A reflective essay on the life and artistry of Italian-born pianist Aldo Ciccolini.
Revisiting his legacy as a leading interpreter of French modern piano music while listening to his Debussy performances.

Having come across the name Aldo Ciccolini after a long time, I searched for him and the result is as follows.
2018-01-22
Having come across the name Aldo Ciccolini after a long time, I searched for him and the result is as follows.
Aldo Ciccolini (August 15, 1925 – February 1, 2015) was an Italian pianist residing in France.
He was born in Naples.
He made his debut at the Teatro San Carlo at the age of sixteen and won first prize at the Long-Thibaud International Competition in Paris in 1949.
He became a naturalized French citizen in 1969 and taught at the Paris Conservatoire from 1970 to 1983.
He was internationally renowned as an interpreter and advocate of French modern music and recorded the complete piano works of Satie and Debussy.
He also recorded rare works by Alkan, Castillon, Massenet, and Séverac.
At the same time, he was highly acclaimed for his performances of Liszt.
He left more than one hundred recordings with Pathé-Marconi, EMI, and others, among which the complete piano sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven stand out.
On December 9, 1999, a commemorative recital was held at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of his activities in France.
In 2002, he received the Diapason d’Or for his complete piano works of Janáček (Abeille Music label) and his Schumann piano collection (Cascavelle label).
In 2006, the complete Beethoven sonatas were reissued by the Cascavelle label.
He passed away in Asnières-sur-Seine.
I am now writing this while listening to Debussy played by him.