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Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: Beethoven's 4th mystery

  • Douglas Cairns
  • Dec 16, 2025
  • 1 min read

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, Branislava [Branka?] Šaper Predić. The confusion was brought about by a famous pirate LP label wishing to obfuscate the issue and make some money out of it." The Belgrade Philharmonic archive has confirmed this and assigns the date 7 October, 1973.


Michelangeli did however play in Zagreb and Belgrade on 13 and 15 May 1968, the former concert conducted by Milan Horvat.


Maria Tipo (Naples, 23 December 1931 – Firenze,10 February 2025) was an Italian pianist who made an international career after she won the 1949 Geneva International Music Competition and came in third at the Queen Elisabeth Competition.

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