CLASSICAL REVIEW

Ashkenazy: The Complete Piano Concerto Recordings Decca (46 CDs plus 2 DVDs) Out now

Decca is celebrating Vladimir Ashkenazy’s 80th with this handsome box, devoted to all his concerto recordings. He made the first of them in London in 1963, and the recordings of the Rachmaninoff Third and the Tchaikovsky Concerto, with the London Symphony Orchestra, still sound wonderfully fresh.

Even better is the moody, impassioned account of the Rachmaninov Second that he set down later that year, this time with the Moscow Philharmonic under Kirill Kondrashin. I was in my mid-teens then and was swept away by a performance I still listen to often. For me it’s the best ever.

But of course Ashkenazy went on to make two complete Rachmaninov sets with André Previn, and then with Bernard Haitink, plus no fewer than three complete Beethoven cycles between 1971 and 1987. Some may think that including all these in one boxset is wasteful duplication but I don’t. It provides a wonderful opportunity to hear a great pianist mature and develop. Also in this excellent box can be found arguably the finest Prokofiev cycle (with Previn) and an exceptional Bartók cycle (with Georg Solti). Then there are the Brahms Concertos with Haitink and another favourite, a complete Mozart set, on which Ashkenazy directs his beloved Philharmonia from the keyboard. Ashkenazy still records solo piano albums – there’s a new Bach one out – but this box remains a remarkable tribute to his capabilities as a young man. Unmissable.