What characterized the particular style of playing and interpretation that made Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli so unforgettable?
He was obsessed with technical perfection and totally exact reproduction of the score.
His devotion to the music was incredibly deep, it is known that he spent hours and hours on his practicing sessions.
I had my first impression of Benedetti Michelangeli when I was a student at the music conservatory of my home town Cagliari. My father told me a lot about this pianist, trying to motivate me to practice more like he did.
I first listened to some of his recordings, I remember to be quite impressed about his Brahms-Paganini Variations and Bach-Busoni Chaconne. Later I literally admired his recording of Ravel Piano Concerto G Major and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto G Minor No.4 Op.40.

I thought first that his interpretations were too polite, or even unemotional, because of the exact technique and perfection. But I was able to discover soon his real signature: his beautiful and incomparable singing tone.
When playing a melodic phrase or a cantilena he let sing the piano, with his noble touch and his high-class art of making music.

Don´t forget that Benedetti Michelangeli had a deep knowledge of the instrument, he knew every detail about the piano action and he was rigorous in demanding a perfect calibration of the keyboard as well as accurate voicing. Those requirements about the piano are always necessary to grant a professional performance to a pianist, and that is what he also consequently did.

I wish I would have had the opportunity to hear him live, but it didn’t come to it, unfortunately. I can imagine how powerful and hypnotizing his performances have been for the audience. He was certainly an influential personality as a pianist and musician.
By all means his spirit of total sacrifice to the music was exemplary and his being a pianist was more than a profession, it was his life.

Oh my God, this terribly sounding word…our teachers threatened us with it, I am sure that the more your piano teacher repeated this word during the lessons, the less you wanted to do it.

I practiced up to seven hours a day during the time of my former music education, not only because my teachers said that, but also because I felt that spending many hours at the piano was necessary to get an appropriate technique.

However, practicing should not be just a matter of being a diligent student. If you consider your daily practice like a passionate exercising, you will be improving both your finger technique and your entire personal expression as a pianist.

Practice is the secret of being good in life.

If you repeat every day a task you are still not experienced with, you will be able to discover the strong power of practicing.

Practicing is repeating, repeating is learning, learning is living. And living is knowing more and more who you really are.

Maybe you are now fascinated by reading this and you want to know more about efficient piano playing.

But we will make a break now.

Do you know why?

Because we go practicing…