Aldo Ciccolini

Born on August 15, 1925 in Naples, Aldo Ciccolini was considered the last of the piano giants when he died on February 1, 2015 in Asnières-sur-Seine, at the age of 89. A prodigious pianist from childhood and a regular winner of first prizes in competitions, the pupil of Paolo Denza, Marguerite Long and Alfred Cortot began a teaching career at the Paris Conservatoire in 1947. Two years later, he won the grand prize in the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud Competition. The Italian pianist then embarked on an international career, performing works by Debussy, Ravel and Saint-Saëns on stages the world over. A great promoter of 20th-century French composers, he acquired French nationality in 1971, and brought the works of Erik Satie, of whom he was an eminent specialist, and, to a lesser extent, those of Déodat de Séverac, Emmanuel Chabrier, Valentin Alkan and Alexis de Castillon, to a wider public. His rich and varied repertoire has given rise to some one hundred recordings.