ALDO CICCOLINI

«He would put great emphasis on touch and mechanism of arm and shoulders linked together and the way that created the sound world. There was huge focus on the maximum use of fingers. After the way he had studied at the masterclasses of Artur Schnabel and it was Schnabel’s way of teaching and thinking, of using weight – arm and shoulder and body weight – that evolved a way of playing and teaching for Aldo that to my mind combines the best of the French school with the best of that kind of Viennese German tradition. He was a rare master of all pianistic traditions. We think of him more as a French pianist, but it was rather to his chagrin that this kind of Saint-Saens piano concerto label dogged him – at times he would get annoyed at that, because he would be teaching, say, the late Schubert sonatas with an insight that was second to none». (British pianist Mark Bebbington)