Aldo Ciccolini
Pianist Aldo Ciccolini enjoyed a long and varied career, but to many music lovers, his name was most readily associated with the music of Erik Satie. A prolific recording artist, Ciccolini issued over 100 albums in his career, earning several prestigious awards.
Ciccolini was born on August 15, 1928, and was raised in Naples, where he studied at the Conservatory under pianist Paolo Denza, himself a one-time student of Ferruccio Busoni; Ciccolini made his debut there in 1942. In 1949, he traveled to Paris to complete in a Long-Thibault contest; after he won first prize, Ciccolini decided to stay in Paris and continue his studies with Marguerite Long. Ciccolini made his New York debut in 1950. It was probably through Long that Ciccolini got to know the music of Satie.
Ciccolini started playing a wide range of Satie works on his programs of the 1950s, including many pieces that had been forgotten since the composer's death. This attracted attention among the musical cognoscenti in Paris, including some of the most forward-thinking musicians of the time. They recognized in Ciccolini's interpretations of Satie's works elements in keeping with current-day avant-garde approaches that had been previously overlooked. Ultimately, this led to a revival of Satie's music and to Ciccolini's recorded versions of it for EMI; while the earliest of these recordings proved to be best-sellers over time, Ciccolini recorded the entire keyboard output of Satie twice over.
It is not fair to Ciccolini's talent, however, to limit his repertoire only to Satie, even though this association is the best known in his particular case. Ciccolini also recorded the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven, performed the sonatas of Mozart, and was renowned for his work with the music of French composers other than Satie, such as Chabrier, Saint-Saëns, and Fauré, among others. Ciccolini was also an expert interpreter of the music of Franz Liszt, and was equally well-situated in concerto literature in addition to solo piano repertoire.
Ciccolini was highly regarded as a teacher, holding a chair at the Paris Conservatoire from 1971 to 1989. In 2000, he was named honorary president of the Associazione Musicale Aldo Ciccolini, an organization devoted to promoting the cause of cultural and musical events in his native city of Naples. He earned the Diasapon d'Or in 2002 for The Janáček Album and the solo piano works by Robert Schumann. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Classical Music Awards in 2013. Ciccolini died in his Paris home on February 1, 2015. A recording from 2000 of Ciccolini and Aldo Orvieto performing Busoni's Fantasia contrappuntistica, BV. 256b, was included on the 2020 album Busoni: Works for two pianos.
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Debussy: Ballade, Suite bergamasque, Rêverie, Pour le piano, Danse & Arabesques
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jul 28, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Satie : Gymnopedies, Gnossiennes, Embryons desséchés, Sonatine bureaucratique
Classical - Released by Parlophone (France) on Jan 1, 1986
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Les années de pèlerinage
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 1, 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Consolations, Légendes & Rêves d'amour
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 1, 1972
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
À quoi rêvent les jeunes filles
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Apr 15, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
L'art d'Aldo Ciccolini (Scarlatti, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt...)
Solo Piano - Released by Cascavelle on Sep 28, 2018
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13 Waltzes
Solo Piano - Released by La Dolce Volta on Oct 7, 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Franck: Le chasseur maudit, Les Éolides, Les Djinns & Variations symphoniques
Aldo Ciccolini, Orchestre Philharmonique De Liège, Paul Strauss
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jul 1, 2022
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: Concerto en sol, Concerto pour la main gauche & Tzigane
Itzhak Perlman, Aldo Ciccolini, Orchestre de Paris, Jean Martinon
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 1, 1975
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Satie: Morceaux en forme de poire, Heures séculaires et instantanées, Nocturnes, Gymnopédies, Gnossiennes, Avant-dernières pensées...
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jul 14, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
À quoi rêvent les jeunes filles, vol. 2
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on May 3, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 13, D. 664, Impromptus, D. 889 & 935
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Aug 25, 2023
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Satie: Morceaux en forme de poire, Gymnopédies, Avant-dernières pensées, Gnossiennes...
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 1, 1956
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Albéniz: Iberia & España
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Aug 11, 2023
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Liszt: Funérailles, Consolations, Méphisto-valse No. 1 & Ballade No. 2
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 15, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Massenet: L'œuvre de piano
Aldo Ciccolini, Orchestre National de l'Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Sylvain Cambreling
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 29, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Albéniz: Orchestral Music
Classical - Released by Regis Records on Jan 1, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Busoni: Works for 2 Pianos
Aldo Orvieto, Marco Rapetti, Aldo Ciccolini
Classical - Released by Naxos on Aug 28, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
L'art de la mélodie. Debussy, Fauré, Hahn, Poulenc, Satie
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Feb 3, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Préludes
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Aug 30, 2019
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Quintettes avec piano
Dario Candela, Aldo Ciccolini, Circolo Artistico Ensemble
Chamber Music - Released by Naxos on Jan 4, 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo