Vladimir Ashkenazy's first recording of Debussy's Preludes is a somewhat of a sensation. This recording combines a new recording of Book 1 with a live recording of Book 2 from a recital in New York in 1971. We therefore not only honor the 100th anniversary of Debussy's death in 1918, but also pay tribute to one of the most remarkable pianists and musicians of the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the foremost musical figures of our time, Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky in 1937. He began playing the piano at the age of six and was accepted at the Central Music School at the age of eight. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, having studied with Lev Oborin. He won second prize in the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955, first prize in the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels in 1956, and joint first prize with John Ogdon in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Since then, he has built an extraordinary career, not only as one of the most renowned and revered pianists of our times, but as an artist whose creative life encompasses a vast range of activities and continues to offer inspiration to music-lovers across the world.