It is hard to believe that the dynamic principal conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra has had a 50-year recording career (and ongoing). The bulk of Ashkenazy’s work in the studio has been for Decca, and this box dips into his extensive discography with the label. It begins with the Rachmaninov Second and Third Piano Concertos from the
early 1960s, when young Vladimir
 was still a Soviet Award-winner,
and concludes with his 2007 
recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli
 Variations. In between are many 
examples of his work as a pianist 
and conductor, although the
 selection is by no means complete. 
(What’s missing? Previn’s mellifluous Piano Concerto, and all the Stravinsky recordings.)

As with most prolific recording artists, Ashkenazy has his detractors and is often taken for granted, but at the very least he is reliable. None of these performances strikes me as eccentric, wrong-headed or self- promoting; nor are they boring. At his best he has produced readings of works such as the Prokofiev and Rachmaninov concertos that have held their own in a competitive field for decades.

The secret of his success is the music.
 He puts the composer first. You can hear that as early as the 1963 Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No 1 under a youthful Lorin Maazel. Ashkenazy never rushes fast passages to show off his technique; his pianism in the Finale is alive with sparkle and point.

These selections, packaged in reproductions of the original LP covers, are enhanced with many bonus tracks. The famous disc of Scriabin’s Prometheus and Piano Concerto is coupled with Ashkenazy conducting the Berlin RSO in the Poem of Ecstasy (not Maazel’s Cleveland performance, as was the case in a previous incarnation).

Other highlights include Shostakovich’s Preludes and Fugues, Bartók’s Concertos Nos 1 and 2
 with Solti, and a Pictures at an Exhibition double: Mussorgsky’s piano version plus Ashkenazy’s own orchestration. There are surprises: Brahms’s Second Concerto, with the Vienna Philharmonic, is one of the
most poetic performances I’ve heard. But Rachmaninov is the main winner. Although Ashkenazy has re-recorded this repertoire in Sydney, his Concertgebouw versions of the First and Third Symphonies, The Bells and the Symphonic Dances, are hard to beat. He also accompanies the late Swedish soprano Elisabeth Soderström in a recital of Russian songs, which is very special.

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