Rachmaninov: Complete Piano Music - Ashkenazy

Vladimir Ashkenazy (piano), with André Previn (piano), with Vovka Ashkenazy (piano), Dody Ashkenazy (piano), Alastair Mackie (trumpet) Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bernard Haitink

Vladimir Ashkenazy is the pre-eminent interpreter of Rachmaninov’s music, having championed it since the outset of his career. Ashkenazy is the only musician to record all of the composer’s piano works. This collection includes all Rachmaninov’s piano music, from his earliest compositions to the final masterpieces. In 2013, Ashkenazy celebrated his 50th anniversary as an exclusive Decca recording artist, celebrated appropriately by Decca Classics with a 50-CD Original Jackets Collection The Piano Concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini are here in versions with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Bernard Haitink: “The combined virtues of soloists, conductor, orchestras and recording on the new Decca are really rather remarkable” Gramophone on Piano Concerto No. 1 When Ashkenazy marked his 75th birthday (6 July 2012), he recorded a final album of Rachmaninov’s music, called ‘Rachmaninov Rarities’. This album includes the Seven Pieces (Moments Musicaux) Op.10, three Nocturnes, and ten shorter early works, including an unpublished 'Song without Words'. While the vast majority of the recording in this set are of digital-era provenance, the 11th CD includes earlier (analogue) versions of works included elsewhere in the set, including Ashkenazy’s earlier thoughts on the Corelli Variations and the Etudes-Tableaux, Op. 39.