In the early '70's I attended a Chicago Symphony concert which opened with Ashkenazy, Solti, and the CSO doing the "Emperor" concerto. After intermission, the concert closed with... Mahler's Eighth Symphony - I kid you not!- with as I recall 762 performers filling the Auditorium Theater stage. Both done in preparation for later recordings. Definitely my candidate for the most [fill in your adjective] programming ever!
thank you mr hurwitz for all informations since two years....with you i listen now music differently and i appreciate mutch more....and on otherside i perfect my english....
As a pianist or a conductor i love the dude. One of my all time favourite classical CD as to be his recording of the concerto 2 and 3 with Previn and the LSO.
I've never really minded pianists doing multiple recordings of the same piece, so long as they bring something different to the table each time. For example, Gould's two recordings of the Goldberg Variations or Byron Janis' two Rach 3s with Dorati and Munch. It's worth owning all of those. I think Ashkenazy does that with his Rachmaninov concerti at least, enough so that you can pick a favorite among them and have some fun comparing the differences. His Rach 3 with Fistoulari, for example, has a noticeably gentler approach than his recordings with Previn, Haitink and Ormandy, which I think makes it an interesting listen and would probably be my pick among his four versions.
Even though I love most of Ashkenazy's solo and concerto work I agree the duplication is a bit pointless. I do enjoy the Cleveland set with Ashkenazy conducting from the keyboard - but wonder why didn't he do this with Dohnanyi? There probably isn't any duplication with him as conductor, so I think that would be more interesting. I love his Beethoven disc of symphonies 5 and 7, incredibly energetic and played with fire. His Shostakovich 8 is good too. He's also has done some Strauss and of course his Rachmaninoff symphonies and orchestral music with the Concertgebouw is wonderful.
I have always loved Ashkenazy's recording of the Chopin 2nd piano concerto with Zinman. I always wished he would record the Chopin 1st concerto but I didn't think he ever did. Even when they first put the 2nd concerto on cd it was with Argerich's Chopin 1st. I wonder if Ashkenazy's Chopin 1st is still available by its self. Ah the mysteries of classical music recordings!
I wouldn’t buy this, but I’m grateful for Ashkenazy and Decca doing so much repertoire, eventually in boxes, at such a high standard. Alas, the proliferation seems to have depressed his reputation somewhat and that’s a shame. The Mozart piano concerto set, for example, is very well played and recorded, woodwind sound great (Kingsway Hall I think) but it was overtaken by some many others that it gets a bit neglected. I have a number of cycles of these and I gave it to a friend - not because it was bad but because I wouldn’t want to give a poor or boring cycle of those works to anyone who hadn’t heard them before!
Why would one buy an Ashkenazy complete concertos box? Why would one climb Mount Everest? Because its there... More seriously, I was in a CD shop in Hong Kong (yes, they still exist) when faced with the decision: to buy the Ashkenazy concerto box OR the Ashkenazy chamber music box? The store-owner made the decision for me: get BOTH with a 10% discount thrown in. You know what PT Barnum said about one being born every minute? At least I got Ashkenazy to autograph BOTH boxes for me before he retired!
Like you, I have only my ears and subjective tastes to guide me. I find Ashkenazy uninteresting and not very moving as a conductor, but enjoy his pianism immensely. Heard him conducting a dismal Prokofiev 5th once in concert, as well as other performances as conductor that I found wanting.
Vlad did Rach 2 with the Moscow Phil & Kondrashin. I liked it far more than the Previn set. (I admit I was skipping through some of this video. That Beethoven/Mozart redundancy issue getting to me, so there is a 1% chance I missed its mention)
I owned the complete Prokofiev concerti but I frankly preferred the more or less contemporaneous set with Browning and Leinsdorf, more sec and pointed, more to my personal taste. Not the very greatest out there but prefer them going head to head.
I think Ashkenazy's first outings are far superior to his many remakes. The only exception for me is the Rachmaninov 3rd with Ormandy, although that first one with Fistoulari is also splendid.
This is unrelated to this video! Can anyone please tell me what is the name of that nutbag who conducted THE NINTH at half tempo? It lasts like 2 and a half hours... David mentioned it in some video a long time ago and I can't remember it.
It’s a disease amongst performance practice people who are unfamiliar with the mountains of historical evidence refuting it. There is a lot about it on TH-cam and the proponents quickly delete all evidence to refute people post. Gotta love the age of disinformation.
Ashkenazy made some great chamber music recordings of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms - complete Beethoven and Brahms violin sonatas with Perlman, complete Beethoven piano trios with Perlman and Harrell, complete Schubert trios with Zukerman and Harrell, and the Brahms horn trio with Perlman and Tuckwell on a disc with the Franck violin sonata with Perlman. Also his 13 disc box of Chopin and a twofer of Rachmaninoff's Preludes and some other stuff.
I have to disagree in regard to his conducting. I have always found Ashkenazy's work as a conductor to be much more riveting and interesting than his piano playing, which I've always found to be rather faceless and ordinary. Most pianists(and other instrumentalists) who transition into conducting are misguided, such as Pletnev, but with Ashkenazy it was definitely a good move.
That’s an absurd comment. Ashkenazy is one of the greatest living pianists. One of the greatest of the post-WWII era. That can hardly be said of his conducting, though his conducting can be excellent.
@@MD-md4th Sorry, his piano playing has never done a thing for me; I find it bland and uninvolved. I would never seek out any of his piano recordings, which on top of being boring often have excruciating sound, but I find myself returning very often to a number of his orchestral recordings, such as his excellent Sibelius cycle with the Philharmonia, and several of the Shostakovich symphonies. I would consider his Rachmaninov series with the Concertgebouw as being reference recordings, as I would his recording of Prokofiev's Cinderella with Cleveland. His recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is equally outstanding. I had given up on Ashkenazy the pianist after being consistently disappointed, but when I discovered Ashkenazy the conductor I was absolutely delighted, and couldn't believe the transformation. I suspect that although the piano was Ashkenazy's instrument, it was the orchestral literature he truly loved, and it shows.
In the early '70's I attended a Chicago Symphony concert which opened with Ashkenazy, Solti, and the CSO doing the "Emperor" concerto.
After intermission, the concert closed with... Mahler's Eighth Symphony - I kid you not!- with as I recall 762 performers filling the Auditorium Theater stage.
Both done in preparation for later recordings.
Definitely my candidate for the most [fill in your adjective] programming ever!
thank you mr hurwitz for all informations since two years....with you i listen now music differently and i appreciate mutch more....and on otherside i perfect my english....
I'm happy to offer you both opportunities! Thank YOU.
As a pianist or a conductor i love the dude. One of my all time favourite classical CD as to be his recording of the concerto 2 and 3 with Previn and the LSO.
Ashkenazy's best Rachmaninov third, for my money, is his RCA recording with Ormandy, whose orchestral accompaniment is simply unrivaled.
I’ve not heard that one!
I've never really minded pianists doing multiple recordings of the same piece, so long as they bring something different to the table each time. For example, Gould's two recordings of the Goldberg Variations or Byron Janis' two Rach 3s with Dorati and Munch. It's worth owning all of those. I think Ashkenazy does that with his Rachmaninov concerti at least, enough so that you can pick a favorite among them and have some fun comparing the differences. His Rach 3 with Fistoulari, for example, has a noticeably gentler approach than his recordings with Previn, Haitink and Ormandy, which I think makes it an interesting listen and would probably be my pick among his four versions.
Even though I love most of Ashkenazy's solo and concerto work I agree the duplication is a bit pointless. I do enjoy the Cleveland set with Ashkenazy conducting from the keyboard - but wonder why didn't he do this with Dohnanyi? There probably isn't any duplication with him as conductor, so I think that would be more interesting. I love his Beethoven disc of symphonies 5 and 7, incredibly energetic and played with fire. His Shostakovich 8 is good too. He's also has done some Strauss and of course his Rachmaninoff symphonies and orchestral music with the Concertgebouw is wonderful.
I have always loved Ashkenazy's recording of the Chopin 2nd piano concerto with Zinman. I always wished he would record the Chopin 1st concerto but I didn't think he ever did. Even when they first put the 2nd concerto on cd it was with Argerich's Chopin 1st. I wonder if Ashkenazy's Chopin 1st is still available by its self. Ah the mysteries of classical music recordings!
I wouldn’t buy this, but I’m grateful for Ashkenazy and Decca doing so much repertoire, eventually in boxes, at such a high standard. Alas, the proliferation seems to have depressed his reputation somewhat and that’s a shame. The Mozart piano concerto set, for example, is very well played and recorded, woodwind sound great (Kingsway Hall I think) but it was overtaken by some many others that it gets a bit neglected. I have a number of cycles of these and I gave it to a friend - not because it was bad but because I wouldn’t want to give a poor or boring cycle of those works to anyone who hadn’t heard them before!
Why would one buy an Ashkenazy complete concertos box? Why would one climb Mount Everest?
Because its there...
More seriously, I was in a CD shop in Hong Kong (yes, they still exist) when faced with the decision: to buy the Ashkenazy concerto box OR the Ashkenazy chamber music box? The store-owner made the decision for me: get BOTH with a 10% discount thrown in. You know what PT Barnum said about one being born every minute? At least I got Ashkenazy to autograph BOTH boxes for me before he retired!
Good for you!
Never, to my mind, nearly as fine a conductor as he was a pianist. (This based on both live and recorded performances in both roles.)
Like you, I have only
my ears and subjective tastes to guide me. I find Ashkenazy uninteresting and not very moving as a conductor, but enjoy his pianism immensely. Heard him conducting a dismal
Prokofiev 5th once in concert, as well as other performances as conductor that I found wanting.
Vlad did Rach 2 with the Moscow Phil & Kondrashin. I liked it far more than the Previn set. (I admit I was skipping through some of this video. That Beethoven/Mozart redundancy issue getting to me, so there is a 1% chance I missed its mention)
You did.
I owned the complete Prokofiev concerti but I frankly preferred the more or less contemporaneous set with Browning and Leinsdorf, more sec and pointed, more to my personal taste. Not the very greatest out there but prefer them going head to head.
4 Beethoven cycles! What was he thinking? Shame given all the other good stuff.
I think Ashkenazy's first outings are far superior to his many remakes. The only exception for me is the Rachmaninov 3rd with Ormandy, although that first one with Fistoulari is also splendid.
This is unrelated to this video!
Can anyone please tell me what is the name of that nutbag who conducted THE NINTH at half tempo? It lasts like 2 and a half hours... David mentioned it in some video a long time ago and I can't remember it.
Maximianno Cobra
@@RabidCh thank you!!! My God...
And the 9th is the only symphony where Cobra used an actual orchestra. The rest of his “cycle” is just synthesizers.
It’s a disease amongst performance practice people who are unfamiliar with the mountains of historical evidence refuting it. There is a lot about it on TH-cam and the proponents quickly delete all evidence to refute people post. Gotta love the age of disinformation.
Given the amount of Ashkenazy second-hand single discs and boxes available, does anyone have top choices to rescue from warehouse shelf oblivion?
Ashkenazy made some great chamber music recordings of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms - complete Beethoven and Brahms violin sonatas with Perlman, complete Beethoven piano trios with Perlman and Harrell, complete Schubert trios with Zukerman and Harrell, and the Brahms horn trio with Perlman and Tuckwell on a disc with the Franck violin sonata with Perlman. Also his 13 disc box of Chopin and a twofer of Rachmaninoff's Preludes and some other stuff.
I have to disagree in regard to his conducting. I have always found Ashkenazy's work as a conductor to be much more riveting and interesting than his piano playing, which I've always found to be rather faceless and ordinary. Most pianists(and other instrumentalists) who transition into conducting are misguided, such as Pletnev, but with Ashkenazy it was definitely a good move.
That’s an absurd comment. Ashkenazy is one of the greatest living pianists. One of the greatest of the post-WWII era. That can hardly be said of his conducting, though his conducting can be excellent.
@@MD-md4th Sorry, his piano playing has never done a thing for me; I find it bland and uninvolved. I would never seek out any of his piano recordings, which on top of being boring often have excruciating sound, but I find myself returning very often to a number of his orchestral recordings, such as his excellent Sibelius cycle with the Philharmonia, and several of the Shostakovich symphonies. I would consider his Rachmaninov series with the Concertgebouw as being reference recordings, as I would his recording of Prokofiev's Cinderella with Cleveland. His recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet is equally outstanding. I had given up on Ashkenazy the pianist after being consistently disappointed, but when I discovered Ashkenazy the conductor I was absolutely delighted, and couldn't believe the transformation. I suspect that although the piano was Ashkenazy's instrument, it was the orchestral literature he truly loved, and it shows.