Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Brescia, 5 January 1920 - Lugano, 12
June 1995) began his studies at the age of 4 with Paolo Chimeri at the
"Venturi" Music School. He followed his teacher to Milan,
where he studied piano and composition with Giovanni Anfossi and violin
with Renzo Francesconi.
At 14, he received his diploma and immediately began his concert career.
His extraordinary talent was immediately recognised at the first Geneva
International Competition in 1939, whose jury was headed by Ignaz Paderewski.
Alfred Cortot, who sat on the jury at the end of the rehearsals, announced,
"The new Liszt is born". These famous words helped spread
his fame overseas: he played in England in 1946 and was invited to tour
the United States in 1948.
The following year, he was invited to take part in the Chopin centennial
celebrations in Warsaw. He taught at the Conservatories of Bologna,
Venice, and Bolzano, and held legendary master classes at Arezzo, Siena,
Torino, and Lugano.
In 1964, he founded the International Piano Festival of Brescia and
Bergamo, and was its artistic director until 1969. A member of the Accademia
Nazionale di S. Cecilia, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, and the Accademia
Nazionale "L. Cherubini" of Florence, he held summer master
classes at Villa Schifanoia near Florence beginning in 1973. In 1968,
he left Italy and made his home near Lugano, Switzerland. Nevertheless,
in 1977 and in 1986 he performed at the Vatican before an audience of
more than 8000 people, and in 1980 at Teatro Grande in Brescia at a
benefit concert in memory of Pope Paul VI. His last public performance,
an all-Debussy program, was on 7 May 1993 at the Musikhalle in Hamburg.
His recordings are available on Teldec, EMI, Decca, DGG and Aura Music.
|
