Various: Ashkenazy: Master Musician (Christopher Nupen Films DVD)

This DVD contains one of Christopher Nupen’s famously
intimate portraits of leading performers plus a montage of
excerpts from his composer films with Ashkenazy as conductor
where one sees a very different Ashkenazy from the notably
undemonstrative pianist. The DVD also contains a
characteristically modest interview with Ashkenazy on the
nature and origins of musical talent and a deeply felt
performance of Rachmaninov’s last work for the piano, the
Corelli Variations, preceded by an extended introduction and
analysis by Ashkenazy that is a model of its kind.
Ashkenazy started high by winning the Queen Elizabeth of the
Belgians Prize at the age of 18 and later the Tchaikovsky
competition but that was only the start, his career has continued
to rise steadily from then until now. He is probably the most
frequently recorded pianist in history with a discography that
runs to 56 pages and he has also become an international
conductor of the highest rank.
In 2007 he celebrated his 70th birthday, an event which
produced world-wide press celebrations and an eight disc boxed
set of CDs from Decca (the eighth disc being an 80 minute
conversation between Ashkenazy and Christopher Nupen).
In the first film on the DVD Ashkenazy’s boyish charm and the
winning good looks of his Icelandic wife gave the film a very
appealing quality from its first appearance. In the intervening
years it has become also an affectionately remembered
historical document with a good deal of associated nostalgia.
Christopher Nupen’s DVDs have three times been awarded the
DVD of the theYear Award (Documentary category) at Midem
in Cannes.The first of them (Jacqueline du Pré), released in the
autumn of 2004 has already sold over 24,000 copies.