Review by JJ April 20, 2013 (1 of 5 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
This first volume devoted to the Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli highlights his favorite repertoire, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy, who through his hands encountered unequaled interpretative perfection. Michelangeli (1920-1995) began studying the piano and the violin at the age of 4, but a childhood sickness forced him to choose the piano. He entered the Milan conservatory, then won the first prize of the Geneva international competition, before winning an auto race. During his youth, Michelangeli was “daring.” He became both a skiing champion and an airplane pilot, and then traveled for a dozen years, most notably in the United States, before teaching in Brescia, where in 1964 he created a prestigious piano festival. Michelangeli then became “an enigmatic and distant pianist, capable of interrupting a concert if he didn’t feel well. Perfectionist, aware of all modern techniques, he knew how to mount and dismount his piano, which he took everywhere with him. On the program of this SACD in stereo only are works by Ravel, such as the famous Concerto for Piano in G major, Gaspard de la nuit, and the Valses nobles et sentimentales, as well as the Children’s Corner by Debussy. Recorded in public in 1952 and 1960, these works are rejuvenated thanks to a DSD remastering which reflects nuances never heard on digital disc. A landmark recording to cherish…
Jean-Jacques Millo Translation Lawrence Schulman
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