More history this weekend – A Belgian Radio recording of a session featuring Orchestre National de Belgique conducted by André Cluytens and featuring pianist Aldo Ciccolini in a performance of Les Djinns by Cesar Franck – the performance was recorded December 19 and 21st 1962 at Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles.
Aldo Ciccolini began his performing career playing at the Teatro San Carlo at the age of 16. However, by 1946 he was forced to play in bars to support his family. In 1949, he won, ex-aequo (tied) with Ventsislav Yankov, the Marguerite Long – Jacques Thibaud Competition in Paris (among the other prizewinners were Paul Badura-Skoda and Pierre Barbizet). He became a French citizen in 1971 and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1970 to 1988, where his students included Akiko Ebi, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Artur Pizarro, Géry Moutier, Nicholas Angelich, André Sayasov and Jean-Luc Kandyoti. Other students included Fabio Mengozzi, Francesco Libetta, Antonio Pompa-Baldi,[5] Domenico Piccichè, Ivan Donchev and Jean-Marc Savelli.
Aldo Ciccolini was a celebrated interpreter and advocate of the piano music of the French composers Camille Saint-Saëns, Cesar Franck, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Charles-Valentin Alkan and Erik Satie as well as that of less prominent composers such as Déodat de Séverac, Jules Massenet and Alexis de Castillon.
Ciccolini was known for his having played the music of the Spanish composers Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, and Manuel de Falla, as well as of Franz Liszt. Soprano Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf said of him “I have hardly met a more wonderful partner and a more delightful companion.”
On 9 December 1999, he celebrated a career in France spanning 50 years with a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.
In 2008, he was appointed commander of the French National Order of Merit.
Aldo Ciccolini died in Paris, at his home on February 1, 2015 at thel age of 89.
And needless to say, he couldn’t have asked for a better accompanist than André Cluytens who leads Orchestre National de Belgique.
Enjoy.
