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

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 & 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

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 cas

A Polish "Kalendar" of 1956 reviewed the Chopin Competition of the previous year, from which this extract is taken. 'Each of these artists [the adjudicators in the competition] is a greatness in their own right, whether Kentner, Oborin, Levy, or others. But among them, the brilliant Italian pianist Benedetti Michelangeli, a true Michelangelo among pianists, shone with extraordinary brilliance. Polish reviewers simply lacked words to describe the greatness of this artist. Apar

In an interview (2021) with Joe Sabia, Alan Walker, Emeritus Professor of Music at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and author of two important and authoritative biographies (of Liszt and of Chopin), said this: "The longer you live and the longer you look back, the more likely it is that you’ll have favourites that the modern generation don’t like or never heard of; so it becomes a generational thing as well. Whenever I’m giving public talks I often point out that fo

Una cosa che fece andare in visibilio il nostro gruppo fu quando Benedetti Michelangeli fece il pianista nella Fedora di Giordano al Teatro Grande: l'avevano tutto truccato, era bellissimo, ed era bravo, usciva in palcoscenico e suonava divinamente. A me sembrava il giovane Werther. 'One thing that made our group go wild was when Benedetti Michelangeli played the pianist in Giordano's Fedora at the Teatro Grande: they had him all made up, he was beautiful, and he was good