Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays Mozart Piano Concertos: Ludwigsburg Festival, 11 July 1956

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These concert recordings from the 1956 Ludwigsburg Festival show a supreme pianistic technician at the peak of his powers. More rewardingly and valuably still, they reveal a quality of the 36-year-old... — BBC Music Magazine, October 2013, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 29th Apr 2013
Catalogue No: ICAC5103
Label: ica classics
Series: Legacy
Length: 54 minutes

Usually despatched in 3 - 4 working days

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466

Work length30:22

$7.00

$9.05

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Antoine de Bavier
Recorded: 11 July 1956
Recording Venue: Ludwigsburg Festival, Germany

I. Allegro

Track length13:42

$3.00

$3.85

II. Romanze

Track length9:01

$2.00

$2.60

III. Rondo. Allegro assai

Track length7:39

$2.00

$2.60

Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major, K450

Work length23:50

$6.00

$7.75

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (piano)
WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Antoine de Bavier
Recorded: 11 July 1956
Recording Venue: Ludwigsburg Festival, Germany

I. Allegro

Track length10:09

$3.00

$3.85

II. Andante

Track length5:22

$1.00

$1.30

III. Allegro

Track length8:19

$2.00

$2.60

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About

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920–1995) was born in Brescia, Italy. He began music lessons at the age of three and at ten he entered the Milan Conservatory. In 1939, he won first prize in the Geneva International Piano Competition, where he was acclaimed as ‘a new Liszt’ by pianist Alfred Cortot, a member of the judging panel.

His repertoire was strikingly small for a concert pianist of such stature, concentrating only on specific works. Owing to this obsessive perfectionism, relatively few recordings were officially released during Michelangeli’s lifetime. Debussy and Ravel as well as Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Beethoven featured in his limited concert schedule. His recordings of Ravel and Debussy were considered essential for any collection.

Michelangeli was a connoisseur of the mechanics of the piano and he insisted that his concert instruments be in perfect condition. Whenever possible he took his own Steinway piano with him on tour. His last concert (all Debussy) took place on 7 May 1993 in Hamburg, Germany.

Any recording featuring Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli is an important event because he recorded very little in the studio, leaving the field open for many unauthorised versions to be released on the market. This authorised live SWR recording from the Ludwigsburg Festival in 1956 shows a Mozart style far removed from that presented today. These are full-blooded interpretations and show Michelangeli with a very strong forward drive, well supported by Antoine de Bavier, a pupil of Furtwängler.

The recording made by SWR is of excellent quality, showcasing Michelangeli’s superb playing. These two concertos (Michelangeli only played around five Mozart concertos) were performed throughout Michelangeli’s career, but the recording here was made when he was thirty-six years old and at the peak of his powers.

Reviews

October 2013

These concert recordings from the 1956 Ludwigsburg Festival show a supreme pianistic technician at the peak of his powers. More rewardingly and valuably still, they reveal a quality of the 36-year-old Michelangeli's artistry that in later years he tended to submerge: intensely forceful engagement with the works he played.

September 2013

here is the 26-year-old in his prime, making his arrival in K466 by turns assured, warm, classical and utterly mesmerising...This supremely classy Mozart-playing

2nd August 2013

The young Michelangeli is in uncharacteristically ebullient form, his playing exuding a real joyful insouciance as he despatches the roulades with gay abandon...The orchestra may be second-rate but their enthusiasm is infectious and this live concert performance reveals a side to the 36-year-old Michelangeli which was gradually subsumed into that of the austere and gloomy maestro.

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays Mozart Piano Concertos

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