top of page
Search

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: "The piano is my enemy!"

  • Douglas Cairns
  • Jan 2
  • 1 min read

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 secretary-assistant, a doctor, and his personal tuner. He has also brought his two grand instruments here, and he practises both for hours, dissatisfied. He says: "These are infernal machines."  "I'm running away from Italy so as not to see the Milanese, and I find them all here (London)". He always studies, then sleeps, but doesn't eat. In London, he stays in a small apartment. Never in a hotel.

La Stampa, 24.3.87


See the video at the top of the VATICAN page for my recollection of the recital I attended in London's Barbican Centre.

Recent Posts

See All
New book on Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

[Posted on the 5 January, the offical date of ABM's birth, though he once claimed it was in the first hour of the 6th!] I've recently seen that a new book on the pianist, I concerti di Arturo Benedett

 
 
Beethoven's last, Michelangeli's first,

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli gave his first performance of Sonata No. 32 in C minor Op.111 on 29 January 1937 in Brescia. Of a later performance, 'we read in the Popolo di Brescia  by critic Antonio

 
 
Benedetti Michelangeli and the Honey Pot

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 inn

 
 
bottom of page