Aldo Ciccolini (1925-2014)

Aldo Ciccolini, the Italian-born French pianist most widely known for his recordings of the solo-piano music of Erik Satie, has died at 89.

Although he made French music his specialty, Ciccolini also performed and recorded a range of other repertory, including the sonatas of Mozart and Beethoven. He was a highly regarded teacher at the Paris Conservatoire in the 1970s and ’80s; among his students were Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Nicholas Angelich.

Ciccolini performed several times with the Richmond Symphony in the 1980s. His first engagement here, in which he played Liszt and Franck on an oversized, snow-white Bösendorfer concert grand, was especially memorable.

An obituary from the British music magazine Gramophone:

http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/the-pianist-aldo-ciccolini-has-died

The English pianist Mark Bebbington recalls Ciccolini as a teacher, on Norman Lebrecht’s Slipped Disc blog:

http://slippedisc.com/2015/02/i-was-mesmerised-by-my-teacher-aldo-ciccolini/

Ciccolini plays Satie’s “Gymnopedie” No. 1 at his 85th birthday concert in 2010:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0peXnOnDgQ8