NAMES IN THE NEWS : Ashkenazy Returns to Moscow
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MOSCOW — Soviet-born pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy, back in Moscow after an absence of 26 years, said today he wanted to endorse the reform process begun by Kremlin leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev.
“Had I been invited earlier, I would have not thought twice or three times, but 10 times before agreeing to come,” Ashkenazy, who was born in the city of Gorky to Jewish parents, told a news conference at Moscow’s Culture Fund headquarters.
“I thought that by accepting and coming here, I would in a modest way endorse what is happening in my country.”
Ashkenazy, 51, arrived in Moscow Thursday to conduct two charity concerts with the London-based Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, of which he is musical director.
The pianist left the Soviet Union in 1963, a year after winning the coveted Tchaikovsky prize, following the personal intervention of the late Soviet leader Nikita S. Khrushchev. He now lives in Lucerne, Switzerland.
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