Though I've listened to Michelangeli on and off for many years, I don't regard myself as an expert on his life; but

I have been fascinated by what I know of him, and so here is my contribution.  In comparison with my work on

the Cuban-American pianist Jorge Bolet (where sources are relatively scarce and disparate), there is a much larger volume of material on ABM (not all of it properly critical), only some of which I have been able thus far to locate and use. 

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(A Classical philologist and ancient historian by training, I do not speak or read the key language for ABM, Italian; I've therefore used various online translation platforms and called upon my knowledge of linguistics and of other Romance languages; but inevitably the translations will contain some inaccuracies and infelicitous phrasing.)

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London, 2 August 2025    

 

I'm very happy to receive additional information and/or corrections 

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Some of the more important sources of information for this website include:

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As always, thanks go to the British Library, and especially to its Newspaper Room.

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While I have paid to use some online newspaper archives (e.g. Corriere della Sera, Svenska Dagblad, Arcanum [for Polish & Hungarian papers]), I record here my debt of gratitude to the following marvellous, free sites:

Hemeroteca Digital Brasileira

Delpher, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Netherlands

Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek/Austrian National Libraries digital newspapers

Biblioteca Virtual de Prensa Histórica, Spain

East View Global Press Archive (for the Afrikaans newspaper Die Transvaler)

...and not forgetting the redoubtable Internet Archive "archive.org"

 

Pier Carlo Della Ferrera (online PDF link)

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John Bell Young (online), the first long article I read many years ago when first listening to ABM.  It led me to read Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita which is allegedly ABM's favourite novel

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​Piero Rattalino, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, «Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani», Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia italiana, 2010

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Piero Rattalino, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. L'asceta, 2006

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Cord Garben, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. In bilico con un genio (Italian trans. by Lore Seuss)

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Katia Vendrame. Intepretive profile of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli/ Interpretační profil Artura Benedettiho Michelangeliho (Brno, 2022). LINK​​

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Online/newspaper archives include writings by: Bruno Giurato, Duilio Courir, John Gillespie, Alessandro Cecchi, Arnaldo Cohen, Corrado Corradi, Cesare Govi, Paulo Pesenti, Carl-Gunnar Åhlén, Cesare Augusto Tallone, Christopher Howell, Paolo Andrea Mettel, Aldo Orvieto, Ottavio di Carli, Jerzy Miziołek, Mathias Winkler

 

Books include those by: Klaus Umbach (biography of Sergiu Celibidache), Roberto Cotroneo, Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, Charles Barber, Olivier Ballamy, Nancy Phelan​

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Fondazione Giorgio Cini Foundation, Ottorino Respighi & Nino Rota Collections etc.

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My thanks go to Diana [Dina] from Siberia who has read the text carefully and made significant additions, as well as offering helpful and thoughtful comments

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Lidia Kozubek, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli as I Knew Him (2016), from the Polish ABM jakim go znałam (Katowice 1999)

 

​Biancamaria Brumana, 'Giuseppe e Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli all’Università di Perugia', «Bollettino della Deputazione di Storia Patria per l’Umbria, 117, 2020, pp. 491-510.

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And for indispensable guides to recordings:

A Facebook group page devoted to ABM

Christian Johansson

Pianist Discography.com

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​ Further books to be consulted (this website is "work in progress"):

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The Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Documentation Centre

Directors: Stefano Biosa & Marco Bizzarini (Brescia)

 

*Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Luci e ombre del perfezionismo 2023
by Cord Garben​

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**Chronicle of the concerts by Harry Chin and Carlo Palese which accompanies the book

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Il Grembo del Suono (Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. The Womb of Sound), Milan, Skira, 1996

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**Jochen Köhler, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Auf der Suche nach dem Vollkommenen (2020)

Unter Mitwirkung von Bernd Goetzke, Cord Garben und Edmund W. Böckenholt. Mit einem Essay von Tihomir Popovic´

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A life among legends: An impresario looks back (2016) by Jacques Leiser 

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Cesare Augusto Tallone, Fede e lavoro: memorie di un accordatore, Rugginenti, Milano 2021

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Carlo Maria Dominici, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Il mio Maestro 2025

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Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Saggi e ritratti 2023
by Sonya Beretta (Editor), Giacomo Fornari (Editor), Vittorio Sgarbi (Preface)
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Vita con Ciro

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Papers by Sonya Beretta

 

​Giacomo Fornari, «Aprire le orecchie» al pianoforte. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli a Bolzano: due testimonianze

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H. Stuppner, Musik und Gesellschaft in Südtirol. Bozen 1800 - 2000, Bozen 2009, pp. 500-514.​

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On October 27, 2024, musicologist Matteo Mainardi, spoke at the XXXI Annual Conference of the Italian Society of Musicology (SIdM) at the Luigi Cherubini Conservatory of Music in Florence.
He presented a paper entitled "Giovanni Anfossi, the teacher of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli". His most famous student was the great pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, who studied with Anfossi from 1929 to 1939. Under his guidance, he graduated in 1934 and participated in the Genoa Competition (1936), the Ysaye Competition in Brussels (1938) and the Geneva Competition (1939), which he won, being defined by Alfred Cortot as "the new Liszt". Anfossi edited a detailed portfolio of journalistic articles relating to these competitions and to the various concerts that Michelangeli held between 1936 and 1943, documents that shed new light on the beginning of the career of the great virtuoso from Brescia.
The paper focuses on Giovanni Anfossi's private archive, preserved by his great-grandchildren and containing unpublished documents of particular historical importance.

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​アルトゥーロ・ベネデッティ・ミケランジェリ