Vladimir Ashkenazy

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Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (born 6 July 1937) is a well-known solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor.

He is a native of Russia and has been in possession of Icelandic citizenship since 1972.

He has been living in Switzerland since 1978.

Ashkenazy has worked with well-known orchestras and soloists.

In addition, he has produced a large collection of classical and romantic works.

His recordings have earned him five Grammy Awards as well as the Order of the Falcon of Iceland.

Early life

Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), to pianist and composer David Ashkenazi, as well as actress Yevstolia Grigorievna (born Plotnova). His father was Jewish and his mother was from a Russian Orthodox family. In a Russian Orthodox church, Ashkenazy was christened. He began playing piano at the age of six and was accepted to the Central Music School at age eight, learning with Anaida Sumbatyan.

Education

Ashkenazy studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where he worked with Lev Oborin and Boris Zemliansky. In 1955, he won the second prize in the V International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, as well as the first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels. With British pianist John Ogdon, he shared the first prize in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition. As a student in that period, the KGB had compelled him to become a "informer." Despite threats from the authorities, he didn't really cooperate.

Personal life

He married Iceland-born órunn Jóhann Jóttir, who studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory, in 1961. To marry Ashkenazy, she was forced to renounce her Icelandic citizenship and declare that she wanted to live in the United StatesSR. Her name is usually transliterated as "Thorunn"; her nickname was Dód; so she is named Dód Ashkenazy.

Following lengthy bureaucratic steps, the Soviet authorities decided to encourage the Ashkenazys to visit the West for musical performances and for visits to their first grandson's parents-in-law. In his memoirs, Soviet President Nikita Khrushchev recalled that Ashkenazy had married an Englishwoman, and he refused to return to the Soviet Union on a trip to London. Khrushchev said that Ashkenazy obtained the Soviet Embassy in London in London and in turn referred the matter to Moscow. Khrushchev said he was of the opinion that returning Ashkenazy to the USSR would have made him a "Anti-Soviet." Ashkenazy said that this was a good example of an artist being able to enter and exit freely in and out of the USSR, which was a gross "distortion of the truth." Ashkenazy's wife moved to London in 1963 and decided to leave the USSR permanently, establishing a home in London, where his wife's parents lived.

The couple immigrated to Iceland in 1968, where Ashkenazy became an Icelandic citizen. He founded the Reyk Arts Festival in 1970, of which he remains Honorary President. The couple and their (then) four children (Vladimir Stefan, Nadia Liza, Dimitri Thor, and Sonia Edda) moved to Lucerne, Switzerland in 1978. Alexandra Inga, the family's fifth child, was born in 1979. Ashkenazy lived in Meggen, Switzerland, near Lake Lucerne, beginning in 1989. Vladimir, his eldest son, who uses the word 'Vovka' as a stage name, is a pianist as well as a mentor at the Imola International Piano Academy. Dimitri, his second son, is a clarinetist.

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Career

His recordings include:

His concerto recordings include:

Ashkenazy was known for avoiding a tie and button shirt in favour of a white turtleneck and for running (not walking) onstage and offstage. He has also performed and recorded chamber music. In addition, Ashkenazy has had an incredible collaboration career, including an award-winning recording of Beethoven's complete violin sonatas with Itzhak Perlman, Lynn Harrell's cello sonatas, and the piano trios with Harrell and Perlman.

Ashkenazy branched out into conducting midway through his international pianistic career. Ashkenazy was the principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from 1987 to 1994, as well as the Czech Philharmonic from 1998 to 2003. Ashkenazy is also conductor laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, conductor Laureate of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra. He took over the Accademia Pianistica di Imola in July 2013, replacing its founder and director Franco Scala. Sibelius and Rachmaninoff's complete cycle as a conductor, as well as orchestral works of Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Scriabin, Stravinsky, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky were among his conductors.

Ashkenazy played as the music director of the NHK Symphony Orchestra from 2004 to 2007. From 2009 to 2013, he was the chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Ashkenazy has performed for Decca since 1963; the company's 50th anniversary of 'Vladimir Ashkenazy', which includes 50 of Ashkenazy's recordings as both pianist and conductor. Decca is releasing the 'Complete Piano Recordings' and 'Ashkenazy on Vinyl' in July 2017, as part of Ashkenazy's 80th birthday celebrations. Ashkenazy has appeared in many films on music by Christopher Nupen as well. Modest Mussorgsky's piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition (1982) he's also arranged his own orchestration. 'The Art of Ashkenazy' has been released on CD, and a 'Beyond Frontiers' biography of Ashkenazy has been published.

Ashkenazy's departure from public service was announced on January 17th by the artist management company Harrison Parrott.

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Awards and recognition

• 1955 V International Chopin Piano Competition, Warsaw (Second prize)
• 1956 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition for piano, Brussels
• 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Moscow (shared with John Ogdon)
• 2000 Hanno R. Ellenbogen Citizenship Award, with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducting corps
• Current president of the Rachmaninoff Society.
• Elgar Medal, 2019
• 2014 Sergei Rachmaninov International Award