GO! CLASSICAL: LEGENDARY LISTENING.

Byline: Jenny Mackenzie

WORLD-FAMOUS conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy is making another appearance in the Midlands this month with a concert which promises to follow in the footsteps of his previous sell-out performances.

His appearances with pianist Evgeny Kissin and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Birmingham Symphony Hall are becoming legendary.

This formidable partnership now turns its attention to perhaps the most demanding of all piano concertos, Brahms' No 2, when they appear together on Friday, May 18.

In addition, Ashkenazy continues his exploration of the Shostakovich symphonies after conducting fine performances of others in earlier seasons.

Now it is the turn of the sixth with its enigmatic, slow and mysterious first movement and two brilliant successors.

Ashkenazy has often been quoted as saying that for him music is indivisible.

This conviction is borne out by his passion for so many different aspects of music-making, from conductor, to piano recitalist and chamber musician.

For the first part of his life, he was devoted to the piano.

He studied at the Central School of Music and Moscow Conservatoire, won second prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955, and first prizes in the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussells in 1956 and the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1962.

After that he spent three decades touring the great musical centres of the world, performing an ever-growing repertoire in recitals and concertos and appearing with chamber music partners such as Pinchas Zukerman.

During this time he built up one of the largest and most comprehensive recording catalogues of our day.

From the 1970s onwards, he became increasingly active as a conductor and held positions with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin.

He also made guest appearances with some of the world's finest orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony.

Three years ago, Ashkenazy took up the position of chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and since then he has devoted himself to a broad range of tours, recordings and special projects.

Alongside his work with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, he also now holds the positions of music director of the European Union Youth Orchestra and conductor laureate of the Philharmonia Orchestra.

He also continues to perform in recital throughout Europe, the Far East and America.

Anyone who is interested in seeing Ashkenazy perform with Kissin next week can get tickets from the Symphony Hall box office this week.

Tickets are priced between pounds 5 and pounds 37.50.

Telephone [phone].

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DYNAMIC DUO: Vladimir Ashkenazy (top) and Evgeny Kissin (above)