The Vladimir Ashkenazy interview (Part1 of 2) [Listen 24:27 min]- playing Bartok Piano Concerto No2 in G major S03 Ep06
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S03 Ep06 (Part1 of 2)- playing Bartok Piano Concerto No2 in G major
Special Guest: Vladimir Ashkenazy is a classical music icon. He started his professional career by winning second prize in the 1955 International Chopin Piano Completion in Warsaw, and first prize in 1956 in The Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium and 1st prize in 1962 in Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He has gone on to establish himself as one of the greatest pianists of our time. In addition to his wonderful and large repertoire on piano, he was able to accomplish the rare and difficult task of establishing himself as a world renowned conductor, and working for the world’s top orchestras.
In this episode, Mr. Ashkenazy and I talk about his childhood schooling in Russia, his thoughts on Russia itself, and the talent that came from the nation during the Stalin era. He also describes the impact of hearing the Boston Symphony Orchestra for the first time, how he met the piano virtuoso, Sviatoslav Richer, and what it's like to play with Itzhak Perlman.
The Cultural Bread Basket
There are certain cultural moments in history where the collection of a few talented people within a specific geographic area shape and transform the entire world. We rely on these `happenings` to grow in our development, help us to better understand the world, and ultimately, to grow as a species. No one really knows where, when, or why these concentrated splashes of genius happen, or what conditions are needed for these moments to take place. But the fact of the matter is that they do happen, whether that be in Florence, Italy during the Renaissance, or ancient Greece during the golden age, and they will continue to happen as long as free thinking human beings walk the earth. Without question, Russia could have had one of the biggest (if not the biggest) cultural movements during the late 19th to early 20th century had history been kinder. The talent that came from that place in the arts, literature, and science became the who’s who in their respective fields and leaves the mind spinning with what could have been had their talent been unfettered.
Sadly, instead of these extraordinary groups of people acting as a magnet to bring together other talented and like-minded people from around the world, revolutions, revolts, World War I, and severe oppression by Joseph Stalin made these people run for the border or simply get overshadowed by the events of their time. In the classical music world of this era, the amount of musical genius raised within Russian borders was untouched and cannot be overstated. Regrettably, most of these artists ended up leaving their cultural fingerprint on the countries they fled to instead. Put another way, history books could have been written about these times as "the Russian Period of enlightenment," but instead I can only speculate about what could have been.
To bolster my point (speaking of the great musicians of the era), I thought I would list some of these exceptional individuals. Starting off at the end of the 19th Century there was composers like: Mikhail Glinka (1804–1857), “The Mighty Five” consisting of -Balakirev (1837–1910) , Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908), Mussorgsky (1839–81), Borodin (1833–87) and César Cui (1835–1918) and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93).
This carried on through the beginning of the 20th Century with other giants of composition like Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971), Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873 -1943), Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915), Sergei Prokofiev (1891–1953) and Dmitri Shostakovich (1906–1975) as well as world famous performers like Vladimir Ashkenazy (1937-Present), Sviatoslav Richter (1915 – 1997), David Oistrakh (1908 – 1974), Igor Oistrakh (1931 - Present), Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (1916 – 1985), Vladimir Horowitz (1903 –1989) and Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (1927 –2007).
As a westerner growing up in North America, it’s hard for me to comment about people like Shostakovich, Rostropovich or Rachmaninoff with regard to their feelings on their native country. If I had to guess, I would say that their thoughts on these subjects would be complex, confusing, and probably contradictory at times.
I do see some common themes that run through all these great men and women's work, regardless of whether they left the country or not. The first would be that they always seemed to gather a large reaction be it with Shostakovich’s famous Symphony No.7 “Leningrad” written within the Soviet's walls dealing with Nazi oppression at the height of World War II. This piece is so powerful and filled with emotion that people during those days were said to have wept openly upon hearing it; or Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring,” written in Switzerland. It caused such a reaction on its premiere in Paris that a riot broke out. The other traits that all these musicians had would be their passion, intensity, skill, and deep love for their mother Russia.
-Jason Hoffer
