Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)

Pianist Béla Hartmann recently wrote with some memories of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. "I'm writing to share my recollection of the recital ABM gave at the Kongresssaal in Munich in 1986 [Armella dates this to 26 and 28 April 1985], including the 2nd book of Debussy Préludes. In my memory he was his usual morose self but played a large number of encores, all of them Chopin Mazurkas, all of them slow and sad. I don't remember how many but think it was around 5-7. I recall b

I was very struck by this detail of ABM's high-handed manner. Cord Garben, a conductor and pianist who doubled as Michelangeli’s record producer for Deutsche Grammophon, was part of Michelangeli’s inner circle. "Musically he was rather easy to handle, but all the things besides were more than complicated," says Garben in lightly accented English. "When the honey he needed for his tea was not the right one, he made a small scandal, catapulting it over the table and complaining

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: "The piano is my enemy!" This extract is from an Italian newspaper in March 1987, the month when I heard ABM (for the only time). «Queste sono macchine infernali» Words and life in London of this most reclusive and secretive of musicians, who will give his final concert on Saturday. Michelangeli: "The piano is my enemy". He is staying in the English capital in a small apartment with special curtains. He is accompanied by his faithful secretar

There were two recitals at the Barbican, London in June. Andrew Clements commented in The New Statesman (7.6.85) that the pianist had last appeared in London in 1982 with Celibidache in Ravel - 'a demonstration of keyboard control and range of colour that only one or two other living pianists could approach'. 'There is no doubting Michelangeli's absolute authority in Debussy, that aquatints and pastel portraits of the Preludes (book 2) suit him perfectly. There is more ro