About two years ago, after one of Vladimir Ashkenazy’s concerts at the Royal Festival Hall I was talking to him about a piece that is especially close to my heart, the rarely performed Fantaisie de Concert by Tchaikovsky. He agreed with me that it is a good piece that's unjustly neglected and said he would see if we could perform it somewhere. I soon learnt that, unlike many of his colleagues, Maestro Ashkenazy keeps his word and an invitation to perform the concerto with the