GREAT RECORDINGS phase 12

SCHUMANN: CARNAVAL
& ALBUM FOR THE YOUNG
Nos. 37-39
BACH-BUSONI: CHACONNE
BRAHMS: VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY PAGANINI
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

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'Michelangeli gives astonishing tonal variety to the Chaconne and brings out all its noble architectural beauty. The Brahms is simply magnificent. What a pianist! Technically the playing is astonishing; interpretatively, here is a very great musician.' (Gramophone)

Awards: Diapason d'Or & Choc du Monde de la Musique, France

The Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) is assured a place as one of the greatest of all pianists. Alfred Cortot, a member of the jury at the 1939 Geneva International Piano Competition, exclaimed 'A new Liszt is born!' when Michelangeli was declared the decisive victor.

Though an enigmatic, unpredictable and controversial figure in his lifetime, Michelangeli's (not extensive) discography bears witness to his immaculate and sublime pianism. EMI's small legacy of the pianist's recordings includes some of his best: Rachmaninov's Fourth and Ravel's G major concertos from 1957 (already available as a Great Recording of the Century) and these 1948 recordings of Busoni's transcription of the Chaconne from Bach's second solo violin Partita and Brahms's virtuosic 'Paganini' Variations.

From the young piano wizard of 28, this CD programme moves to the more mature, more reflective, but no less assured Michelangeli who, in Switzerland in 1975, recorded an impressive LP of Schumann: Carnaval, one of the pianist's particular favourites, and three characterful pieces from the composer's Album for the Young.