DESCRIPTION:
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli plays:Sergei Rachmaninoff -Concerto no.4 op.40 I Tempo-
# Philharmonia Orchestra/Ettore Gracis - London March 1957
Sergei Rachmaninoff completed his Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 in 1926 and the work currently exists in three versions. Following its unsuccessful premiere he made cuts and other amendments before publishing it in 1928. With continued lack of success, he withdrew the work, eventually revising and republishing it in 1941.

Form:
Compared to its predecessors, the Fourth contains sharper thematic profiles along with a refinement of textures in keyboard and orchestra. These qualities do not lead to greater simplicity but to a different sort of complexity. It was also a continuation of Rachmaninoff's long-range creative growth. The Third and the recomposed First Concertos were less heavily orchestrated than the Second. In keeping with its general character, the Fourth is lighter still yet more oblique.[2]

The concerto is written in three movements:

1. Allegro vivace (G minor)
2. Largo (C major)
3. Allegro vivace (G major)

« Essere un pianista e un musicista non è una professione. E' una filosofia, uno stile di vita che non può basarsi né sulle buone intenzioni né sul talento naturale. Bisogna avere prima di tutto uno spirito di sacrificio inimmaginabile. »

(Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli)

Biography di A.B.Michelangeli:

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (January 5, 1920 June 12, 1995) was an Italian classical pianist. He has been regarded as among the most commanding and individual piano virtuosos of the 20th century. Along with Ferruccio Busoni, he is often considered the most important Italian pianist.

Born in Brescia, Italy, he began music lessons at the age of 3, initially with the violin, but quickly switched to the piano. At ten he entered the Milan Conservatory. In 1938, at age 18, he began his international career by entering the Ysaÿe International Festival in Brussels, Belgium, where he placed seventh. A year later he earned first prize in the Geneva International Competition where he was acclaimed as "a new Liszt" by pianist Alfred Cortot, a member of the judging panel, which was presided by Ignacy Jan Paderewski.

Michelangeli was known for his note-perfect performances. The music critic Harold Schonberg wrote of him: "His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired....
His repertoire was strikingly small for a concert pianist of such stature. Owing to his obsessive perfectionism relatively few recordings were officially released during Michelangeli's lifetime, but these are augmented by numerous bootleg recordings of live performances. Discographical highlights include the (authorized) live performances in London of Maurice Ravel's Gaspard de la Nuit, Chopin's Sonata No. 2 and Robert Schumann's Carnaval, Op. 9 and Faschingsschwank aus Wien, Op. 26. The Gaspard, as well as his playing of Ravel's Piano Concerto in G set standards for those works and his reading of Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 4 is comparable to that of Rachmaninoff himself. His Claude Debussy series for DG is something of a benchmark. Several DVDs of live performances, and a master class, are also available.

As a composer, Michelangeli wrote 19 Folksongs a cappella for the SAT men's chorus from Trent (Italy).

Michelangeli was something of a hypochondriac, famous for last-minute cancellations of his concert recitals. His last concert took place on May 7, 1993 in Hamburg, Germany. After an extended illness he died in Lugano, Switzerland.