities joined to an intellectual rigor that still permits expressive warmth; he maintains remarkable command of tonal shading. His extensive discography contains complete traversals of the Mozart, Beethoven (three separate cycles), and Rachmaninov (two cycles) piano concertos, together with the complete Beethoven sonatas, the principal piano music of Chopin, and Scriabin’s demanding sonatas. Even in later years his output remained substantial and technically ambitious, although public piano appearances grew rarer. Continuing with Decca, he recorded Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations, Op. 120, in 2007. The year 2011 alone brought nineteen releases featuring him as pianist or conductor, among them the demanding Mahler Symphony No. 6. For his eightieth birthday in 2017 he issued a new account of Bach’s French Suites, and labels continued to reissue his earlier performances. In 2018 Signum Classics released two live Rachmaninov symphonies performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra. On January 17, 2020, Ashkenazy declared his retirement from the concert platform.