Dressed in a chic tan turtleneck, untucked, but with a belt clasped around it, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli sits at the piano in an intimate studio in October, 1978. As he plays Debussy’s Book 1 Preludes, you notice how effortlessly his arms, hands, and fingers are choreographed to the music. Like Vladimir Horowitz and Glenn Gould, Michelangeli employs a relatively flat-fingered technique for sustained legato passages and certain rotary arpeggios (such as those in Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest). At the same time, his facial gestures constantly react to the sounds from his instrument, as if the remarkable gradations in touch first organize themselves in Michelangeli’s brain before reaching the piano.
Even more so than in his DG studio recording of the Preludes, Michelangeli anachronistically rolls chords not intended to be arpeggiated (annoyingly so in parts of La cathédrale engloutie), and highlights climactic melody notes by “breaking” his hands Paderewski-style. Sometimes the pianist’s laser-like, statuesque craftsmanship yields overly austere results, as in Le vent dans la plaine and La serenade interrompue, to say nothing of that flaxen-haired girl who grew up too fast! Yet the pianist’s multi-hued articulation appreciably animates Voiles’ static whole-tone harmonic blueprint and renders the sparse textures of Des pas sur la neige in gorgeous, three-dimensional perspective.
Five selections filmed in Paris on January 5, 1965 prove no less fastidious and controversial. Debussy’s Hommage à Rameau contains dazzling nuances, yet the tempo accelerations convey an impatient, even glib impression next to the containment and expressive economy of the pianist’s classic 1970 DG studio version. You also might find Scarlatti’s C major Kk 159 sonata slightly too fast for comfort, despite the pianist’s extraordinary evenness and control both here and in the C minor Kk. 11 (what trills!). Michelangeli’s stretched-out, lapidarian Chopin G-sharp minor Mazurka Op. 33 No. 1 is a master-class in concentration, while the patiently detailed B minor Mazurka Op. 33 No. 4 convinces far more than the pianist’s overly protracted and inflated performances from his last years. Needless to say, this DVD recommends itself to Michelangeli fans and serious piano buffs.
