'In the 1950s, a period of very intense concert activity except for the parenthesis in 1954, when Benedetti Michelangeli was forced into complete retirement for health reasons (symptoms of tuberculosis), we note the exclusion from the repertoire of many composers he had touched on in previous years and the focus of interest on Mozart, Chopin, Debussy and Ravel.  He renounced the more spectacular compositions (for example, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 in C# minor - beloved of Josef Hofmann and Jorge Bolet - and Balakirev's Islamey , of which there are no recordings or recordings) and instead showed a certain interest in contemporary music (Ballade by Frank Martin, Concerto by Mario Peragallo, Kinderkonzert by Franco Margola, Concerto No. 4 by Rachmaninov, Suburbis by Frederic Mompou)'.

(Piero Rattalino)

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For the visits to the Laverna/La Verna monastery, see here 

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At the turn of the 1950s, Michelangeli played with conductors he would never meet again: Furtwängler and Karajan. Unfortunately, no recordings of these concerts have survived. In October 1948, Michelangeli was in Edinburgh, where he had the opportunity to play Beethoven's Triple Concerto with conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, and this was not their first collaboration, as they had already recorded some records together during the war years, but these were unfortunately lost somewhere, as well as as a recording of a concert that took place in Berlin with Furtwängler's younger Austrian colleague Herbert von Karajan, unfortunately its exact date is not known either.

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The Edinburgh concert took place on 8 September 1948 at Usher Hall with the orchestra of the Academy of S. Cecilia, the program also included Symphony No. 2 by J. Brahms, Anacreon Overture by Cherubini and Beethoven's Overture. "Leonore" II. Beethoven's Third Concerto was played by violinist Gioconda de Vito and cellist Enrico Mainardi

Katia Vendrame (Brno, 2022)

Meanwhile, in 1950, he had obtained a transfer to Bolzano, called upon by the Director of the “Monteverdi” Conservatory, maestro Cesare Nordio, with whom he founded the “Busoni” piano competition.

He taught in Bolzano until 1959, supplementing the state courses with those of the private specialisation school he opened in Paschbach Castle, near Appiano, in an attempt to meet the numerous requests from pianists all over the world already holding diplomas, some of whom had already won important competitions, and had consequently not been admitted to the conservatories.  His assistant was Isacco Rinaldi.

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Paschbach Castle above San Michele Appiano, Via Monte / Bergstrasse 33.  Castel Paschbach (in German Schloss Paschbach) is a castle located in the hamlet of San Michele in the municipality of Appiano in South Tyrol; 9km from Bolzano. The first written documents that speak of this manor date back to 1248, when it consisted only of the so-called "Torre di Pasquay".
'In 1570 the castle was purchased by Jakob Aichner, who in 1585 had it enlarged in the Renaissance style by Luca d'Allio. It remained in the hands of the Aichner family, which in the meantime had been invested with the noble predicate "von Paschbach", until the end of the 17th century when it passed to the lords of Mörl. In the 19th century it became the property of the Wohlgemuth and then passed from hand to hand to the current owners.
After the Second World War, it was the home of the pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who also taught master classes there. His piano is still preserved in the castle. The property includes a tower which houses a Gothic stube with original walls covered in wood.'

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1950

New tour in Canada and the United States.  At the Venice Festival on 11 September 1950, ABM performed Mario Peragallo's Piano Concerto and Orchestra with Carlo Maria Giulini. 

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'There were those who whispered to us about communism and capitalism this evening at the Fenice, alluding (we seem to have understood) to the political beliefs or economic conditions of some of the three great Italian composers presented at the Festival's third symphony concert. May the informants forgive us: their information was wasted. The brand-new music by Mario Zafred, Guido Turchi, and Mario Peragallo didn't actually carry any visible label. In return, it was intelligent music. Indeed, very intelligent.

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'Mario Peragallo.  More intellectual than Zafred, more closely tied to the twelve-tone system than Turchi; of the three, perhaps the most arid and subtle, despite the sum of the phonic values employed, in this Concerto for fortepiano and orchestra, to support or frame the solo instrument. In reality, it offers little interest as a concertante element on the piano, while it offers significant interest as a colouristic element among colours and a timbric element among timbres, or, where lyrical inspiration takes hold, as a melodic element. The construction is compact, yet agile and not devoid of a certain elegant decorativeness that lightens the predominantly severe, if not harsh, lines.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli played Peragallo's work superbly. Carlo Maria Giulini conducted the entire program, once again performed by the Rome Radio Orchestra, with love and, more importantly, with confidence and command.'

Franco Abbiati, Corriere dell Sera 12.9.50

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In the Chicago Tribune, 8  March 1950, Claudia Cassidy ("The Harpy of the West") noted that the Italian pianist was too ill to play his recital last night in Orchestra Hall.  A telephone call reached Moura Lympany in New York at 3.15pm, an obliging plane set her down in Chicago at 7:30.  'By 8:30, auburn hair shining, crisply embroidered white dress rustling, she was sitting down at the piano.' [Miss Cassidy was not impressed by the recital, however!]

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Michelangeli arrived in New York in April 1950 with the repertoire he had been playing in those years. The program of the evening concert at Carnegie Hall included two pieces by Fryderyk Chopin, Valses nobles et sentimentales by Maurice Ravel, and the rest were only pieces by Italian composers, which were unknown to the v

ast majority of listeners. As the correspondent Giusti notes: Michelangeli did not present himself with any piece "for effect" that would allow the pianist to show his virtuosity. Scarlatti e Michelangeli fanno delirare gli Americani. Corriere della Sera. 2-3. 3. 1950
The first part of the concert featured Presto by Galuppi, Adagio by Grazioli, Capriccio by Paradisi, and the whole was concluded with three sonatas by Scarlatti, between which Michelangeli hardly stopped, because he did not want to applaud between them, he probably considered them as one whole. The concert closed with Grande Polonaise brillante by Chopin, there were three encores after the main program; they also included a composition by Francis Poulenc.

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The pianist stayed in the United States for almost two and a half months, then went on to give concerts in Australia and New Zealand. [?]

Katia Vednrame (Brno 2022)

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29 June, 1950: Teatro dell'Opera di Roma - recital.  

Bach- Busoni – Toccata and Fugue in D minor BWV 565.
D. Scarlatti – Four Sonatas.
M. Clementi – Sonata No. 1 in B flat major, op. 12.
F. Chopin – Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor, op. 35.
C. Debussy – Reflets dans l'eau and Hommage à Rameau (from Images book 1).
M. Ravel – Valses nobles et sentimentales.
F. Chopin – Grande Polonaise brillante op. 22.

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22 December, 1950, Teatro Argentina, Rome
Orchestra of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia
conductor: Ettore Gracis, piano: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Salieri Symphony in D major "Veneziana"
Beethoven Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 73, "Emperor"
Peragallo Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra (1949-1950)
Liszt Totentanz, for piano and orchestra R 457

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Rossini's The Barber of Seville was given its premiere here on 20 February 1816;  Verdi's I due Foscari on 3 November 1844 

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1951

16 February 1951, Teatro Comunale di Bologna: Haydn: Symphony no.101 – “Clock”
Mozart: Piano Concerto in Dm K466 (Soloist: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli)
Strauss, R: Till Eulenspiegel.  Herbert Albert

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Galuppi and Scarlatti were not the only Italian composers that Michelangeli played around the world in those years: from 1951 on his tours he also presented the 1949 concerto for piano and orchestra by his friend from Venice, Mario Peragallo (11 May 1951 in "G. Verdi" Conservatory in Turin with Carlo Maria Giulini.  ' I listened to the concert on the radio and
heard the resounding boos that greeted the performance of Peragallo's Concerto. Why,
given that ABM knew his aficionados so well, did he provoke them so seriously?  Andrea della Corte wrote: "Many listeners wondered why Benedetti Michelangeli persists in touring this Concerto, he who associates with great artists and almost entirely excludes the music of other contemporaries, whether equal or superior to this one.)" The
reference to Prokofiev, Bartok, and Stravinsky is clear, although not expressed, and in my opinion pertinent.

(Piero Rattalino).  

His interpretation of this piece was recorded by the State Radio Company – RAI, but to this day these recordings have not been published. Among other things, the concert was played in the Vienna Konzerthaus on April 10, 1951.  This piece uses dodecaphony, and one can hear the influence of Arnold Shönberg with more neoclassical elements.

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In Venice on September 11, 1950, he played this concerto for the first time with conductor Carlo Maria Giulini as part of an evening performance of contemporary music, where compositions by Zafredo and Turchi were also performed. The day before, as part of the same festival, a concert with pianist Marcelle Meyer took place, who played a concerto by Veretti. Source: ABBIATI, Franco.
Il Festival della musica. Zafred, Turchi e Peragallo diretti da C. M. Gulini. Corriere della Sera. 12. 9. 1950. Some sources give the year 1949 (GARBEN, Cord. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: in bilico con un genio. Translated L. Seuss. Novara: Zecchini editore, 2004, p. 105 (222) but here differently: Wiener Symphoniker. 10. 4. 1951. Dienstag 20 UHR [online]. Wien: Wiener Symphoniker, 2022 [Cit. 27. 2. 2022].
 

Katia Vendrame​​​​​​