Geneva 1939

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 over by such virtuosity, gave him a similar sum/ un donatore anonimo anonimo, ammirato da tanta bravura, gliene regalò altrettanti (Antonio Armella p.22f.)

'A modest boy came to Geneva without money and without elegant clothes, but he demonstrated a virtuosity and a musical feeling of the greatest masters of the keyboard.'

(Feuille d'avis de Vevey, 14 July).

'A revelation... This first public performance of the 18-year-old Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was a miracle.'

Benjamin de Jong Van Beek en Donk (1881-1948, a prominent Dutch jurist), Ijmuder Courant (a Holland newspaper, 12 July, 1939)

Antonio Armella observes that news reached the Italian community in Australia in August/September (Rockhampton Evening News, Queensland) and the Italo-Australian (L'Italo-Australiano, Surry Hills, New South Wales, founded 1885).

The former reports on Wednesday, 2 August: 'Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, an 18-years-old piano student, arrived at Geneva from Milan without a suitcase.

He borrowed a suit so that he could play in the International Music Festival.

Tall, thin, and very shy, he sat down to play the test piece before a jury, headed by Cortot, the famous French pianist. He was unknown. ... Today critics are calling him one

of the greatest modern' pianists. They describe his playing as "stupendous" and "a miracle," speak of his "unsurpassed gifts of virtuosity and interpretation".  He will return to Milan, but now he is not unknown. The Italian Government has become interested in his future.'

And in the latter (16 September), we find a very fanciful review: "He brings to mind Chopin when he says: 'I live in strange spaces,'" says a major Swiss newspaper, after interviewing the boy from Brescia with the enigmatic smile and the astonished look.  This seventeen-year-old boy, for whom the music of Beethoven, Brahms, and Liszt holds no secrets, arrived in Geneva without a suitcase, without a penny, with a simple return ticket from Brescia to Brescia.  The fever in his fingers and a great dream born in the darkest hours of daily suffering: this is the eaglet's only treasure.  [La febbre nelle dita e un grande sogno gemmato nelle ore più' fosche della pena quotidiana: ecco l'unico tesoro dell'aquilotto]

There's a link to the Liszt concerto, 8 July 1939 from the winners' finale on the SUCCESS page