Image: ©️ Keith Saunders
Conductor and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy is officially retiring from public performances, his spokesperson confirmed.
In an open letter to the famed musician, his long-time friend and publicist, Jasper Parrott, said that Mr. Ashkenazy’s decision is done with immediate effect.
Ashkenazy came to prominence as a pianist, winning top prizes in prestigious competitions such as the Chopin Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels and the International Tchaikovsky Competition. After immigrating to the west in the 1970s, He started conducting orchestras, first from the keyboard in Piano Concertos and later in the symphonic repertoire. He had long partnerships with the Philharmonic Orchestra of London, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the NGK Symphony Orchestra (Japan) and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
In the past two decades, Ashkenazy has stopped playing the piano in public, but still released new albums for Decca as a soloist, including works by Bach, Tchaikovsky, and Chopin. His most well-known recording for Decca included the complete Piano Concertos by Rachmaninov with Andre Previn and the London Symphony orchestra, the five Piano Concertos by Prokofiev and Chamber repertoire by Beethoven. Notable solo recordings included the complete works by Chopin, Schumann, and Rachmaninov. He also recorded the complete Piano Sonata by Beethoven and the Diabelli Variations.
As a conductor, Ashkenazy recorded for few labels complete symphonic cycles by Sibelius, Rachmaninov Mahler, Shostakovich, and Prokofiev.
