any fans of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli?

Posted by: mikeeschman on 06 March 2009

i have loved this man's debussy, chopin, brahms and beethoven for three decades, and bought two dvds of debussy and chopin. last night we watched/listened to the debussy disk, which contains Images books 1 and 2, the children's corner suite, and two of the preludes, along with a 1962 documentary in italian.

the documentary is hilarious and also interesting, as you get to see five of his students interviewed back in 1962. we watched the documentary hoping to hear michelangeli speak, but he doesn't say a word.

we have 2 cds and 5 or so lps of his performances, which i re-read the jackets of last night. he makes claims that his interpertation of many works are orchestral in spirit, in that the voices have distinctive tonal pallet like trumpets, or horns and so on. listening last night, i think he does have a particular facility in making the tonal cast and presentation of the voices in the debussy stand out from each other, much like instruments in an orchestra. i have never heard or read another pianist make this sort of claim.

the video is in black-and-white and the sound track is damaged in many places, but where there is no damage, the touch is well represented in the audio. the video is exceptional in that you can always see his hands, which is very nice.

anyone else have a fascination with this fellow?
Posted on: 06 March 2009 by Oldnslow
One of the great pianists of the century, for sure. My favorite Michaelangeli is the two CD set on Testament, recorded live in London, with Schumann Carnaval , Debussy, Chopin and other pieces--simply amazing, and also contains a rehearsal with him testing out the piano and commenting (in Italian, of course). Probably hard to find now but well worth the effort. All his solo DG recordings are wonderful too.
Posted on: 08 March 2009 by Massimo Bertola
The great, late Sergiu Celibidache - with whom I had the pleasure and honour to study - considered ABM to be not only the greatest pianist ever, but one - he said - of the greatest conductors, because - he said - in his playing you could hear all sort of musical instruments.
There's a florilegium of quotations by SC on ABM. As soon as I find them, I'll post them.
You're not asking yourself who is Sergiu celibidache, are you?
Posted on: 08 March 2009 by mikeeschman
quote:
Originally posted by maxbertola:
The great, late Sergiu Celibidache - with whom I had the pleasure and honour to study - considered ABM to be not only the greatest pianist ever, but one - he said - of the greatest conductors, because - he said - in his playing you could hear all sort of musical instruments.
There's a florilegium of quotations by SC on ABM. As soon as I find them, I'll post them.
You're not asking yourself who is Sergiu celibidache, are you?


i have heard of the great celibidache, but have never heard him. can you make some recommendations?

also, could you reminisce about the time you spent studying with him? i could read that all day and night.

thanks in advance.
Posted on: 08 March 2009 by Haim Ronen
I have always been a big fan of Michelangeli, especially when it comes to the French piano music of Ravel & Debussy. The sparkle that he brings to those works is unmatched.
Another disc of his (DG) which I enjoy a lot is:



I would love to get this one as well:



but the asking price for the disc is $90.

Haim
Posted on: 08 March 2009 by Wolf2
I used to have weekly drives thru traffic with a friend who knows so much about music. He told me to look for his late beethoven pieces. Said they were magical and told me a bit about the man himself.
Posted on: 08 March 2009 by mikeeschman
wolf, you are the second person on this forum to reference michelangeli playing late beethoven piano sonatas, and i am super hot for them, but i can't find them.

can anyone help?
Posted on: 08 March 2009 by Haim Ronen
This is the only disc that I know with a late sonata:

http://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/Arturo-Ben...-Legend/hnum/9454911

Here is an excellent performance of two sonatas by Beethoven which I am playing right now:

Posted on: 08 March 2009 by Oldnslow
There is also a BBC Legends CD where he plays the Beethoven Op.111. Op.111 was also on a Decca LP, but to my knowledge it was never reissued on CD (perhaps because it was savaged by critics, but I loved it--the LP also contained some Scarlatti and the wonderful Galuppi sonata Michelangeli was famous for).
Posted on: 24 March 2009 by soundsreal
I love him, just love him. His Dg recordings of Debussy are still some of my favs in my collection, when I first discovered them they blew me away.

I remember seeing the Beethoven/Scarlatti out on cd. I didn't buy it because it didn't have the best sound quality. Maybe I should have snagged it anyway.
Posted on: 25 March 2009 by graham55
Probably Micelangeli's greatest recording was the coupling of Ravel's Concerto and Rachmaninov's Fourth, made for EMI in London with the Philharmonia under Ettore Gracis. Recorded within days of the superb live Festival Hall recital referred to by Oldnslow above, and now available in EMI's Great Recordings Of The Century CD series. (I believe that these two concertos were also available recently as one of Testament's vinyl releases.)
Posted on: 25 March 2009 by mikeeschman
quote:
Originally posted by graham55:
Probably Micelangeli's greatest recording was the coupling of Ravel's Concerto and Rachmaninov's Fourth, made for EMI in London with the Philharmonia under Ettore Gracis.


this was the first michelangeli i heard, still love it. i haven't heard anything by him i don't like, and his technique consistently stuns me - no one better at the keyboard. such a range of colors available at his fingertips. the debussy disk with children's corner suite is still my favorite.
Posted on: 25 March 2009 by graham55
I was always mystified by the hostile critical response to ABM's 1975 recording of Schumann's Carnaval for EMI. It is, to my ears, pianistically brilliant and poetic and is afforded a better recorded sound than was given to him by DG's technicians in their (wonderful) series of recordings starting from around that time. It's also available as an EMI GROC.

But it would be great if Decca were to release his Beethoven Op 111 and Galuppi.