In an interview (2021) with Joe Sabia, Alan Walker, Emeritus Professor of Music at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and author of two important and authoritative biographies (of Liszt and of Chopin), said this: "The longer you live and the longer you look back, the more likely it is that you’ll have favourites that the modern generation don’t like or never heard of; so it becomes a generational thing as well. Whenever I’m giving public talks I often point out that fo

Two snippets from an interview with Howard Klein for The New York Times, 16 January 1966 Contempt Michelangeli's repertory is basically romantic, but he has played all the piano music of Schoenberg and Webern's Variations. But for music after the 1950s he has contempt. He suavely mimed an avant-garde pianist at work: the left elbow gracefully smashed into the bass of an imaginary keyboard, followed by the right, then the right index finger twanged a string. This was amplifie

A letter (dated 22 June 1942) from Ildebrando Pizzetti [1880-1968] to the publisher Ricordi:  Vi interesserà sapere, credo, che anche il pianista Benedetti Michelangeli intende studiare ed eseguire i Canti della Stagione Alta. Per lui scriverò due nuove «cadenze». 'You will be interested to know, I believe, that pianist Benedetti Michelangeli also intends to study and perform the Canti della Stagione Alta  (1930). I will write two new "cadenzas" for him.' ​ The concerto was d

Olaszországban feltünt az "uj Liszt Ferenc" Pesti Hírlap 1 September 1940 'The "new Liszt Ferenc" appeared in Italy. At the beginning of the summer, a report appeared in the Pesti Hirlap about the musical events of the festive games in Florence. The writer of the report, Countess Ceruttiné Paulay Erzsi (gróf Ceruttiné Paulay Erzsi, a Hugrarian actress married to Italian ambassador Count Vittorio Cerrutti ) dedicated extremely warm lines to the praise of an 18-year-old Itali

Una cosa che fece andare in visibilio il nostro gruppo fu quando Benedetti Michelangeli fece il pianista nella Fedora di Giordano al Teatro Grande: l'avevano tutto truccato, era bellissimo, ed era bravo, usciva in palcoscenico e suonava divinamente. A me sembrava il giovane Werther.   'One thing that made our group go wild was when Benedetti Michelangeli played the pianist in Giordano's Fedora at the Teatro Grande: they had him all made up, he was beautiful, and he was good

On this day, the birthday of Ludwig van Beethoven [16/17 December], I've found yet another YouTube video upload purporting to be the pianist's performance in Belgrade in 1974 with conductor Zivojin Zdravkovic of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major Op.58. I repeat what Noël [no surname] added to the Slipped Disc website: " It is Maria Tipo. This was a concert from the Belgrade Festival. Also on the programme was Debussy La Mer and Sofoson 1 by the Serbian composer, Br

I came across this passage in Musica (an online Italian music journal), August 27, 2025 'Villa Togni (in Gussago), formerly known as Villa Averoldi, dates back to the late 14th century and remains one of the most significant historic residences in Northern Italy, from its role in the 1426 Conspiracy to conquer Brescia and the Venetian Republic to the years of the Second World War, when the family of composer Camillo Togni hosted the celebrated pianist Arturo Benedetti Michel

Musicologist Piero Rattalino once mentioned that there exists a recording by Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli of a performance of César Franck's Symphonic Variations  which was made on 13 May, 1975, in Zürich under conductor Erich Leinsdorf.  "This recording, made without the consent of the heirs, cannot be released for another fifty years." Fifty years are now up. Has anyone heard any news? Who are the heirs? If true, why was this recording embargoed? Curiouser and curiouse

David Hurwitz in December 2024 on Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's recording of Ravel and Rachmaninoff. He makes an interesting comparison with Carlos Kleiber. ABM recorded Ravel's Concerto in G and Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 4 for His Master's Voice, with the London Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Ettore Gracis. 7-8 & 10 March, 1957 in London (Abbey Road Studios - Studio No. 1). Peter Andry, Inside the Recording Studio (2008), gives an account of the recording process.

This information was generously sent to me by Ди́на, Dina/ Diana (Russian Federation), who transcribed the extracts in English. After a long break, Michelangeli's first appearance was in Warsaw as juror during the 5th Chopin Festival (22 February-21 March, 1955). He resigned in protest, as Vladimir Ashkenazy, who he believed should have won, finished second to Polish pianist Adam Harasiewicz (aged 23) by a small margin. The competition ran 21 February to 20 March 1955, and

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Argentina, July/August 1949. I recently sat in the great Teatro Colón, an opera house I'd long wanted to visit, a few weeks ago (September 2025): this was for a concert performance of Bellini's "I Puritani". I couldn't get the final cabaletta [“Ah! sento al mio bell’angelo”] of Elvira out of my head and have been listening to the fabulous Dame Joan Sutherland singing it ever since. (The opera premiere took place on 24 January 1835 in Paris.

On 5 February 1941, L'Avvenire   d'Italia  reported on a recital in the Liceo Musicale, Bologna: 'Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli undoubtedly possesses a privileged nature. In him, virtuosity blends with temperament and the refinement of an acute and remarkably responsive sensitivity. His technique is extremely solid, rational, logical, complete, and constructive; governed by an inner control that elevates it to artistic thought and will. His sound can be, depending on the case

'Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, an Italian considered one of the best pianists in the world, left an impression in music circles as a...

There were two recitals at the Barbican, London in June.  Andrew Clements commented in The New Statesman  (7.6.85) that the pianist had...

Carlo Maria Dominici At the age of 15, a student of Leland Thompson at the Juilliard School, Carlo Maria Dominici received an offer from Michelangeli to follow him to Italy to study with him. This was February 1966, in New York, just before a concert. From then on, he spent six years living with the Maestro, like in the old days, when students lived with their teachers,in a daily relationship akin to discipleship. ​ (The concert was in Symphony Hall, Boston on February 26, 19

Michelangeli in Buenos Aires 1949 La Nación , 29 July, 1949 After several postponements due to illness, the Italian concert pianist...