The Golden Age of the piano is back: Giovanni Bellucci

Giovanni Bellucci„The world doesn’t even have ten pianists of his kind: He brings the Golden Age of the piano back.” (Le Monde) Exceptional Italian pianist Giovanni Bellucci impresses the world with the total command of the instrument and an incomparable beauty of sounds. He was shaped by the glamorous Italian school of piano, which is known for grand names such as Michelangeli, Ciani, and Pollini.

Bellucci‘s recording of paraphrases of Franz Liszt’s operas unleashed enthusiasm among critics. French magazine Diapason called this recording one of history’s top ten Liszt interpretations. This distinction puts Bellucci on the same level as Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, György Cziffra, and Krystian Zimerman. Equally enthusiastic reviews for Bellucci also appeared in BBC Music Magazine, and he received the coveted “Editor’s choice” of British magazine Gramophone, as well as the “Choc” of French journal Le Monde de la Musique.

Bellucci collaborates, among others, with Claudio Abbado, Salvatore Accardo, Philippe Entremont, Eliahu Inbal, Leonidas Kavakos, and Charles Mackerras. He has performed with great symphony orchestras in Los Angeles, Dallas, Sydney, Monte Carlo, Singapore, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Giovanni Bellucci gets invited to the world’s leading concert halls and festivals. His impressive debut in America in the legendary Hollywood Bowl attracted 18,000 spectators. Bellucci will play the requiem by Hans Werner Henze (9 spiritual concerts for piano, trumpet, and chamber orchestra) in Rome (Santa Cecilia) in March 2013. This will be the first performance after the composer’s death.

Programmatically, Giovanni Bellucci is en par with the world’s most gifted pianist, Franz Liszt. In numerous Liszt recitals of different compositions, Bellucci captivates the audience with breath-taking virtuosity, imbued interpretation, and balanced sound. In 2013, he will interpret Wagner‘s famous B minor sonata and paraphrases of Verdi operas in Liszt’s transcription.

Ludwig van Beethoven is part of Giovanni Bellucci‘s large scale project – he will record the 32 sonatas as well as the nine symphonies edited by Franz Liszt on a total of 14 CDs, three of which have already been published. He will perform 15 different Beethoven recitals live on stage.

As a soloist as well as with orchestras, Bellucci’s portfolio includes virtually all important compositions of piano literature (including Chopin, Brahms, Berlioz, Schumann, Schubert, Rachmaninow, Debussy), but he also dedicates himself to less known pieces, such as the piano sonata op. 6 by Felix Draeseke or the masterly lyrical piano concerts by Charles Valentin Alkan, which he will perform on account of their anniversaries in 2013. In the coming years, Giovanni Bellucci will interpret piano concerts by Alexander Glasunow, Alexander Scriabin, Max Reger, and Ferruccio Busoni.

In the 2013/14 season, Bellucci will be performing live at the Accademia S. Cecilia in Rome, at the Wagner Festival in Geneva, with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, at the Prague Spring Festival, at the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris and the Konzerthaus Berlin.