​When he was 18 years old, pianist Maurizio Pollini (5 January 1942 – 23 March 2024) studied with Benedetti Michelangeli for six months in the early 1960s, going first to Bolzano where ABM resided, then also to the villa near Arezzo where all the students of ABM were staying.  Pollini had won the 1960 sixth International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw [VI Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina was held from 22 February to 13 March 1960] ; he was the youngest of 89 entrants and the first non-Slav to win in the history of the competition.  Arthur Rubinstein, leading the jury, declared "that boy can play the piano better than any of us".  After this successes, Pollini did not perform for one year. He limited his concertising in the 1960s to study, broadening his musical experience and expanding his pianistic repertoire. This led to erroneous rumours that he had become a recluse. He recorded Chopin's First Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Paul Kletzki for EMI. He then had a "crisis of confidence", as Peter Andry described it, when the Philharmonia offered him a concert series.

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'Benedetti-Michelangeli agreed on the sole condition that Mr. Pollini suspend his concert career for a few years. Their co-operation lasted six months, during which time Mr. Pollini took six lessons with the master.'  (Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina/ Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw)

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In the early 1960s, Michelangeli's physical problems did not let him go, so he played mainly in Milan, where he presented himself to the audience only in the spring of 1961 with his specific "temperament full of lyricism" and the same virtuosity, which, according to Italian critics, is rivaled only by Vladimir Horowitz, and a rich program: the sonata op. 111 by L. v. Beethoven was heard, Chopin's etudes, accompanied by orchestral works by Ferenc Liszt: Concerto No. 1 and Totentanz with conductor Rafael Kubelík and the RAI Orchestra from Turin.

 

 In December of that year he played for students of the music school in Foggia, but at the end of the second piece of the program, Scarlatti's Esercizi per clavicembalo, he got up from the piano, looking very pale, and lay down on a sofa, fainting. According to the doctors who were present in the hall and who immediately came running, it was poisoning that caused cramps in his hands. After this incident, Michelangeli moved to Florence, to the Colle di Bellosguardo, for a while to rest.

 

1962 is the year of the centenary of the death of Claude Debussy, so in Milan, after several months of silence, Michelangeli will perform concerts by Franz Joseph Haydn with the conductor Ettore Gracis, and in the second part he will remain on stage alone to play Children's corner and two series of Images by this French composer, who was one of his most usual in terms of the choice of concert programs. According to critic Franco Abbiati, in his interpretation Michelangeli "made understandable what is most ethereal, abstract, radiant in Debussy's music: the extreme dilution of color, light, which nevertheless becomes more and more brilliant".

„ha reso intelligibile ciò che di più etero, astratto, lucente è nella musica di Debussy: l’estrema rarefazione del colore, della luce, che pure diventano sempre più brillanti.“ Zdroj: ABBIATI, Franco Corriere della Sera, 18. 4. 1962.

Another result of this effort by Italian television is the construction of the Rai-TV theatre in Naples, which is to have a large auditorium with open spaces, an organ and a thousand seats. It is Michelangeli who is invited as a soloist to the ceremonial opening of this theatre. He will play Mozart's concerto in B flat major with the orchestra, and the rest of the concert is dedicated to Neapolitan symphonic music of the 17th century (composers Alessandro Scarlatti and Marco Enrico Bossi). Corriere della Sera, 7. 3. 1963

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12 January 1961, Bologna

Bach-Busoni, Toccata in re minore; D. Scarlatti, Cinque esercizi per gravicembalo; Beethoven, Sonata n. 32 op. 111; Chopin, Fantasia op. 49; Berceuse op. 57; Studio op. 10; Mompou, Suburbis, Suite; Liszt, Polonaise n. 2.

 

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.

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April 28, 1961: Turin, Italy (Radio Broadcast | FLAC)
 

·    Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1 in E-flat major, S.124

·    Liszt: Totentanz (Paraphrase on Dies Irae for Piano & Orchestra), S.126ii

– Rafael Kubelik / Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI

 

 

– Hunt CD 507. S.124 also on Warner 0 825646 154883, on Living Stage LS 4035176, and in another copy.

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12 May, 1961: BBC’s Maida Vale Studios, London, England (Radio Broadcast)
 

·    Scarlatti: Three Sonatas

o  K.11 in C minor

o  K.332 in B-flat major

o  K.172 in B-flat major

·    Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor, Op.111

– BBC Legends BBCL 4128-2

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23 May 1961, Bologna

Beethoven, Quinta sinfonia op. 67; Liszt, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra n. 1; Totentanz; Händel, Messia, Alleluja; Stravinskij, Sinfonia dei salmi.

 

Dean Dixon, direttore d’orchestra; Gaetano Riccitelli, maestro del coro.

 

On 5 December 1961, La Stampa reported: 'The orchestra hurls insults at maestro Celibidache. The sensational incident in Rome over a rebuke during rehearsals - In protest, the renowned conductor canceled the concert. Rome, December 4. The renowned Romanian conductor Sergiu Celibidache left Rome, declaring he would never set foot in Rome's concert halls again. During Saturday's rehearsals at the Foro Italico, the RAI orchestra reacted to his remark with harsh words and the throwing of scores and music stands. Today, organised by a youth music association, a Schumann celebratory concert was scheduled to take place with Celibidache and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as soloist. Instead, the audience found maestro Massimo Freccia on the podium with another programme because Benedetti Michelangeli, out of solidarity with Celibidache, refused to touch the keyboard.'

 

La Stampa, 11 &  24December 1961

With Benedetti Michelangeli's students in the villa that will host them this winter.

The beautiful, ancient villa of Santa Brigida (in the Turin hills), hidden among the plane trees on the hill above Moncalieri, welcomed a group of unusual guests last night. They are young people from all over the world, considered true talents in their respective countries in the field of concert piano. A few hours earlier, a cleaner had polished to a mirror finish the brass plaque affixed near the gate, which reads: <International School for Pianists - Maestro: Arturo Benedetti-Michelangeli>. The illustrious musician is expected towards the end of the week for the inauguration of the winter advanced courses. He will spend the winter in this villa, comforted by music and his students, and by the surrounding Alps, whose sight seems to captivate him like a Chopin nocturne. His students are already settled in. Everything in the old house has been arranged according to the maestro's taste: the furniture is sober and sturdy; the mirrors look like they belonged to Costantino Nigra or Cavour, the chandeliers illuminate a nineteenth-century atmosphere that perfectly matches the notes emanating from the fifteen pianos. Scarlatti, Chopin, Schumann, and Brahms are family friends.

 

Perhaps the only oddity of our time is the spirit of the young students. They are all excellent, gifted with technique and sensitivity; many have a comprehensive resume (conservatory diplomas, successes, acclaimed concerts, competition wins); but despite their commitment and vocation, their appearance retains the carefree attitude of their age. People tend to consider them eighteenth-century mannequins, precious but timeless. An hour spent in their company is enough to disprove this opinion. They are serious, open, and friendly young people; they joke readily even though they dedicate much of their day to studying.  French-Algerian representative Nicole Afriat is very modern. After graduating from the Paris Conservatory, she gave concerts in the same city and in North Africa: she doesn't disdain the songs of the chansonniers, even if her infinite artistic possibilities included the opportunity to win a Viotti Competition. Italian-American Renato Premezzi is 26 years old. He was already teaching at the New York Conservatory. He had the brilliant humility to start over after hearing some records by Benedetti Michelangeli. "He's a miracle man," he said. "I had to bend over backwards to get a scholarship and rush to the Maestro." This is the opinion all the students have for the great Italian musician: Dutchman Yantina De Smitd, Canadian Paolina O'Connor, Chinese Irene Pang, Englishman Anthony Lindsay, Argentinean Lia Demasi, and the other guests. Only two are missing: Danish Peter Westcnholz (who will arrive at Christmas) and Yugoslavian Vladimiro Kopan, who is serving in the military in Zagreb.

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Some are already famous in their countries, like Pietro Maranca, a child prodigy from Brazil, son of Italian emigrants: he is seventeen, and gave his first concert at nine. Interviews, praise, "tourntes," money. At fourteen, he abandoned everything, after the most important concert of his career: "I read the criticisms, the undeserved praise. I had a terrible crisis: 'I was just a shock musician.'" He left for Italy: "Benedetti Michelangeli was the only card I could play to become a real musician." He started over again, and will have to do so for another three or four years: "I don't care about giving concerts. Success doesn't pay for one's discontent." Marta Argerich (Argentine, long black hair, a face and figure ideal for film) also already has an enviable past as a concert performer. She is only twenty years old. In 1957 she won the Busoni and Geneva prizes. Like Maranca, she abandoned  to study with Michelangeli: "I'm too young, success scares me. You always travel, you see so many people who don't interest you, and a girl alone feels that inside her there is so much cold." Thoughtfully, she adds: « All this is dangerous, it makes you lose your balance. That's why I stopped: I hope, by studying, to find peace again ». 

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1962: New Concert in the Vatican in the presence of Pope John XXIII with Gianandrea Gavazzeni. Numerous recordings for RAI-TV in Turin.

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April 28, 1962: Aula della Benedizione, Vatican City State (Radio Broadcast | FLAC)
 

·    Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54

·    Liszt: Totentanz (Paraphrase on Dies Irae for Piano & Orchestra), S.126ii

– Gianandrea Gavazzeni / Orchestra Sinfonica della RAI di Roma

 

 

– Aura 978-3-86562-779-7. Schumann also on Warner 0 825646 154883, and in another copy (incorrectly announced 1955-12-23).

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La Stampa 12 June 1962: Under the heading Martha Argerich At the Circolo degli Artisti, the newspaper announces this evening at 9:15 pm, there will be a concert—by invitation—by pianist Renato Premezzi of the International Academy of Maestro Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Thursday evening, at the same time, there will be a concert by another student of the Academy, Argentine pianist Martha Argerich, who will play music by Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Barber, and Ravel. These two concerts take place at the end of the annual course of the International Academy for Pianists « Maestro Arturo Benedetti Mlchelangeli »

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16 June 1962 Bologna

Galuppi, Sonata in si; Beethoven, Sonata op. 2 n. 3; Debussy, Images (5 brani); Chopin, Andante spianato e Grande Polonaise brillante op. 22.

 

21 September, 1962 (also December) in Turin, an all-Chopin recital - RAI Studios.  Issued on CD by Music & Arts.  'These appear to be the 1962 Italian radio recordings made in Turin/ Treviso.' (amazon comment).  There is also an Opus Arte DVD: 'Filtered through technology unable to register the finer details, he could possibly be much older than his [42] years, but he could equally have found the elixir of youth, for there is something of the callow young student, Goethe’s Werther maybe, to his body frame.' (Christopher Howell)

Andante spianato and Grande Polonaise in E-Flat Major, Op. 22

Ballade No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 23

Mazurka No. 20 in D-Flat Major, Op. 30, No. 3

Scherzo No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 31

Mazurka No. 25 in B Minor, Op. 33, No. 4

Waltz No. 2 in A-Flat Major, Op. 34, No. 1 'Valse Brillante'

*Piano Sonata No. 2 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 35 'Funeral March' (not on CD)

Fantasie in F Minor, Op. 49

Berceuse in D-Flat Major, Op. 57

Mazurka No. 47 in A Minor, Op. 68, No. 2

Waltz No. 9 in A-Flat Major, Op. 69, No. 1 'L'Adieu'

Waltz No. 18 in E-Flat Major, Op. posthumous, B. 133

 

'One of the many anecdotes told about Michelangeli comes to mind: before a performance of the first book of Debussy's Préludes [for RAI 1962], he is in the hall rehearsing, and shy as he is, he forbids anyone from listening; but an enthusiast wants to steal the legendary performer's "secrets" at all costs, bribes a theatre usher and hides, crouched between two rows of seats for two hours, the duration of the rehearsal. During all this time, the unaware Michelangeli does nothing but let his hands fall on the first chord of the tenth prelude, "La cathedral engloutie," searching for the right weight, a precise timbre; having perfected this last detail, satisfied, he leaves, leaving the intruder helpless and empty-handed; only the final act, the concert, the recording, contains the definitive set of his choices.' Giorgio Pugliaro, La Stampa (12.12.87)

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1 June 1963 Bologna

Cherubini, Anacreonte, Ouverture; Mozart, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra K. 450; Schumann, Quarta sinfonia op. 120.

 

Ettore Gracis, direttore d’orchestra.

 

RAI film in Brescia of  ABM playing Debussy's Images (14 mins)  LINK​

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Emerging gradually from his cocoon in 1964 Michelangeli once again tested international musical waters, venturing behind the Iron Curtain for a tour of the Soviet Union. "What strikes one is the precision of each movement, of each tone, of each nuance," wrote Rostislav Zdobnov, a music critic and director of the Glinka Museum in Moscow. "If you close your eyes, you forget you are in a concert hall; you might think you are listening to a superbly engineered recording in which no errors are possible. This is amazing. But this is the art of the intellect as distinct from the art of spontaneous creation on the stage..."

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1964: First and only tour of the Soviet Union, with triumphant concerts at the Moscow Conservatory. On June 22nd, he celebrated twenty-five years of teaching with a concert at the Teatro Grande in Brescia: thus was born the "Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli" International Piano Festival, which was extended to Bergamo the following year and which saw the Maestro participate until 1968

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6 February 1964, Bologna

Casella, Serenata; Mozart, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra K. 271; Franck, Variazioni sinfoniche per pianoforte e orchestra; Čajkovskij, Romeo e Giulietta, Ouverture fantasia.

 

Francesco Caracciolo, direttore d’orchestra.

 

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
 

20 April 1964 = last time in Bologna??

Leo, Sinfonia in sol minore; Mozart, Concerto per pianoforte e orchestra op. 503; Franck, Variazioni sinfoniche per pianoforte e orchestra; Čajkovskij, Romeo e Giulietta, Ouverture.

 

Giampiero Taverna, direttore d’orchestra.

 

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.​​