Aldo Ciccolini

Aldo Ciccolini (born August 15, 1925), is a French pianist of Italian origin. He was born in Naples where he began his career playing at the Theater San Carlo at the age of 16. In 1949, he won the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud competition in Paris. He became a French citizen in 1969 and taught at the Conservatoire de Paris from 1970 to 1988 (His students are Akiko Ebi, Géry Moutier, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Artur Pizzaro, Nicholas Angelich).

Ciccolini is a celebrated interpreter and advocate of the piano music of the French composers Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy and Erik Satie as well as that of less prominent composers such as Déodat de Séverac, Jules Massenet, Charles-Valentin Alkan, and Alexis de Castillon.

Ciccolini is also known for his playing of the music of Franz Liszt. He has made more than a hundred recordings for EMI-Pathé Marconi and other record companies, including the complete sonata cycles of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Beethoven, and the complete piano works of Erik Satie.

On 9 December 1999 Ciccolini celebrated a career in France spanning 50 years with a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris.

In 2002 Ciccolini was awarded the Diapason d'or for his recording of the entire solo piano works of Janacek for Abeille Music and Robert Schumann for Cascavelles. His complete sonata cycle of Beethoven was re-published under Cascavelle label in 2006.

ource

* [http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldo_Ciccolini Article on Aldo Ciccolini in French Wikipedia]