Search - Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli :: Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli: Great Pianists of the 20th Century

Diamond amongst gold

philbo@netspace.net.au | Melbourne, Australia | 12/16/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is so easy. If I want to show a friend the best Jazz ever, I play Kind Of Blue for them. If I want to show them the greatest Classical piano performance ever I put on Michelangeli's playing of the Ravel Concerto in G, second movement. His subtlety of touch and sense of dynamics is absolutely mind spinning. Everyone has melting musical moments in their lives but for me , this is it. Of course, the rest of the music is not too shabby; there is some beautiful stuff there. But the Ravel Concerto alone is worth the price of admission. In memory of the late and great Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli."

THE Ravel G Major Piano Concerto!

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/12/1999

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have rarely encountered the almost unanimous consensus that adheres to Michelangeli's recording of the Ravel G Major Concerto. I agree with another Amazon reviewer that the second movement is one of those experiences that stops time. And just listen to the incredible quirkily effective trills in the first movement (Ravel wrote them that way, with the *upper* note as the melody - what an ear he had!); who else could trill this fast while linking the chain of trills seamlessly? I even like the sound of the orchestral whip. This recording is one for the ages. Zimerman's recent recording with Boulez/Cleveland is superb, but it's nowhere close."

A passion and a problem

C. Pinheiro Jr. | São Paulo, Brazil | 02/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Stephane Mallarme once defended the complexity of his poetic output by saying that good poetry must be "a passion and a problem". A similar proposition is ensued by the redoubtable Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995): even his most ardent admirers were sometimes dumbfounded by the Italian's seeming unwillingness to please, his disregard for other people's opinions (and also, on occasion, of the composers' written indications), his detached and glacial interpretations and his lack of interest in virtuosity, not to mention his maddening propensity for cancelling concerts. And yet, we're talking about one of the supreme keyboard artists of all time, a musician who none other than the finicky and exacting Sviatoslav Richter once referred to as a master, and whose deeply probing and analytical playing was buttressed by one of the colossal techniques in pianistic history.



This volume in Philips' Great Pianists of the 20th Century series - the first of two dedicated to Michelangeli - is cleverly put together, presenting the maestro in some staples of his repertoire (especially Debussy and Ravel) and adding a couple of epoch-making recordings for good measure. The latter are Ravel's Piano Concerto in G and Gaspard de la Nuit, both definitive renditions which brought a new degree of technical finesse to those scores. The concerto, an early stereo register from 1957 in which Michelangeli is aptly partnered by the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Ettore Gracis, is unmatched in the pianist's impeccable fingerwork, evenness of touch - notably in the first movement trills - and structural coherence. The Gaspard, recorded in 1959, remains a benchmark performance to this day, not only for its tremendous technical aplomb but also for Michelangeli's unique pedal control: Ondine and Le Gibet are waft on a myriad tones and hues, and Scarbo is taken not as a virtuoso study in the fashion of Argerich or Pogorelich, but as a dark, gloomy, almost hypnotic journey.



Debussy's Preludes confirm Michelangeli as one of the greatest keyboard colourists ever, each piece a sound world in itself, in a technically immaculate and tonally ravishing display. The Images fare less well, belonging as they do to the pianist's later period, when he apparently became overly conscious - one might say obsessed - with chord micromanagement and sound projection, resulting in performances which often resembled a collection of details rather than thorough interpretations (Michelangeli's 1987 Gaspard recorded in the Vatican is a case in point: slow, fragmentary and erratic, it is a parody of his earlier attempts, particularly the one shown here).



This first set on Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli shows many of his best moments, exhibiting his rich and variegated tone (he once said he aimed at a sound between the organ and the violin), his flawless technique and his deep-thinking interpretative approach. Some scintillating Scarlatti and Galuppi are also thrown in for a more complete representation of Michelangeli's favourite recorded repertoire. Therefore, in spite of the less inspired portions of the Debussy, it deserves 5 stars.



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