Johann Sebastian Bach 333

Pianist and conductor with an immense repertoire, Vladimir Ashkenazy celebrated his 80th birthday in 2017, which DECCA, his record company, has not forgotten by publishing a choice made by the artist himself to salute this event. A child prodigy, the young Vladimir aroused admiration for his prodigious gifts. At 8, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, at 18, he won second prize at the Frédéric Chopin Competition. The following year he won first prize in succession at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Belgium and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Here he is launched, but slowed down by the Soviet Union and especially by the KGB which harasses him so that he becomes an “informant” of the regime. He holds on and ends up being able to emigrate with his young Icelandic wife whom he met at the Moscow Conservatory. The couple then moved to London, then to Iceland, where Vladimir participated in the founding of the Reykjavic Arts Festival, of which he remains honorary president. In 1978, the family, they now have 4 children, moved to Switzerland in the canton of Lucerne.