Robert Hugill Meets British Pianist Ashley Wass Wass was only the second British pianist in twenty years to reach the finals of the Leeds piano competition (in 2000). He is reasonably http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Robert Hugill Meets British Pianist Ashley Wass and has a relatively unfulfilled interest in mountaineering. Ashley Wass. Photo Peter Wass. Regarding the future, he has a number of plans http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
BBC - Radio 3 - Lunchtime Concert - Ashley Wass From LSO St Luke's, Stephanie Hughes introduces this recital by British pianist Ashley Wass, recorded at last year's City of London Festival. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
BBC - Radio 3 - Discovering Music - 23 July 2005 Stephen Johnson joins the pianist Ashley Wass alongside piano students from the Royal Northern College of Music and the Chethams School in Manchester http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Home Page Ashley Wass Pianist "Make no mistake about it this boy is special. What I love about his playing is its sincerity and tenderness. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Ashley Wass Ashley Wass Pianist. The young British pianist, Ashley Wass, is recognised as one of the rising stars of his generation. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Ashley Wass Ashley Wass. The young British pianist, Ashley Wass, is recognised as one of the rising stars of his generation. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Fox Bursary Ashley Wass Ashley Wass, Piano (1996) The young British pianist, Ashley Wass, is recognised as one of the rising stars of his generation. http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Classical Piano Links Ashley Wass Pianist (UK) Scott Watkins Pianist Ali Wood Pianist (AU) William Westney Pianist http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
University Of York Concert Series - Performance Information - 21 Ashley Wass is recognised as one of the rising stars of his generation. In 2000 he was only the second British pianist in 20 years to reach the http://tmsyn.wc.ask.com/r?t=an&s=hb&uid=24312681243126812&sid=343126
Robert Hugill Meets British Pianist Ashley Wass Quality and clarity. ROBERT HUGILL meets British pianist ashley wass series devoted to the piano music of Arnold Bax, played by the pianist ashley wass. http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2004/09/wass1.htm
Extractions: British pianist Ashley Wass In September 2004 Naxos will be releasing the first disc in a series devoted to the piano music of Arnold Bax, played by the pianist Ashley Wass. Naxos hopes to include more than just the solo piano music in the series and there are plans for Wass to record works with piano and orchestra, chamber music including the piano quintet, works for violin and piano (with Laurence Jackson from the Maggini String Quartet) and pieces for two pianos with Antti Siirala. Wass had little experience of Bax when first approached about the project three years ago, but by the time it came to fruition last year, he had come to Bax through the orchestral music. Indeed the orchestral nature of Bax's lush, colouristic music was something which appealed to Wass. The Bax piano sonatas are complex works and for Wass their greatest challenge is a structural one arising from their improvisational nature. Besides the issue of their structure, the works' other main problem is one of texture; Wass feels that there were a number of passages which were not too pianistic. He suggests that these challenges can best be overcome by giving the musical ideas time and space to breathe. Clarity is something which Wass looks for in piano playing and it is clarity which he has tried to bring to the sonatas; presenting their wide range of ideas and emotions in as clear a way as possible. When writing his piano pieces, Bax notoriously ignored the limitations of one of his prime interpreters, the pianist Harriet Cohen who possessed small hands. But Wass did not find the technical demands outrageous, particularly compared to Cesar Franck's piano music as Franck possessed huge hands (Wass's disc of Frank piano music was recorded for Naxos in 1998).
Robert Hugill Meets British Pianist Ashley Wass wass was only the second British pianist in twenty years to reach the finals ofthe Leeds piano competition (in 2000). He is reasonably positive about the http://www.mvdaily.com/articles/2004/09/wass2.htm
Extractions: 2 Robert Hugill QUALITY AND CLARITY The sonatas, particularly the earlier ones, can be seen to be highly influenced by Russians such as Rachmaninov and Skryabin and through them, by Liszt. Liszt is in fact a composer that Wass feels drawn to, describing him as a great poet of the piano and Wass likes playing such works as the When learning new repertoire, Wass tries to avoid listening to other pianists' versions of the same music. For the Bax series he made a conscious decision not to hear earlier recorded versions so that he could start from scratch. When learning a new sonata you may be traversing ground which is reasonably familiar. But with Bax, Wass welcomed the sense of learning something afresh, the chance to create his own sound world as Bax was a new language for him. He views as positive the process of starting from scratch; at first there were moments when he questioned the quality of the music and had doubts about what he had agreed to do. But he feels that it was a very rewarding process to work towards being comfortable with the music. With recordings, Wass finds it difficult to get the sort of piano sound he would like. This can be a time consuming process and such things as the exact location of the piano in the studio can cause differences in the recorded sound. Regarding pianos, he expresses a preference for Steinway, finding the tone of these possessing body. Even though they require work, he finds them rewarding and misses their depth of tone in some other pianos.
Extractions: Playing without music, Ashley Wass showed that he has developed into a mature, thoughtful 'musicians' pianist'. He judged the Wigmore Hall acoustics perfectly in his dynamic range, pedalling clarity and beautiful tone quality. Wass gave an impression that having assimilated the scores completely, he was thinking and feeling these two sonatas whilst performing them. It made for a fulfilling hour's music, with a palpable silence from his listeners in the hall contributing to what will have been a memorable broadcast at home, as balanced from the BBC's five microphones. The E minor sonata of Beethoven (1814) is one of those smaller, concentrated middle period works (this one in two contrasted movements) which are more often encountered in complete cycles than chosen on their own. Its first movement requires meaningful juxtapositions of extreme contrasts; the second a relaxed melodic rondo which is Schubertian in feeling, both perfectly realised here. That was a perfect preparation for tackling the Everest of the young Brahms' huge five movement F minor sonata of 1853, his largest solo keyboard composition. The
Extractions: There are at least two other cycles of Baxs piano works available. Well, one is in the shops and the other has to be hunted for in the secondhand vinyl stores. Eric Parkins account is still definitive. It is the benchmark for all future recordings of this music. However, my first encounter with most of Baxs piano music was the set of four Lyrita albums recorded by Iris Loveridge. (Why, Oh why Lyrita do you not start re-issuing your extensive back catalogue!) I still have these records and I listened to a few of the pieces recorded on this present disc. Allowing for sound quality there is still something amazing and moving about these forty-odd year old recordings.
Fox Bursary | Ashley Wass The young British pianist, ashley wass, is recognised as one of the rising starsof his generation. Only the second British pianist in 20 years to reach the http://www.makingmusic.org.uk/html/85.shtml
Extractions: The young British pianist, Ashley Wass, is recognised as one of the rising stars 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 he "rising Stars" series at the 2001 Ravinia Festival and his promise has been further acknowledged by the BBC, who selected him to be a New Generations artists over two seasons. This season, Wass has appeared with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (with Osmo Vanska) and the BBC Philharmonic (with Yakov Kreizberg) and has recorded the Poulenc Piano Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic. Other engagements in the past year have included recitals and chamber music in the USA, Finland, Estonia, Paris, Germany, Holland and Switzerland. Forthcoming recitals around the UK will include works by Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Liszt, Stravinsky and Ravel. In September, he opens the Hong Kong Philharmonic's 2002/3 season with Beethoven's First Piano Concerto under Christopher Seaman. Ashley Wass 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."
Piano And Piano Accompanist The young British pianist, ashley wass, is recognised as one of the rising starsof his generation. After winning First prize at the 1997 World Piano http://www.music-link.org/performers/piano.html
Extractions: E-Mail: peterwass@onetel.com Web site: www.ashleywass.com The young British pianist, Ashley Wass, is recognised as one of the rising stars of his generation. After winning First prize at the 1997 World Piano Competition, he became only the second British pianist in 20 years to reach the final of the Leeds Piano Competition. His promise has been further acknowledged by the BBC, who selected him to be a New Generations Artist. He has given recitals at many of the major international venues and has appeared as soloist with many leading orchestras around the world.
Lincoln International Chamber Music Festival LICMF Profile ashley wass. The young British pianist, ashley wass, isrecognised as one of the rising stars of his generation. Only http://www.music-link.org/LICMF/2004Festival/Profiles/ashley_wass.htm
Naxos.com, Your World Of Classical Music Frank Bridge Piano Sonatas Recorded by ashley wass. pianist ashley wass andproducer Michael Ponder have just met at Potton Hall, Suffolk, UK to record a http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/default.asp?pn=News&displayMenu=In_the_Studio&op=I
Newsletter From Naxos.com, The Web Site Of Naxos And Marco Polo ashley wass, piano Cat. 8.557439, STEINER Adventures of Mark Twain (The) piano / Mischa Spoliansky, piano / studio pianist, piano / Friedrich Hollander http://www.naxos.com/mainsite/newsletters/new/Newsletter88.htm
Extractions: Newsletter No.88 September 8, 2004 Naxos News New Reviews September New Releases Naxos News New Reviews Every day we add new reviews of our recordings to Naxos.com. We present a weekly sampling of these under the heading 'Recent Reviews' and invite you to read what the critics are saying about Naxos. September New Releases Please note that not all releases are immediately available in all territories. If you are unable to find a particular title, please check with the distributor or sales representative for your country. Naxos BRAHMS: Four-Hand Piano Music, Vol. 12
Musical Pointers Arnold Bax Vol.1 ashley wass (piano) Naxos 8.557439 74 mins Franck, Chopin Hindemith Bebbington seemed to be a competent, but too literal pianist, http://www.musicalpointers.co.uk/reviews/cddvd/pianists0904.htm
Extractions: Dunelm DRD0230 [60 mins] Mark Bebbington has attracted interest with his exploration of British piano sonatas but I found his recital at St John's, London, perplexing and disappointing last week. He included some small pieces by Gurney and Howard Ferguson's sonata (1940),which Myra Hess used to champion. I had her HMV 78 of it and enjoyed working at it at the piano in the '50s. It was hyped up in a pre-recital talk (Lewis Foreman reminded us that it was the first British sonata to be recorded, long before Bax's) but on this occasion it did not match my memories which had caused me to attend. Bebbington seemed to be a competent, but too literal pianist, with little differentation of textures between his two hands. Also, he was tied to the score and his skills seemed at their limit, with far too many wrong notes. Better, of course, on the Somm studio recording, but still unpersuasive to me. It was shown up by Ashley Wass in his second CD for Naxos, the first release in a
