Moscow, 2 July 1963: the 25-year-old winner of the Tchaikovsky Piano
Competition left the USSR to pursue a career in the west.
Tonight, 26 years later, Vladimir Ashkenazy returns with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Now one of the most sought-after pianists and conductors, he performs once more in the Bolshoi Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.
In the audience are not only some of the teachers who last heard him as a young student, but also his father and younger sister who remained in the Soviet Union. The concert, introduced by Michael Berkeley , includes both
English and Russian music - Knussen's Third Symphony and Tchaikovsky's Fourth
Symphony - and Ashkenazy himself is the soloist in Beethoven's Third Piano
Concerto.
Sound Ron Allan
Lighting James Maiden Producer Hilary Boulding
BBC Scotland
(Concert given in association with Cable and Wireless and with the British Council)