Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli – Debussy: Préludes I (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:01 minutes | 1,56 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Though he is without a doubt one of the mad genius pianists of the century, Michelangeli’s reputation is sustained essentially by two recordings (or groups of recordings): his Rachmaninoff and Ravel piano concerto disc on EMI, and his Debussy series for DG. Renowned for his fanatical keyboard control and crystalline tone, his interpretations of Beethoven and Mozart often seemed inhuman in their steely precision. But in Debussy, he found a composer whose acute sensitivity to detail and phenomenal ear for the coloristic possibilities of the piano really matched his own artistic philosophy. This recording simply blew the critics away when it came out in 1978, and it hasn’t aged a bit. A classic. –David Hurwitz

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Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli – Debussy: Images 1 & 2; Children’s Corner (1971/2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 44:53 minutes | 1,36 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Il y a des enregistrements qui s’imposent avec une telle évidence que toute critique parait inutile pour ne pas dire futile. Que dire encore de neuf à propos de cette rencontre entre un compositeur et son interprète ? Que le piano de Benedetti-Michelangeli est cristallin, pyrotechnique, que son clavier semble paré de toutes les nuances de couleurs les plus infimes ? Point de maniérismes déplacés, points de langueurs “début de siècle”, mais une simplicité d’expression qui fait de Debussy un frère occidental des auteurs de haïkus japonais.

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Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli – Chopin: 10 Marzurkas (1972/2018)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 54:02 minutes | 881 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Michelangeli’s recital disc is also heavy on mazurkas, offering ten of them along with a single prelude, the G minor Ballade, and the B flat minor Scherzo. The playing is striking, marked by extraordinary refinement of tone and articulation. In the scherzo, Michelangeli achieves a transcendent realization, full of anticipation, beautiful and intense at same time – one of the great accounts of the piece on record. Originally released in 1972, the recording has fairly low impact sonics, but a nice pickup with plenty of hall ambience.” (Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide)

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