Aldo Ciccolini plays Liszt – live 2005

Aldo Ciccolini was a few weeks shy of 80 years old when he gave the second half of this recital in the summer of 2005. He had had a public presence since winning the 1949 Long-Thibaud Competition, and by the 1970s was already well-documented on record. Yet there’s a special presence around this pianist as he is one of very few to transform his playing at the end of his life and to finish at the very zenith of his creative ability. We’re talking about someone who debuted on stage during the war, yet who reached an artistic peak as Wifi spread among us. It’s probably a unique development. In fact how often do you encounter a pianist who not only maintains their facility into later life but who develops creatively in that time and goes out on top? Sofronitsky would be one example. In the late 1950s his playing became freer and more impassioned, and at the very end of his life he was playing better than ever. However he was only approaching 60 at the time, and though racked by self-doubt, he