Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Concert pianist

摘要

Stokowski coined, or more probably borrowed, the expression when he said he expected '110% concentration' from an orchestral player. On this scale, the pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangelo (born Jan 1920, in Brescia, Italy) was '110%' a perfectionist - remembered as much for the concerts he cancelled as those he gave. You can see Robin Ray-remember him from BBC TV's Face The Music? - on a YouTube film from 1982 where he previews a Festival Hall concert performance of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G with the LSO and Celibidache, speaking half sceptically, half in awe, about an artist who could not only strip and rebuild his Steinways but who raced cars - he was a Mille Miglia competitor three times - and piloted small aircraft as well. As a concession to his parents Michelangeli also studied medicine for five years.