1946 and London

​​​​​​​​​​

First visit to Great Britain. In Trento, he meets the Pedrotti Brothers, founders of the Alpine SAT Choir, for whom, in the following years, he will harmonise 19 mountain songs. 

​

28 May, 1946: Teatro dell'Opera di Roma with conductor Joseph Savagnone - 

L. v. Beethoven – Concerto No. 5 in E flat major for Piano and Orchestra , Op. 73, “The Emperor”

E. Grieg – Concerto in A minor for piano and orchestra , Op. 16

G. Savagnone – The Red Dragon, Suite from the Ballet

FM Veracini –  Largo (Transcr. G. Savagnone)

L. v. Beethoven – Egmont, Overture

​

On Wednesday, 5 June 1946, after a long absence, the Italian master pianist Atturo Benedetti—Michelangeli—will be performing a piano recital in the small Tonhalle, Zurich. Benedetti will play the following works: Bach (Toccata and Fugue in D minor), Chopin (Sonata in B-flat minor), Ravel (Gaspard de la nuit), Debussy (Images), and Stravinsky (Danse russe).  Neue Zürcher Zeitung (1 June 1946)

​

ABM's first appearance in London in 1946 was with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

​

Sunday, 1 December 1946 at 3pm
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Louis Cohen
'God Save the King' (The National Anthem),
Symphony No.1 in C Major, Op.21, Beethoven
Piano Concerto No.5 in E Flat Major, Op.73, Beethoven
Symphony No.5 in C Minor, Op.67, Beethoven

​

There was a second concert at the RAH on Sunday 15 December, 1946.

London Symphony Orchestra, conductor Warwick Braithwaite
Overture from L'Italiana in Algeri, Rossini,
Variations Symphoniques, Franck 
Piano Concerto No.1 in E Flat, Liszt (listed as Ravel in G major in an advert in The Jewish Chronicle, 13.12.46)
Symphonie Fantastique, Op.14, Berlioz

​

In the intervening Sunday (8 December 1946) at His Majesty's Theatre at 3pm: "Italy's Greatest Pianist", Only London Recital (presented by Harold Holt Ltd.).  The programme will include Brahms-Paganini, Stravinsky Danse Russe, Bach-Busoni Chaconne and Beethoven's Sonata No.3  Op.2/3 in C major.  In the Evening Standard (10 December), Desmond Shawe-Taylor wrote: 'Another Horowitz. His finger control dazzling, his scale passages uncommonly even, his gradations of tone of the finest, and his part-playing about as clear as any I have ever heard.  There was a freshness and an element of surprise which partly recreated the shock with which this music must have bust upon its first listeners.'  The Daily Herald extolled: "Few pianists could do it".

​

'After the war, his engagements in Europe and overseas increased. In 1946, as a budding piano star, he presented himself in London, where he returned many times during his life. After appearances in Brussels and Zurich, he returned to a sold-out La Scala in Milan in November 1947, where he played with the Turin Symphony Orchestra and conductor Mario Rossi to perform Beethoven's Fifth Concerto. The piano part of the concert was a great success with the audience, and alongside Beethoven, Dallapiccola's two orchestral pieces were played, which literally provoked a "fight between the orchestra and the audience", who "whistled, screamed and generally made it impossible to listen to these musical innovations" during the performance.'  (Corriere della Sera. 25. 11. 1942) 

Katia Vendrame (Brno, 2022)

​

Camillo Togni was a favourite student, and later a close friend of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. He attended his classes assiduously from 1945 to 1948—when Benedetti Michelangeli lived with Camillo’s aunt, Esterina Togni in Gussago, near Brescia—then less frequently up until 1953. Togni and Benedetti Michelangeli were linked by a close bond of mutual admiration up until the composer’s death in 1993. Benedetti Michelangeli intended to include Togni’s Seconda Partita Corale (1976) which was dedicated to him, in his repertoire; he recorded Togni’s cadenza for Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 25 in C major, K.503 (1989) and he would have performed Togni’s cadenzas for the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K.491 in the autumn of 1993 if illness had not prevented him from doing so. (Aldo Orvieto)

​

In the Ricordi Archive, there is a letter dated  8 March 1946 (Mazatlán, Mexico) from Elsa Respighi Olivieri Sangiacomo (1894-1996, wife of Ottorino Respighi) to Guido Valcarenghi which includes the following:

​

'I'm waiting for news from [impresario Ernesto] De Quesada about the Colón and Rio de Janeiro seasons, and I'd be happy if you could write me something about them. Benedetti Michelangeli was supposed to come to South America this year, but unfortunately he seems to have withdrawn due to health reasons. I suggested Franco Mannino or Sangiorgi, but it's certainly not the same thing!'

​​

​

Marco Vitale, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Frammenti di ricordi (2015) collects valuable testimonies of the activity of the Società Bresciana Concerti Sinfonici "Santa Cecilia" and the Maestro's fundamental contribution to the revival of the city's musical life in the post-World War II period. From the "ancient papers" reorganized by Vitale, a stimulating panorama emerges, a circle of committed Brescian personalities gathered around Benedetti Michelangeli. As the Society's "honorary" president, the Maestro was the most important point of reference for the organization of concerts, musical programming, and the establishment of important cultural contacts in the city.

​

1947

​

Vienna, May/June 1947.  But ABM's only two listed "Klavierabend" recitals in the Großer Saal of Vienna's Musikverein were both cancelled (8 March & 3 June, 1947)

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​​

 

Wednesday, 11 June 1947, Teatro Argentina, Rome
Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
conductor: Antonio Pedrotti
Mozart Concerto No. 20 in D minor for piano and orchestra K. 466
Schumann Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 54
Ravel Concerto in G major for piano and orchestra

​

30 July, 1947 Rome. Basilica of Maxentius
Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
conductor: Antonio Pedrotti
Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"
Liszt Totentanz, for piano and orchestra R 457
Grieg Concerto in A minor for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 16

​

The first Edinburgh Festival, 1947

​

Michelangeli made his first appearance with the Ravel Concerto at the Edinburgh Festival in summer 1947 (actually 7 September) with the Scottish [National] Orchestra under Walter Süsskind.  This was the inauguration of the Festival. "In 1947, after the devastation of World War II, the founding vision for the Edinburgh International Festival was to reunite people through great art. In that first year, people overcame the post-war darkness, division and austerity in a blooming of festival spirit. Over the past eight decades, that same vision has ignited an astonishing breadth of thrilling cultural experiences across the arts.  As the first Festival approached in 1947, rations were still in place and the Minister for Fuel and Power banned floodlighting the castle at the inaugural International Festival. But the people of Edinburgh felt differently. They wanted visitors to appreciate their magnificent castle, floodlit at night. Hundreds of letters and telegrams poured in with generous offers to donate coal rations.  The Minister had no choice but to relent."

​

The festivities opened on Sunday, August 24, with a special service at St Giles’. It was a stirring occasion. “The world will pass away, but music and love will last for ever”, declared the Very Rev Dr Charles L.Warr, Dean of the Thistle and Chapel Royal. “Today a new spirit is abroad. Scotland is awakening to the full significance of art and beauty”.

​

The Glasgow Herald (8.9.47) - while regretting that the orchestra chose Dvorak's 8th rather than his 7th symphony - notes that the young Italian pianist was making his first appearance in Scotland.  'This was scarcely the happiest choice that could have been made.  It is one of Ravel's slighter works - the composer originally thought of calling it a divertissement - and on the whole it is not particularly characteristic.  Mr Michelangeli has a light and kind of glittering technique and he sailed through the concerto as if the difficulties (which are formidable) did not exist.'  Some of his more delicate effects in the slow movement may not have reached the back of the hall. 'It will be interesting to hear him in the future in a work of heavier calibre.'  Michelangeli has been invited by Festival Manager Rudolf Bing after he had heard him play at the Italian Embassy in London.

​

(The chief music correspondent for The Glasgow Herald at this time was Ralph Hill, who served as the assistant music critic from 1933 and became the chief music critic from 1945 to 1948. There is a mention of a potential syndicate between Hill and John Amis, who wrote for The Scotsman, swapping roles to reduce assignments. This review may have been by the latter, who was for several years manager for Sir Thomas Beecham;  of the summer school at Dartington (from 1953), Amis was administrative director until 1981, during which time he brought to the school a long line of international musicians, amongst them Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, and Sir Michael Tippett.)

​

November: London with the RAI Turin Orchestra (on tour) and Mario Rossi.  2 (Covent Garden), 3 and 7 (BBC), 9 (Royal Albert Hall).  On the 10th they travelled north to City Hall, Sheffield, then 13 (Newcastle), 14 (St Andrew's Hall, Glasgow, Scotland), 15 (Usher Hall, Edinburgh), 16 (Liverpool), 17 (Birmingham)...

then on 19th in Palais des Beaux Arts, Bruxelles, and on the 23rd in Zürich.

​

The concert at the Royal Albert Hall on Sunday 9th was:

'God Save The King' (The National Anthem)
Italian National Anthem
Overture, 'Leonora, No.3', Beethoven
Piano Concerto No.5 In E Flat Major, Op.73', Beethoven (Michelangeli)
Symphony No.5 In C Minor, Op.67, Beethoven

An advert in The Jewish Chronicle lists the Turin orchestra as conducted by Alberto Erede

​

The Glasgow Herald 15 Nov 1947 noted that as Italians the orchestra played the Saltarello of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony with extraordinary verve.  ABM played Mozart K466.  'He has a fascinating ease on the technical side but he succumbed to the temptation of drama in the music, announcing some themes with a needless hardness of quality. At other times, he played with the greatest delicacy and was delightful.'

​

24 November 1947, Milan - Teatro alla Scala.  Beethoven, Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-Flat Major, Op. 73 'Emperor'
- Mario Rossi conducting Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI (the first recording which exists of ABM in this work)

 

1948

He recorded the Bach-Busoni Ciaccona and the Brahms-Paganini Variations in London. He was a member of the jury at the Scheveningen (Netherlands) and Budapest piano competitions. He toured Great Britain again: at the Edinburgh Festival, he played the Bethoven Triple Concerto with Gioconda De Vito and Enrico Mainardi, accompanied by Furtwängler.

​

21 March 1948, Rome, Teatro Argentina
Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
conductor: Antonio Pedrotti, piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Handel Water Music: Suite
Mozart Concerto No. 23 in A major for piano and orchestra K. 488
Masetti Idyll and Dithyramb, for orchestra
Franck Variations symphoniques, in F sharp minor, for piano and orchestra​

​

15 June 1948, Grosser Konzerthaus-Saal, Vienna.  Haydn D major concerto, + Ravel; also Mario Peragallo, La Collina.  Wiener Symphoniker under "renowned Italian conductor and Respighi pupil" Antonio Pedrotti.  'Michelangeli, now 28 years old, has often been expected in Vienna. Now he is here: he will play a Haydn piano concerto and the Ravel concerto. He recently gave an evening in Trieste. On the 18th he will be performing again in Trieste, and on the 19th in Venice. In October he will go to America for the first time. "A lot of work," he says laconically. 

 

Benedetti-Michelangeli can rightfully claim to have mastered the piano technique in his sleep. As impressive as this complete triumph over the material is, it hardly hits the nail on the head of what we imagine to be the typical image of an Italian artist. The ability is great, but the will is less. But where is the necessity, where is this musician's inner urge for experience? The runs played with sleepwalking certainty, the rattling octave passages, the rolling trills, and silvery glissandi are almost infallible. Yet behind Benedetti-Michelangeli's tasteful touch, a cool air blows; we sense no fiery temperament, no inkling of a fervent southern heart. The pianist's engine, functioning with miraculous regularity, was unable to bring the grace of Viennese Classicism to bloom in the Haydn Concerto in D major, nor to reveal the enchanting background of the dazzling Ravel Concerto. 

Wiener Kurier (15 & 176.48)

​

8 September 1948 Tour (Edinburgh) 1948 Edinburgh. Usher Hall ?
Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
conductor: Wilhelm Furtwängler, piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, violin: Gioconda De Vito, cello: Enrico Mainardi
Cherubini Anacréon: Overture
Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73
Beethoven Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra, Op. 56
Beethoven Leonore III, Overture in C major op. 72a

​

10 September 1948, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Scotland.  Orchestra dell'Accademia di Santa Cecilia under Vittorio Gui (a very great Rossini conductor).  ABM played the Schumann Concerto (also Cenerentola overture and Brahms 3)

​

The Grand Finale in Edinburgh. Special report from the "Weltpresse" by Joe Lederer
Edinburg, September 15. The grand finale began with a roar: The Augusteo Orchestra from Rome, which first performed under the direction of the young Italian Carlo Zecchi, gave two magnificent concerts with Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting.
On the first evening, Dr. Furtwängler conducted Brahms's Second Symphony after Cherubini's "Anacreon" Overture. Beethoven's Triple Concerto for piano, violin, cello, and orchestra (Op 56), with the three Italian soloists, pianist Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli, violinist Gioconda de Vito, and cellist Mainardi, was followed by the third Leonore Overture, this jewel that no other conductor makes sparkle as much as Furtwängler.

Die Weltpresse (15.9.48)
​

October 1948: Abbey Road Studios, London, England (Studio Recordings | Mono for EMI)

Brahms: Variations on a theme by Paganini, Op.35 [edited by Michelangeli].  DETAILS

Bach/Busoni: Chaconne from Violin Partita No.2 in D minor, BWV 1004 

Debussy: Reflets dans l’eau (Images, Book I No.1)

Galuppi: Presto in B-flat major

Of the Brahms, Richard Osborne wrote in 2021: 'A yet-to-be-surpassed account of these variations of hair-raising difficulty' and Jonathan Summers has stated: 'A recording that was to put him firmly on the map of young European pianists'.

​

Wednesday, 13 October 1948, Konzerthaus, Vienna, Austria

The first subscription concert of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra plunged into the music without the usual sonorous preface of an effective overture. Arturo Benedetti
Michelangeli sat down at the piano, Dr. Karl Böhm stepped to the conductor's podium, and
Schumann's Piano Concerto began. In the virtuoso hands of a modern piano master, for whom precision, objectivity, delicacy, and technical perfection are paramount, the Schumann concerto was transported from the romantic moonlit night into the bright day, and the blue flower of Romanticism was chemically polished (die blaue Blume
der Romantik chemisch geputzt).

​

 

Emil Sauer, as the last of the old Romantics, made this concerto rave and revel in emotion,
but the era of this poetic, broad-sounding, and exuberant Romanticism is
arguably over. The modern Romantic no longer lets his hair flutter, but wears it short and elegantly styled. In this modern Romanticism, Benedetti Michelangeli is a true master with perfect technique, polished passagework, and the finest blends of sound. His Schumann lives in a house furnished with tubular steel furniture and lit by concealed lamps, and the rapturous Romantic takes to the telephone and speaks here softly and precisely. Thus, in the playing of this interesting Italian pianist, old and new times, Romanticism and the present are present. After the Schumann Concerto, which was received with great acclaim, the virtuoso piano chemist played a piece by Scarlatti with dazzling music-box technique and a piece (Danza e Canzone) by Mompou with the finest nuances of sound and colour. The second half of the concert belonged to Bruckner, whose Seventh Symphony was performed by Dr. Böhm. (Weltpresse 15.10.48)

— Pause —
Anton Bruckner, Symphonie Nr. 7 E-Dur WAB 107

​

A recital was advertised for 19 October in the Zeneakadémia (Franz Liszt Academy of Music), Budapest in Pesti Műsor on 1948-10-08.  At this time, another concertising Italian pianist is mentioned - Ornella Puliti Santoliquido (1906 – 1977).  They have such glorious names!

​

30 October, 1948: Teatro Comunale di Bologna. 

Bach-Busoni, Ciaccona; Scarlatti, Andante; Galuppi, Allegro; Beethoven, Sonata op. 111; Ravel, Valses nobles et sentimentales; Debussy, Images; Brahms, Variazioni su un tema di Paganini.

​

USA, 1948-48

 

In 1948 Michelangeli toured the United States for the first time, making his orchestral debut at Carnegie Hall in November, performing Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 54 with the New York Philharmonic and Dimitri Mitropoulos (18 and 19 November).  He withdrew abruptly in the middle of this 1948-49 U.S. tour, lamenting what he perceived as his promoter’s desire for him “to act as if I were from Barnum’s circus.” 

​

In November 1948, he left for the United States to begin his public performances: in New York's Carnegie Hall (18th), he played Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the Greek conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, a pupil of Ferruccio Busoni. The same evening Mitropoulos' transcription of Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV542 and Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony.
 

Michelangeli's interpretation of the Schumann concerto appears unusually freer and more impulsive than is usual in the pianist's recordings from later years. This may also be a reaction to the conductor, who supports such a freer and more brilliant interpretation in the orchestral parts. It was during these years that Michelangeli reached the highest levels in terms of technical ability and therefore virtuosity, and this recording of the Schumann concerto is proof of this. Musicologist Pietro Rattalino describes this performance as an "enormous explosion, very direct",  (“esplosione terribile, direttissima”) both artists really burst forth with beautiful music, probably because at that time the pianist's depression and the heavy psychological pressure he felt before his performances had not yet begun to manifest themselves.'
Katia Vendrame (Brno 2022)

​

Musical America (1.12.48) wrote:  Arturo Michelangeli, whose appearances with the Philharmonic Symphony were his first in the United  States, does not need to cite his presumed descent from Michelangelo in order to reinforce his position, for he is an important and valuable artist in his own right. Some of his interpretative ideas about the Schumann concerto were, to be sure, lively material for intermission debate. But even 
though he often flouted, or perhaps did not even know, the traditions which are usually upheld in the performance of this work, his own view of it was provocative, and full of integrity, and always motivated by a musical rather than an exhibitionistic purpose. 
On the purely mechanical side, his ability is altogether wonderful. His soft playing is supremely beautiful; he can diminish to the merest thread of sound without letting the tone lose its body, and his legato is unimpeachable.'

​​​​

1949

1949 was the centenary of the death of Fryderyk Chopin. In Michelangeli's life, this year is characterized by concerts with Chopin's compositions in the programmes, such as his ​Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor Op.11, which was scheduled for 14 May and was to be played as part of the "Pomeriggi musicali" program in Milan at the "Teatro Nuovo" with conductor Carlo Zecchi.  No recording exists.

The first piano concert was also part of the Chopin festival organized by the "Associazione Riunita dei Concerti" (Arc) association founded by pianist Enzo Calaco - a student of Busoni and teacher of Claudio Abbado.

Unfortunately, due to Michelangeli's indisposition, the concert was canceled at the last minute. The following day, the press commented on the pianist's act with a slight irony: "nevertheless, he will play tomorrow and Thursday in the same theater, which in a way proves that some of the artist's indispositions are serious". (Corriere della Sera. 15. 5. 1949)

Katia Vendrame (Brno 2022)​

​​

Friday 7 January 1949, Northrop Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

The 27-year-old pianist who has electrified Europe with his playing will be making his first Minneapolis appearance with the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, under Dimitri Mitropoulos. He is a direct descendant of the famous Italian artist and sculptor, Michelangelo [?].  He will play César Franck's Symphonic Variations and Liszt No. 1. The orchestra will play Berlioz's Roman Carnival and Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances.  William Schuman's sprightly  8-minute "Circus Overture" will conclude.

(Star Tribune, 2.1.49)

​

16 January, 1949: Los Angeles, California

Franck: Symphonic Variations for Piano & Orchestra

– Alfred Wallenstein / Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra

​

Letter from Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli to Vincenzo Pertile (his student).

9-1-1949 - Los Angeles
Dear Pertile, how are you? Why haven't you written to me?
Maybe you don't have my address, here it is:
"Presso Hurok - 711 - 5th Avenue - New York" -
Tell me how life is there, what you do, and what others are doing.
I've had enormous success so far. Americans say they've never seen such successes before, but I can't wait to return to Italy, our dear Italy, which, despite everything and everyone, is the most beautiful country there is.
Best regards, and please get in touch.
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

​

[Source: Franco Parenti, via an extensive ABM Facebook page]

​

​

Carnegie Hall début, 30 January 1949​
 

30 January 1949, solo début in Carnegie Hall, New York.  Olin Downes wrote in The New York Times: 

'Michelangeli, whose last name alone and itself sufficed to head his programme, and who had made a successful appearance as a pianist at a Philharmonic Symphony concert earlier in the season, gave his first New York recital last night in Carnegie Hall. He played a programme that began with two of the delightful sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti and ended with the monumental Brahms-Paganini Variations.

​

Mr. Michelangeli's pleasing tone and extensive technique served him well in the sparkling music of Scarlatti, although reservations on the stylistic side could be made. He was less fortunate in the Bach-Busoni chaconne, more or less slaughtered to make a virtuoso's holiday. Mr. Michelangeli could play anything there was there to play, and he did so, often more swiftly and more thunderously than was necessary, at other moments with a sentimentalizing of the melodic line, and in general with a superficiality which characterized most of his playing of the evening. To perform plausibly with an orchestra can be one thing, and to perform as a soloist with mastery and originality, another. The Beethoven C major Sonata was best in the lighter movements, and least convincing in the slow movement, where more depth is demanded. When Mr. Michelangeli had finished with the classic portion of the programme there remained the possibility that in Romantic music he had his greatest strength. But it did not appear to be so. The Chopin Berceuse was prettily played, with due finish of filagree and beauty of tone. But the B flat minor Scherzo was a performance which entirely missed the dramatic intensity as well as the formal logic of the music. It is one of Chopin's most intense and passionate expressions. It was made a parlor piece, and it may indeed be said of Mr. Michelangeli as an interpreter that he provided the parlor conception. That music means not only notes but a penetrating comprehension and imagination would not have been imagined from his performances.'

​

Musical America 2/1949 was more enthusiastic:  'His performances were magnificent, and he received one of the most tremendous ovations a New York audience has given to a newcomer in many years. Not only does he possess a complete command of the instrument; he is a supremely sensitive and imaginative interpreter, equally at home in Scarlatti, Chopin and Brahms. He can produce iridescent colours and orchestral sonorities, but he never violates the musical line or the intellectual significance of a work for the sake of display. Mr. Michelangeli is an aristocrat among pianists. His nobility of style is illumined by a passionate temperament which has been so disciplined that he can play with both concentration and rhapsodic intensity. 

The Scarlatti Sonatas in B minor and in G major that opened the program were beautifully phrased with feathery touch and liquid tone. There is not a waste motion in Mr. Michelangeli’s playing. He has both the highly articulated finger technique of the harpsichord style and the weight touch of the modern piano at his command. This latter device came to the fore in his performance of the Bach-Busoni Chaconne, in which his frequent changes of tempo and coloration were startling, yet wholly justified by the nature of the transcription. His tone remains golden in quality even at the extremes of volume, because he never tightens a muscle, no matter how exciting or exacting a passage is. 

The crown of the evening was Mr. Michelangeli’s transcendent performance of both books of Brahms’ Paganini Variations. A double barrel of complimentary adjectives would be richly deserved, but would defeat their own purpose in describing it. Each variation was consummately thought out and executed, and all were unified in a great crescendo. 
The sudden changes of dynamics, the incredibly rapid and accurate passage work in contrary motion, the prismatic pedal effects, the constant play of mood, from humor to ferocious passion—these were the work of a master pianist. Let us have more of 
Mr. Michelangeli.'

​

2 May, 1949, Teatro Argentina, Rome
Chopin Fantaisie in F minor for piano, op. 49
Chopin Prelude in C sharp minor for piano, Op. 45
Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor for piano, Op. 35
Chopin Berceuse in D flat major for piano, Op. 57
Chopin Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor for piano, Op. 31
Chopin Three Studies for Piano from Op. 10
Chopin Grande polonaise brilliant preceded by an Andante spianato, for piano op. 22

​

5 May 1949, Bologna

Weber, Il Franco cacciatore, [Der Freischütz] Ouverture; Petrassi, La follia di Orlando; Martin, Ballata per pianoforte e orchestra; Liszt, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n. 1.

Antonio Pedrotti, direttore d’orchestra.

​

Il Quotidiano, 18 May 1949 announced that ABM would hold a course of interpretation 23-30 June in honour/remembrance of pianist. and composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947) in Studio Casella, Via Giovanni Nicotera, Rome.

Compositions included: Scarlattiana, for Piano and Small Orchestra, Op. 44 (1926), Notturno e Tarantella for Cello and Orchestra, Op. 54 (1934).  David Hurwitz says that the 1937 Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 61 deserves standard repertoire status.

​

9 June 1949, Teatro Comunale Francesco Morlacchi, Perugia, Italy: all-Chopin recital

​

17  & 21 June 1949

The renowned Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli has confirmed his participation in the Vienna Music Festival. In a concert conducted by Karl Böhm on June 17 in the Great Concert Hall, he will perform Frank Martin's Ballade with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The same concert will feature the premiere of the Second Symphony by the young Austrian composer Karl Schiske. Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli will also give a Chopin evening on Tuesday, June 21, as part of the Konzerthaus Society's Chopin Cycle.

(Wiener Kurier, 25 April 1949)

​

His delicate, springy touch (in Chopin recital), his excellent use of the pedals, and the fine nuances of the sound effects extract an unusually rich range of tones from the keys and a sonorous, rich piano. His runs, trills, and fioriture sparkle like a cascade of glittering jewels, and no one asks whether some of these gems aren't Pierre de Strass. The legato playing, however, is not entirely perfect; the phrases sometimes become disorganized, and the performance is occasionally disconcerted by the occasional unfounded rubati and ritardandi. His interpretation is convincing where it can and should be objective: for example, in the finale of the B-flat minor sonata, which he chases across the keys like a hurricane with a ghostly eeriness, or in the F-minor Fantasy, which he structures coolly, clearly, and vividly. But when it comes to letting Chopin's wonderful expressive cantilenas, which are actually supposed to begin to sing from within themselves without any external, effective suggestion, flow forth, the objectivity and crystal clarity that Michelangeli is so famous for, become a disadvantage. Is it possible to play Chopin in any other way than subjectively and romantically? Is it conceivable to objectively interpret the "Berceuse" or the C-sharp minor Prelude like a fugue from the "Well-Tempered Clavier" or a didactic piece by Hindemith, without rewriting their inherent romanticism based on one's own subjective perception? Is this especially possible for a compatriot of Bellini, whose delicate, rapturous cantilenas made such a deep impression on Chopin? An interesting evening and a master pianist: but when it comes to Chopin, not our man.

Neues Österreich 29 June 1949

​

1949 Official pianist at the memorial ceremonies for Frédéric Chopin (first centenary of his death). Tour in Argentina. Member of the jury of the "Premio Busoni" piano competition in Bolzano, of which he is a co-founder. 

​

Polish newspaper Gazeta Ludowa (18 June 1949) reports that the Polish Ambassador to Italy H.E. Adam Ostrowski , visited the mayor of Florence, Mario Fabiani to open an exhibition of Polish graphics organised in one of the rooms of the Palazzo Vecchio, and on the 14th he was present at the gala concert honouring Chopin in the Teatro Comunale, when the distinguished pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli performed.

​​

Busoni competition

​

In the autumn of the "Chopin Year", Michelangeli was invited to become part of the jury of the first edition of the Busoni Competition in Bolzano (on the 25th anniversary of Ferruccio Busoni's death), where his good friend and director of the Conservatory, Cesare Nordio, lived, who had helped organize it and played a significant role in its organization. Nordio worked as a pianist and teacher at the Bolzano Conservatory for about ten years.

 

New York, February 10, 1949

Dear Nordio, I received your letter with great pleasure. I enthusiastically welcome what you wrote and am certainly willing to collaborate. I would even like to donate a certain sum for a possible second prize. Let me know what you think. Best regards,
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

​

The final of the competition took place on September 23, 1949, when nine of the twelve finalists were Italian. The first prize was not awarded; the second, offered by the jury member Michelangeli himself, was awarded to Lodovico Lessoni from Turin; the third to Rossana Orlandina from Pisa, the fourth to Alfred Brendel from Graz and the fifth to Bela Siková from Budapest”. The jury, alongside Artur, included Nikita Magalov, Jacques de Fevrier, Egon Kornauth and Gino Tagliapietra, Busoni’s pupil.

​Corriere della Sera. 24. 9. 1949

​

Lodovico Lessona (1928-1972)

Lessona and his three colleagues from the basic training died in November 1972 in a plane crash in Varna, Bulgaria.  ABM regarded him almost as a son, says Salvatore Accardo.

​

In 1957, the sixteen-year-old Martha Argerich won , receiving the first international recognition of her talent in Bolzano. 1972 - Arnaldo Cohen; 1984 - Louis Lortie (unanimously)

 

1949-50 Teacher at the Venice Conservatory.​​​