Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)

I've added a few more details to the relevant webpage. In 1939 (the year of its foundation) Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli won first prize in the Concours de Genève/Geneva International Music Competition, where he was acclaimed as "a new Liszt" by pianist Alfred Cortot, a member of the judging panel, which was presided over by Ignacy Jan Paderewski.  (Martha Argerich would win in 1957.) The young man from Brescia was awarded 1000 Swiss francs, and an anonymous donor, bowled ov

A mesmerising moment from Brahms, Ballade No. 4 Op. 10 in B major, Andante con moto: Lugano 1981.  The pianist's hands - feather-like in delicacy - seem barely to press down the keys, while the vibrating inner melody is brought to the fore, Michelangeli all the while savouring the delicious, glinting clashes of harmony.

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