18Oct

Vladimir Ashkenazy: The Vital Juices are Russian

posted by Steve Bowbrick

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No question about it: the best programme classified ‘music’ on iPlayer at the moment: a lovely 1968 documentary about pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. The young Ashkenazy’s evidently not your stereotypical classical soloist: not wild-eyed, tempestuous or mercurial and not an egomaniac, despite his international fame. He’s modest, curious, humane, passionate. The kind of person you’d like to meet and get to know. There are many spine-tingling moments in the programme: not least a rehearsal for Stravinsky’s arrangement for four hands of his Rite of Spring with Daniel Barenboim at the (brand new) Queen Elizabeth Hall. Inspiring.

4 comments

Comments so far.

  1. Posted by beeker on Monday 20th October

    O.M.G. My favourite pianist of all time. Can’t believe I didn’t notice it (Watchification’s not bad is it?)

  2. Posted by Steve Bowbrick on Monday 20th October

    I know! Now we just need a few more people posting!

  3. Posted by Simon on Friday 9th January

    What is the last piece he plays at the end? It has been used n a crappy commercial for training schemes recently. Can’t get it out of my head.

  4. Posted by Danièle Wichené on Sunday 22nd February

    I have tried to obtain the list of pieces from the programme but so far no luck. I will try to talk to a bbc researcher

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