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 Programme - 5 December 2008
Described by Gramophone Magazine as a 'thoroughbred who possesses the enviable gift to turn almost anything he plays into pure gold', Ashley Wass is firmly established as one of the most sought-after performers of his generation. Only the second British pianist in 20 years to reach the finals of the Leeds Piano Competition (in 2000), he was the first British pianist ever to win the top prize at the World Piano Competition in 1997. He appeared in the ”Rising Stars” series at the 2001 Ravinia Festival, and is also a former BBC New Generations Artist.
Ashley Wass studied at Chethams Music School and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music to study with Christopher Elton and Hamish Milne. In 2002 he was made an Associate of the Royal Academy. He has spent three summers as a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival, playing chamber music with musicians such as Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode and members of the Guarneri Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio.
Wass has given recitals at most of the major UK concert halls including the Wigmore Hall, Symphony Hall, the Purcell Room, LSO St. Luke's, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Royal Festival Hall, the Sage, Bridgewater Hall, St. David’s Hall, and at the festivals of Bath, Harrogate, Cheltenham , Brighton and the City of London. His concerto performances have included Beethoven and Brahms with the Philharmonia, Mendelssohn with the Orchestre National de Lille and Mozart with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra at the Vienna Konzerthaus and the Brucknerhaus in Linz. Wass has also worked with Sir Simon Rattle and the CBSO, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the London Mozart Players.
In recent seasons Wass appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (with Osmo Vanska) and the BBC Philharmonic. He has also recorded the Poulenc Piano Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic and Vassily Sinaisky. In June 2002 he appeared in a gala concert at Buckingham Palace to mark the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, a performance broadcast live to millions of viewers around the world. Other notable engagements have included several return visits to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (working with Alexander Titov, Ilan Volkov and Martyn Brabbins) and the Philharmonia, successful debuts with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales (a performance of Brahms 1st Concerto that was voted "Best of 2004 - BBC Radio 3 Performance") and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and acclaimed debuts in Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Portugal, Israel, Germany, Switzerland, the USA and Cuba.
Future engagements include concerts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Sinfonia Viva, the Portuguese Symphony and the London Mozart Players, recitals in Amsterdam, Cyprus, Lisbon, Istanbul, Chicago, Mexico City, St. John's Smith Square, Wigmore Hall, the Sage, St. David's Hall, Bridgewater Hall and LSO St. Luke's. Ashley is also much in demand as a chamber musician and, in 2007, will tour the USA and Europe with violinist Sarah Chang, appearing at venues such as Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, La Jolla, Dublin's National Concert Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York. He is also the Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival.
Ashley Wass’s recording of Beethoven 3rd Piano Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic has been issued as a BBC Music Magazine cover CD and he has also recorded Chopin for an EMI disc “In Tune with the Piano”. He made his debut recording in 1999 with a solo recital disc of works by Cesar Franck for Naxos. Diapason commented: 'No less remarkable is the way that he delivers the Prelude, Aria et Final with great precision and taste and always with a sense of dynamics and articulation that is reminiscent of old masters such as Bolet and Ciccolini. The quality and height of inspiration of his playing makes this disc a revelation.' Ashley's three-part survey of the piano music of Arnold Bax for Naxos has been heralded as 'an unmissable series' and 'the yardstick against which all future recordings will be judged'. Selected as an 'Editor's Choice' CD in Gramophone Magazine and later nominated in the 'Best Instrumental Disc' category of the Gramophone Awards, Volume One was hailed as 'without a shadow of a doubt the best recorded and best played Bax piano CD to come before the public', while Volume Two is described as 'unmissable at any price'. Other highly acclaimed releases include the piano works of Elgar and Bridge, and a CD of Bax violin sonatas with Laurence Jackson. As Naxos's first ever exclusively contracted solo artist, Wass's future recording plans include recitals of Alwyn and Liszt, the complete works of Bax for two pianos (with Martin Roscoe), Bax Concertos, and Liszt's arrangement for two pianos of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony (with Leon McCawley).
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