When winning a piano contest meant a bigger flat: Soviet-born Vladimir Ashkenazy on a life in the East and West
For the celebrated musician and conductor, music has been a gift that he cannot imagine living without
The sound of music I learned piano from my father, who was a pianist, but he played light music – in Russia it was songs people sang, folk music; it wasn’t jazz or pop music. I wasn’t interested in light music. From the very beginning, I played Bach, Beethoven, Haydn and Mozart.
The piano was unbelievably attractive to me as a child. It seemed to me absolutely wonderful, the sound of the music. When I studied at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory from the age of eight, my friends there asked me how I could learn music so fast. I didn’t know how I did it. I just read music and played it right away.
Chopin trip In 1955, when I was 17, I was one of six young musicians sent by the Soviet Union to participate in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. I was the most successful and made it all the way to the final.
Half the jury was Polish so they were delighted not to give first prize to a Russian, but a Polish pianist. But one of the judges was the famous Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. He was very upset because he felt it was fixed. He privately told me he felt I should have won the competition.
Prize surprise It’s good that I didn’t get first prize – I’m joking a bit – otherwise I would not have gone to the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels the following year, where I did win first prize. I didn’t expect to win – there’s a photograph of me in Brussels, when they announced my name, and I’m in shock.