Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (Russian: Владимир Давидович Ашкенази; born 6 July 1937) is a Soviet-born Icelandic pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him seven Grammy Awards and he has been awarded three stages of Iceland's Order of the Falcon for his contribution to music.
Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), to pianist and composer David Ashkenazi and to actress Yevstolia Grigorievna (born Plotnova). His father was Jewish and his mother came from a Russian Orthodox family. Ashkenazy was christened in a Russian Orthodox church. He began playing piano at the age of six and was accepted to the Central Music School at age eight, studying with Anaida Sumbatyan.
Ashkenazy attended the Moscow Conservatory where he studied with Lev Oborin and Boris Zemliansky. He won second prize in the V International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955 and the first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels in 1956. He shared the first prize in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition with British pianist John Ogdon. As a student, like many in that period, he was harassed by the KGB to become an "informer".
Ashkenazy has recorded a wide range of piano repertoire, both solo works and concerti. His recordings include:
Bach's The Well-Tempered Clavier
24 Preludes and Fugues of Shostakovich
the complete works for piano by Rachmaninoff
the complete works for solo piano by Chopin
the (almost) complete works for piano by Schumann
His concerto recordings include:
the complete piano concertos of Mozart (conducting from the keyboard with the Philharmonia Orchestra)
three cycles of the 5 Beethoven concerti
(a) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Sir Georg Solti
(b) with Zubin Mehta and the Vienna Philharmonic
(c) conducting from the piano with the Cleveland Orchestra
Brahms with Bernard Haitink (No. 1 with the Concertgebouw Orchestra; No. 2 with the Vienna Philharmonic)
Bartók (with Georg Solti and the London Philharmonic Orchestra)
Prokofiev (with André Previn and the London Symphony Orchestra)