<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli]]></title><description><![CDATA[Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Tue, 15 Sep 2026 11:45:45 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[The Italian Repertoire]]></title><description><![CDATA[Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's Italian repertoire.  I've compiling a list of most of the Italian pieces which ABM played, especially in his earlier years (using as a guide Antonio Armella, I concerti di Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli [December, 2025]).  This is not a complete list. Please feel free to add a comment below. 'Michelangeli's transition from celebrity to myth occurred when, in 1964, he held concerts in Moscow and Leningrad.  Russia -  which had scattered a dense group of piano...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/the-italian-repertoire</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e703a</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 13:03:54 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[New book on Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli ]]></title><description><![CDATA[[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 Benedetti Michelangeli  by Antonio Armella was published in December 2025.  It retails at around 33 Euros/ £28 on Amazon, where the blurb is: "This unique book reconstructs the concert life of one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century, the great Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, through reports from...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/new-book-on-arturo-benedetti-michelangeli</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7044</guid><pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:58:24 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Yoko Kono]]></title><description><![CDATA[Born in Paris to a family of Japanese origin, Yoko Kono began playing the piano at the age of four. In 1940, she moved to Tokyo, where she studied under Kazuko Yasukawa. She continued her studies at the Paris Conservatory with Lucette Descaves and Joseph Benvenuti. She earned her piano diploma in 1951, winning the Premier Prix, and her chamber music diploma in 1952, receiving the Première Médaille. She then continued her studies in Germany at the Hochschule in Detmold with Hans Richter-Haase....]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/yoko-kono</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e9ffed2248400549a08c4</guid><pubDate>Mon, 07 Sep 2026 11:33:14 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM Blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Memories of ABM performances]]></title><description><![CDATA[Pianist Béla Hartmann recently wrote with some memories of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. "I'm writing to share my recollection of the recital ABM gave at the Kongresssaal in Munich in 1986 [Armella dates this to 26 and 28 April 1985], including the 2nd book of Debussy Préludes. In my memory he was his usual morose self but played a large number of encores, all of them Chopin Mazurkas, all of them slow and sad. I don't remember how many but think it was around 5-7. I recall being surprised...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/memories-of-abm-performances</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7040</guid><pubDate>Sat, 05 Sep 2026 16:51:33 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Grieg Concerto]]></title><description><![CDATA[Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's first performance of Grieg's piano concerto in his  Turin début on 2 February 1940.  ]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/grieg-concerto</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7034</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 12:06:48 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Sergiu Celibidache]]></title><description><![CDATA[Sergiu Celibidache (1912-1996) See section at bottom of BUENOS AIRES page for biographical details 19 November, 1967: Konserthuset, Stockholm, Sweden Schumann: Piano Concerto in A minor, Op.54 – Sergiu Celibidache / Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra​​ Antonio Armella [p.206] states that, so far as he knows, this was the first collaboration with the Romanian conductor Celibidache and the first time ABM had performed in Sweden. The Yellow Tie (Romanian: Cravata Galbenă) is a biographical drama...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/sergiu-celibidache</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7031</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 00:41:23 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/89bab5_df2af05a879949aeb74e871aba0b0a83~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_720,h_480,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Giovanni Anfossi and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli]]></title><description><![CDATA[THE MASTER OF THE MASTER. Giovanni Anfossi and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Il maestro del maestro. Giovanni Anfossi e Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli For those who read Italian (not me).  You can download an excerpt.  I cannot attest the quality of the writing and research, but I'm attracted by the fact the author had access to archival material. Matteo Mainardi (author) published this book in January 2026 for Zecchini Editore LINK Giovanni Anfossi, a direct descendant of Pasquale, studied...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/giovanni-anfossi-and-arturo-benedetti-michelangeli</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e702e</guid><pubDate>Tue, 11 Aug 2026 17:02:11 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/89bab5_b400f50f2504407083521b87c9b7b077~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_708,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Master and Margarita]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mikhail Afanasyevich Bulgakov (1891 – 10 March 1940) was a Russian and Soviet novelist and playwright. His novel The Master and Margarita, published posthumously, has been called one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. It was reputedly a favourite novel of Benedetti Michelangeli, but is this in fact true? The Master and Margarita (Russian: Мастер и Маргарита) was written between 1928 and 1940.  A censored version, with several chapters cut by editors, was published posthumously in Moscow...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/the-master-and-margarita</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7038</guid><pubDate>Sun, 12 Jul 2026 21:15:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_e7ae1885001648fd9e07943c8bc0ded2~mv2.jpeg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Benedetti Michelangeli's repertoire]]></title><description><![CDATA[Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli had probably the smallest repertoire of any concert pianist before the public. ]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/benedetti-michelangeli-s-repertoire</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e703f</guid><pubDate>Fri, 08 May 2026 10:38:44 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://video.wixstatic.com/video/89bab5_ee768a4673a346fea23b9b3da877c00d/1080p/mp4/file.mp4" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Geneva 1939]]></title><description><![CDATA[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...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/geneva-1939</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e703c</guid><pubDate>Sun, 18 Jan 2026 17:20:11 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA["And then we remembered why we had come"]]></title><description><![CDATA[13 May, 1990: Barbican Hall, London Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.11 in B-flat major, Op.22,  No.32 in C minor, Op.111 Chopin: Scherzo No.1 in B minor, Op.20, Mazurka in B minor, Op.33 No.4, Andante Spianato &#38; Grande Polonaise Brillante, Op.22 ​ David Murray in the Financial Times (14 March) talked of TWO Michelangelis. 'His Beethoven starter was the mild, piano-friendly little op. 22 Sonata in B-flat,not often heard in public, and scarcely ever like this.  Within a few bars it  was clear that...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/barbican-hall-london-1990</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7033</guid><pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2026 15:33:06 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/11062b_c42c1ca33b804beea492045a99e8cd25~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Where's the pianist?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli's 1965 tour of Japan (March/April), Antonio Armella dryly observes that "Benedetti Michelangeli- naturally - did nothing to ingratiate himself with his Japanese sponsors/ per ingraziarsi i suoi sponsor giapponesi"! There was big reception at the Italian Embassy in Tokyo, to which Michelangeli had accepted an invitation.  Jacques Leiser, trusted and loyal tuner CesareTallone and ABM were staying at the Hilton Hotel in Tokyo, which was located in Nagata-cho,...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/where-s-the-pianist</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7050</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 18:18:39 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6abab5d401124ae5b11ed6a0eca1606c.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Reminiscences of Kraków 1955]]></title><description><![CDATA[Students recall Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli during the Chopin Competition Echo Krakowskie, 26 March 1955 Participants of the Chopin Competition in Kraków Now we begin our journey through the castle, the oldest in Wawel [Royal Castle], the Rotunda of Felix and Adauctus, through a labyrinth of halls and cloisters, all the way to the Throne Room. The guides, who explain everything in Russian, French, German, and English, can't keep up with the dozens of questions. From the castle, we move on...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/reminiscences-of-krakow-1955</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e703e</guid><pubDate>Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:04:08 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/89bab5_75790ed9856f4b0f90f5cae7ce2a69c0~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Michelangeli "burned at the stake (not)!" Warsaw, 1955]]></title><description><![CDATA['Tall, slim, slightly stooped. He steps onto the stage with a slow, as if weary gait, mopping his damp forehead with his ever-present handkerchief. In 1953, he interrupted his concert work due to a serious illness; his current concerts in Warsaw and Kraków were his first after recovery, each one cost him a great deal of effort, each one was tiring... 'If Benedetti had lived in Paganini's time, he would have been accused of conspiring with Satan. Perhaps burned at the stake, excommunicated....]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/michelangeli-burned-at-the-stake-not-warsaw-1955</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7051</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 23:30:08 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Brahms in the hands of Michelangeli]]></title><description><![CDATA[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.]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/brahms-in-the-hands-of-michelangeli</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e704d</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 17:09:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://video.wixstatic.com/video/89bab5_0ac153b720044cf5871c3a307ed7d1da/1080p/mp4/file.mp4" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Martha Argerich speaks about Michelangeli]]></title><description><![CDATA[Hamburg 2021]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/martha-argerich-speaks-about-michelangeli</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7058</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 01:13:56 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lg5a_hjXUVw" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Martha Argerich]]></title><description><![CDATA[Financial Times  8 July 2011 Michelangeli confined himself to the G major concerto. How did he influence her during the 18 months she spent with him? “I don’t know. He was around most of the time but he wasn’t interested in us [pupils]. He only gave me four lessons. Later he told an interviewer: ‘I did a lot for that girl.’ When asked what he had done for me, he replied: ‘I taught her the music of silence’.” This is a joke, and we both laugh. She says Michelangeli was generous with money –...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/martha-argerich</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e704e</guid><pubDate>Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:48:08 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Antonio Armella]]></title><description><![CDATA[Mr Armella's massive book (c.490 pages) on the chronology of ABM has just arrived.  Details on my other website on Jorge Bolet (the ABM site is a free one so I cannot upload a photo of one page as a sample, as I'm at my data limit) Jorge Bolet website]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/antonio-armella</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e704a</guid><pubDate>Tue, 13 Jan 2026 21:11:47 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Beethoven's last, Michelangeli's first,]]></title><description><![CDATA[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 Grassi on December 31, 1937: "Certainly Benedetti's interpretation is flawless, especially in the second part where the artist's power of penetration and translation must struggle against the sublime, but Beethoven would have caressed the head of this boy so bold and so talented, that is,...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/beethoven-last-michelangeli-first</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e7032</guid><pubDate>Mon, 05 Jan 2026 23:51:48 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Benedetti Michelangeli and the Honey Pot]]></title><description><![CDATA[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 inner circle. "Musically he was rather easy to handle, but all the things besides were more than complicated," says Garben in lightly accented English. "When the honey he needed for his tea was not the right one, he made a small scandal, catapulting it over the table and complaining that his tea was...]]></description><link>https://classicaltexts.wixsite.com/michelangeli/post/benedetti-michelangeli-and-the-honey-pot</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a9e95171c69063c773e704c</guid><pubDate>Sun, 04 Jan 2026 22:56:13 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/nsplsh_475f78594453365575586f~mv2.jpg/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>ABM blogger</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>