Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995)

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 b

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli had probably the smallest repertoire of any concert pianist before the public.

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 i

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 generou

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

In a review of the book by Carlo Maria Dominici - a book which I have not seen- , Cesare Galla [source in Italian] writes: 'Evidently, the Calabrian-American boy must have impressed the great international concert pianist... His memories are lucid and precise, painting an image of the Brescian pianist that doesn't always coincide with the mannered one, established through the testimonies of friends and relatives, colleagues, and fans. What's striking are his quirks of charac