The piano master Ashkenazi was of Jewish descent, whose full name was Vladimir Ashkenazy, and was born on July 6, 1937 in Novgorod. Most Chinese music fans knew him in the 1980s and 1990s. At this time, Ashkenazy Records was waiting for himself, which could be called a "labor model".
Ashkenazi (first from left) participated in the 1955 Chopin International Piano Competition
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a smooth learning and a tortuous marriage</h1>
At the age of 6, at the height of World War II and the most scarce supplies, Ashkenazi attended the Central Conservatory of Music in the Soviet Union, a school that only recruited musical geniuses. At the age of 17, he went to the Moscow Conservatory to study piano with Opollin and Zemlensky. He had met Shostakovich, the most famous composer of the time, and played the master's piano trio, and although Shaw did not show appreciation, Ashkenazzi was still very excited, thinking that he and his classmates played very happily.
Among his classmates at the Moscow Conservatory of Music was an Icelandic girl, Thorunn, who gradually fell in love. However, when they were ready to get married, the Soviet authorities required the woman to renounce her Icelandic citizenship, become a Soviet citizen, and live in the Soviet Union. The girls did so and became Ashkenazzi's wife, but it also made the Ashkenazzi family feel more and more pressure.
Ashkenazi and his wife and son
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > wins the game like an athlete</h1>
Ashkenazi, an excellent pianist, has always been a seed player in the Soviet music scene, participating in the Chopin International Piano Competition, the Elizabeth International Piano Competition and the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition.
In the fifth shaw competition in 1955, the Polish judges accounted for half, Ashkenazi and Fu Cong scored glue, and the Polish player Harašiević temporarily ranked third. The great piano master Michelangeli, who is also a judge, saw the situation unfavorably, privately approached Ashkenazi and comforted him, saying that the champion should be yours. As a result, Harašević won the championship, Ashkenazy second, and Fu Cong third.
Every time Ashkenazi wins a race, his apartment in Moscow can be changed to a bigger one. When he lived to 38 square meters, Dad said to him, this apartment is given to me, you will definitely have bigger in the future. At first, Ashkenazzi was troublesome with the transfer procedures, but later he realized that in this matter, the father was smarter than the son.
Ashkenazi participated in the 1962 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition
This was the gold medal strategy of the Soviet Ministry of Culture that year, but when Ashkenazzi was sent to participate in the Tchaikovsky piano competition in 1962, he was reluctant.
Because of his small hands, many passages were difficult to play large romantic piano concertos such as Tchaikovsky, so he was reluctant to play such works. However, Ashkenazy still won the glory of the country, winning the 1962 Chai Sai Championship.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > become decca's piano column</h1>
In 1963, Ashkenazi finally decided to leave the Soviet Union with his wife as a family visit. In a recital concert before leaving, he played Chopin and Beethoven, which is said to be "very powerful".
Ashkenazi had just arrived in the West, signing a contract with Decca Records, and he was not very good at refusing, making him a working emperor of Decca. His initial recordings were not russian, mainly piano concertos, piano sonatas and chamber music by Western European musicians, such as Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, and Chopin.
A popular belief among music fans that Ashkenazzi's playing level is not high stems from this. First, everyone does not think that the first capital of the whole episode recording is excellent, and second, it is more difficult to ensure the quality of everything recorded.
In fact, every record company had such a candidate in the golden age of the recording industry, and it was not an indiscriminate number. Ashkenazi not only has the energy necessary to record the complete works, but also has extraordinary learning ability and stable performance level.
So far, Ashkenazzi has recorded for DECCA the complete works of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos, Complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas, Complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas, Chopin Complete Works, Mozart Piano Concertos, Rachmaninoff Piano Works, Scriabin Piano Sonatas, Bartok Piano Concertos, Prokofiev Piano Concertos, etc., and some of them have been more than once.
As conductor, he also left behind complete symphonies of Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Skryabin, Shostakovich, and Sibelius.
For discerning music fans, singleness is the original sin – the more a person records, the lower the sense of value; the more advertising, the lower the sense of value; the higher the exposure, the lower the sense of value.
Ashkenazi plays the piano and conducts the piano and conducts the piano, which is straightforward and delicate, and thanks to the intense musical training he received in the Soviet Union, listening to his recordings or live concerts will feel very efficient and able to enter the work quickly.
Ashkenazi's output of such high quality for music is not something that every famous musician can do. Fortunately, Ashkenazy at Decca, a company known for its outstanding recording standards, provided a strong technical guarantee for each of his recordings, and his own efforts made any recording of high quality.
Of course, although it was much happier than in the Soviet period, as a full-album player, Ashkenazy was very tired and even a little tired of recording at one point. Only by returning to Iceland with his wife for a holiday and spending time with the children can you feel more relaxed than ever. In addition, he made a number of good friends, including Barenboim, Du Pre, Perlman, Meta, etc., often exchanging musical experiences and studying the art of the masters.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > conductor is more handy than playing the piano</h1>
While studying in Moscow, when conductor Rozhdestvinsky discovered that Ashkenazi often went to symphony concerts, he asked him, why don't you study conducting? Ashkenazy said, no. Mr. Luo invited him to the dormitory, said, I teach you, just play the Tchaikovsky Symphony on the piano, while teaching Ashkenazi to do the conducting movements.
In 1970, Ashkenazi picked up the baton in Iceland and ascended to the podium. Beginning with Lespiqui's symphonic poems, he constantly touched a large number of orchestral pieces such as Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Beethoven, Richard Strauss, etc., and gradually gained the favor of the orchestra and became the music director of the Royal Philharmonic. At the same time, he also began to re-play Russian piano works such as Mussorgsky, Rachmaninoff, and Skryabin. Overall, being a conductor is much easier than playing the piano.
Ashkenazi's conducting is arguably more admirable than piano solos, such as his live performance of Shostakovich, which avoids being violent, rather subtle, and intriguing. The English composer is also Ashkenazi's favorite, his sentimentality is comparable to Russian music, and the master adds a broad breath to the beauty, which is the icing on the cake. Ashkenazzi's Mahler Symphony has a unique aesthetic that must have come from the Russian piano school, rather than the blind pursuit of life and death themes.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concerto recording is the most eye-catching</h1>
Ashkenazi's concerto recordings are best known for Rachmaninoff's second and third works, which he has recorded many times. Co-conductors include the Plevin/London Symphony Orchestra, the Hettingke/Amsterdam Concert Hall Orchestra, the Kondrashin/Moscow Philharmonic, and the Fisturari/London Symphony Orchestra.
Ashkenazi's Rachmaninoff Concerto is extremely emotionally engaging and a very personal interpretation, because he, like Rachmaninoff, is full of contradictions about Russia, both deep nostalgia and great resistance. Although this is a thing of the past, it is still touching to listen to the recordings of pull two and three in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
After Rachmaninoff, Ashkenazi's recording of the Beethoven and Mozart Concertos was a remarkable achievement. It reflects not only Ashkenazi's love of German-Austrian music, but also its cultivation and technical comprehensiveness.
Ashkenazzi recorded three complete beethoven piano concertos for Decca, co-conducting Mehta, Salty and himself. There is also a set with Hettingke, which was produced as a live video into 2 DVDs. Ashkenazi's Beethoven was straightforward and unpretentious, and it sold well for many years as the piano sonatas he played.
His complete Mozart Concerto, conducted by his own Philharmonic Orchestra, is a beautiful, bright, and beautiful interpretation that can be included in the top three of the repertoire alongside The Anda and Peracia editions (Brundel unfortunately did not record it). The complete decca Ashkenazzi Concerto also featured for the first time a CD version of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, which was performed by the Maestro of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Ashkenazi's concerto recordings cover almost all the Classics of the Romantic period, with the exception of Liszt and Legal works. Overall, Ashkenazzi was praised by Phonograph Magazine and Penguin Records Guide: "It's very rare for an artist to have such a high level of musical talent. Moreover, it is accompanied by a deep humility that is worthy of the name. No one has surpassed Ashkenazy in the combination of these two. ”
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > returned to Bach in his later years</h1>
Since 2006, at the age of nearly 70, Ashkenazi has been recording Bach, ranging from The Law of The Average, Pattita, the Italian Concerto to the French Suite. As a well-known pianist, why didn't you record Bach until you were almost 70 years old? In Ashkenazi's own words, Gould's performance was so outstanding that he has only summoned up courage so far.
After the publication of The Law of Averages, Gramophone Magazine praised it for its "so concise and straightforward colors."
It should be said that Ashkenazzi's Bach is very different from the now more popular Bach influenced by authentic style. Influenced by his authentic style, Bach emphasized clear structural presentations, and most of the time the expression of emotions did not depend on changes in clauses. In contrast, Ashkenazzi's Bach is vague in structure, with fragments as loose as possible, flattening the structure as a whole, and the contrast is not strong, almost allowing it to develop, naturally.
Ashkenazi's French Suite is concerned only with the basic emotional or psychological rhythm conveyed by the music, and the rest is completely free to master, like a night talk in the hearth, borrowing scenery and lyricism. Maybe that's what an old artist wants to say to the world.
The advantage of this is to break through some rules, but the risk is that it is possible to find the focus. Ashkenazi seems to have continued the Russian piano tradition, expressing Bach's gentleness and fraternity, sacrificing some of the vitality of Baroque music, and often achieving the same effect on slower Saraband dances. The Guardian commented: "Ashkenazzi's playing is closest to the late Maestro Edwin Fisher.
In January 2020, Ashkenazzi announced his farewell to the stage, and the news was somewhat abrupt, catching the music industry off guard, and some of the original concerts had to be cancelled, perhaps he was really tired. However, as a music fan, I can only deeply thank and bless Master Ashkenazy for his life dedicated to music and art.