To many music lovers, pianist Aldo Ciccolini and composer Erik Satie are synonymous. That’s understandable, since Ciccolini’s Satie recordings from the 1960s and 70s helped develop new audiences for this maverick composer.
Yet the fact is that Ciccolini’s artistry embraced a wide stylistic net. “The range of Ciccolini’s recorded repertoire is quite astonishing,” says the Classical Network’s Artist-in-Residence Jed Distler, who is the creator, host and producer of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Virgil Thomson Award winning program Between the Keys. “Think of it. He recorded all of Debussy, all of Satie twice, Mozart sonatas several times over, the 32 Beethoven Sonatas, lots of Liszt, Brahms, Schumann, tons of French concertos and solo works, a fair amount of Chopin, all of the Grieg Lyric Pieces.”
With this in mind, Distler decided to devote an Episode of Between the Keys to Ciccolini’s artistry. “One program can’t do Ciccolini’s legacy full justice, of course, yet I’ve come up with a fairly well-rounded hour of solo recordings that will both delight and surprise listeners.”
Tune in to Between the Keys this Tuesday night January 22nd at 10 for the art of Aldo Ciccolini, exclusively on The Classical Network and WWFM.org.