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| '''Michael Ponti''' (], ] at ]): pianist. | '''Michael Ponti''' (], ] at ]): pianist. | ||
Revision as of 10:55, 15 May 2007
Michael Ponti (October 29, 1937 at Freiburg im Breisgau): pianist.
Life and career
Michael Ponti was born in Germany, and studied piano in Washington DC with Gilmour McDonald from 1954–1955, who was a pupil of Leopold Godowsky. He then studied with Eric Flinsch, who had studied with and later been an assistant to Emil von Sauer in Frankfurt am Main from 1955–1961. In 1964 he won first prize in the Busoni-Wettbewerb.
Among the prizes which he won in his early career was the Busoni award in 1964.
In 1977 he founded his own trio (with violinist Robert Zimansky and cellist Jan Polasek).
Recordings and reputation
Ponti is remembered fondly by a generation of music lovers for his wide-ranging recordings of the unknown romantic repertoire on the Vox label. He recorded a series of concertos, many of which had never been recorded before and some, indeed, unrecorded since, by such composers as Ignaz Moscheles, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Sigismund Thalberg, Moritz Moszkowski and Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf. He also recorded the complete piano music of Scriabin, much of which was otherwise unavailable. Also he recorded the complete piano music of Rachmanioff and Tschaikovsky. His output amounts to over 80 discs. His playing had a verve and technical virtuosity that well suited this romantic repertoire, though live recordings made in the 1980s reveal him to be a sensitive interpreter of the classical repertoire too.
Footnotes
- http://www.naxos.com/artistinfo/piano-614.htm Ponti's biography on the Naxos site
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