Info:
Duration: 52’ 00”
Year of production: 1985
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“…How naturally he can employ a ripe, Romantic rubato when it is really required, he demonstrated in an all-Schumann second half. After the restrained classicism of his Schubert, the extrovert dynamics, more luxurious use of the pedal, and wittily pointed rhythms of Papillons opened new expressive vistas. He seemed, too, to accentuate the whirlwind variety of these ballroom scenes by running movements together without pause.
Even this, though, hardly prepared one for the many touches of high poetic imagination and technical virtuosity he brought to the Etudes symphoniques. Ashkenazy included the five "posthumous" variations (which are of a quality that should surely earn more regular inclusion), for which one readily forgave his rather inconsistent policy towards repeat markings.
Here was a gradual unbuttoning of rich pianistic fantasy, incorporating some delectably smooth passagework in the arabesques of the Chopinesque variations, and culminating in a magnificent rampage through the dotted-rhythm fiesta of the finale.” - Richard Morrison
Vladimir Ashkenazy closed the 1984/85 season in London with a recital at the Royal Festival Hall that was regarded by many of those present as a new peak in his music-making. If that perception is correct, it is a remarkable achievement in a career that has risen with a notable steadiness since 1962 when he shared First Prize with John Ogdon at the Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.
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