Hammer Piano Festival

Francesco Libetta BIOGRAPHY

According to New York Times, Francesco Libetta is a “poet aristocrat on a piano, with a profile and stature of a renaissance prince” (Matthew Gurewitsch). Olivier Bellamy mentions him as a “successor of Moriz Rosenthal, Busoni and Godowsky“ in Le Monde de la Musique. Francesco Maria Colombo wrote about the “return of elegance […] for which we thought was lost in the archives of piano interpretations” in Corriere della Sera. Luca Sabbatini calls him a “cult figure” in La Tribune de Genève, and Rafael Poleo describes him as a “historical example of skill” for the El nuevo País. Aldo Ciccolini wrote the following about Libetta “the most gifted performer of his generation”. Francesco d’Avalos dedicated all his solo piano works to him. Paolo Isotta defined him as a “thorough musician and well-behaved pianist” for his combination of “liberty and authority as a pianist with unparalleled talent in the world” (Corriere della Sera) and the “largest living pianist” (Altri canti di Marte, Marseille, 2015).
He performed the complete works of Beethoven (35 sonatas, recorded in 2020), Handel and Chopin, Godowsky (53 Studies on Chopin’s Études), Paisiello, Liszt (Transcendental Études, Years of Pilgrimage) currently on sale for the C&Co New Recording label. His recordings have been awarded the Diapason d’Or by the Diapason magazine, „CHOC“ by the magazine Le Monde de la Musique, Raccomandé par Classique and Amadeus d’oro. Bruno Monsaingeon and Franco Battiato are just two of many directors who helped in recording his works on the DVD. He studied composition in Rome together with Gino Marinuzzi and Jacques Castérède in Paris. He wrote music for theatre and film, acousmatic, chamber music, orchestral music. “Libetta, a learned composer and poet” (Paolo Isotta for Corriere della Sera). His opera called L’Assedio di Otranto, staged in Puglia and Rome, was published on a CD.
He began conducting an orchestra with Alberto Maria Giuri and Gian Luigi Zampieri. He conducted the symphony, opera (Don Giovanni) and ballet repertoire (Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Carmen). He published essays on music history and esthetics, reconstruction of the Madrigals, wrote about the opera lifestyle in the south of Italy in the 17 th and 18 th century. Mario Chiodetti wrote about Libetta’s book “A musician in a couple of decades”, published by “Zecchini Editore” in the monthly editorial “MUSICA”: “an encyclopedist, bearing and sharing knowledge effortlessly, with great joy and to the joy of his readers. A perfect gentleman from the south, with inexhaustible curiosity”.

Francesco Libetta BIOGRAPHY

He cooperated with conductors (Antonio Pappano, Marc Andreae, Marc Albrecht, Gilbert Varga, Cristian Mandeal), violinists (Ida Haendel, Aylen Pritchin, Massimo Quarta, Giovanni Angeleri), dancers, choreographers, and ballet groups (Carla Fracci, Carlo Di Lanno, Giulio Galimberti, Stefania Ballone, Christian Fagetti, Balleto del Sud), singers (Anna Caterina Antonacci, Ernesto Palacio, Mariella Devia), actors (Alessio Boni, Michele Mirabella, Marisa Laurito, Simona Marchini, Alessandro Preziosi, Emilio Gutiérrez Caba), and numerous colleagues pianists. He was a member of the jury at international competitions (“Busoni” in Bolcano, “Livorno”, “Premio Venezia”, “Horowitz” in Kyiv, “Porino” in Cagliary, “BNDES” in Rio de Janeiro, “Roma”, etc.) He was an assistant professor at the “Miami Piano Festival Academy” (NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale in Florida). He gave piano classes organized by the “Paolo Grassi” foundation in Martina Franca.

He was the art director of the Academy of Ancient Instruments, governed by the “Patrons of Exceptional Artists” in Briosk.
He founded and organized the “Miami Festival” in Lecce, as well as an honorary concert for Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli in Val di Rabbi. He founded the “Nireo” association which was first active as a music label implementing cultural-historical projects (among which is a collection of 31 discs with Tito Schipa recordings) and which now manages a piano collection, together with Giorgio Manni, from the Clementi and Erard epoch, all the way to instruments redesigned and painted my contemporary artists.