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Rating: Reviewing an album where the pianist is named Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli can seem like someone daring to walk with muddy shoes on sacred ground. An icon of modern pianism, who rightly received his solid gold throne in the piano Olympus while still alive, alongside Rubinstein, Horowitz, Pollini, Richter, Ashkenazy, an "untouchable" rightfully so, with all the merits of being one.
In this CD published by Apex, recorded in Turin in 1963 as part of the Rai archive, Michelangeli showcases his meticulous technique in the service of some of the most beautiful piano works by Claude Debussy. Thus flow some sonic wonders like "Images Set I", "Images Set II", "2 Preludes", and the famous "Children's Corner". Everything flows in a clear and sparkling manner, the CD spins in the player and we are already ready to bow before yet another masterpiece that Michelangeli delivers to posterity, if it weren't for one small, insignificant, negligible detail..
In the last piece of "Children's Corner", that is "Golliwogg's cake-walk", Michelangeli adds non-existent notes in Claude Debussy's score! So much so that at first hearing, I couldn't believe my ears, having played this piece only a few thousand times... As if nothing happened, the Vate, the Great, the Divine, adds grace notes and eighth notes that he must have dreamed of while at the piano, as also noted by some of my pianist colleagues to whom I played the piece, who were left astonished and stunned before such a sacrilege! Yes, because one thing is a reinterpretation, a transcription, a reworking, another is adding mordents and semiquavers that completely change what Debussy had written! A very serious and indefensible episode, especially because we are talking about Debussy and Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, from now on several steps down as far as I'm concerned in terms of respect and professional esteem. Not to mention the fact that at the time of the recording, none of the collaborators, sound engineers, or producers of the album noticed, with scores in hand, that those six or seven notes were never written by Debussy in his life! And this speaks volumes about the competence and professionalism of those who should verify what a performer plays and performs, just as there are proofreaders for newspapers or those who do book editing before going to print, but perhaps this is asking too much, forgetting we are in a country called Italy...
As if that were not enough, the cover designers also erred in writing Childrens' Corner instead of Children's Corner, and Golliwog's cakewalk instead of Golliwogg's cake-walk as in the original Debussy edition, thank goodness we are talking about a classical music album...
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