MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2024
60,000 reviews
... and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


DVD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
AmazonUK AmazonUS


Vladimir Ashkenazy - Master Musician
A film by Christopher Nupen
The Vital Juices are Russian [51:04]; Ashkenazy The conductor [9:03]; Sergei Rachmaninov’s Corelli Variations Op. 42 with commentary [24:02]; Corelli Variations (1931) played by Ashkenazy [24:20]
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Edo de Waart, Itzhak Perlman.
rec. 2008.
ALLEGRO FILMS A09CND [160:00]
Experience Classicsonline


Part of this film came about by chance as many good things do. Vladimir Ashkenazy (b. 1937) was playing the Op.42 Corelli Variations by Rachmaninov (1873-1943) for the formal performance being filmed by Christopher Nupen. As they were setting up, Ashkenazy started to talk about the music, and what it meant to him. What he was doing was worth capturing into a film on its own, as Ashkenazy, talking spontaneously, was revealing the process by which a musician creates a performance. This is far rarer than one might suppose, and is often taken for granted. So here we have three films in one, the full performance, the extempore conversation and a film from the archives, showing how Ashkenazy, like Rachmaninov before him, came to terms with being Russian in a new environment.

Needless to say, the performance is very good, especially as it takes place in a small auditorium with an appreciative audience. This makes a difference, for it is intimate, introspective music, the composer’s last piece for solo piano. As a pianist, he “spoke” with the piano more than with any other instrument. He was also a man who believed firmly that music should be, above all, emotionally resonant. So Ashkenazy appreciates what it must have meant to the composer. Rachmaninov was forced into exile by the Russian Revolution, and though he had a successful career and moved in émigré circles, he never really settled outside his homeland. His identity was so bound up with being Russian that he never quite recovered from the shock of being uprooted. Even the Russia he’s known was changed. It was as if he were in mourning for a world abruptly destroyed. 

As Ashkenazy says, Rachmaninov’s early music was expressive and expansive. “He wants to share with us his enjoyment of the joys of life, he’s generous and open”. As he talks, Ashkenazy plays excerpts from other Rachmaninov pieces, including the Second Symphony to illustrate his point, entirely from memory. The Corelli Variations have “idiomatic eloquence”, but the “Harmony closes in and becomes darker”, as if the composer was drawing into himself rather than being exuberantly open. Ashkenazy plays the main lyrical part, but even this ember of happiness is tinged with melancholy. “There is not a shred of hope”, he comments. The piece was inspired by a legend about a shepherd committing suicide because he lost the one he loved. Perhaps for Rachmaninov, exile was a kind of creative suicide. 

Not so for Ashkenazy, fortunately. He left Russia in his youth, so in many ways adjusted more easily. The archive film shows him with his family in Iceland. He’s bought a house, he plays with his kids, all simple, normal things a man does. But the difference is that he’s always touring, and rarely settles. Though his children are Icelandic, he’s Russian to his soul. There’s a difference, only moderated by the fact that Russia itself has changed. What comes over most, though, is his dedication to his art. It’s worth all the sacrifices he’s made, without question. Ashkenazy met Christopher Nupen when he was only 19, newly arrived in the west. He heard one of Nupen's radio prgrammes and asked him to make a radio programme about Scriabin with him, invited him home, and played him the entire Scriabin piano works during the course of several evenings. It was a spontaneous act of generosity, in the spirit of Rachmaninov at his happiest. No wonder he understands the composer and plays him so well.

Anne Ozorio


 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Chandos recordings
All Chandos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.