Angelo Villani

Beethoven’s quasi-mythical status as the ultimate “mad genius” was escalated dramatically by Liszt’s transformation of the composer-performer into a populist demi-god. After decades nurturing his status as a flamboyant, Romantic icon, Liszt re-invented himself after the fashion of Lewis’ Monk, and retreated into a sound world for which there was simply no precedent. His late works transcended the Gothic stereotyping promoted by his diabolically-inspired show pieces, and mined depths that brought him closer in instinct and effect to the late music of Beethoven and the philosophy of Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Angelo Villani is respected internationally as a ‘pianist’s pianist’, a musician of extraordinary expressive imagination, with his roots in the resolutely 19th century pianism of Tausig, Leschetizky, Sofronitsky and Nyiregyházi. Villani chooses to perform in public only rarely, so this is a precious opportunity to hear one of the greatest Lisztians, playing some of the composer’s most mysterious music, on arguably the world’s finest piano – the 10 ft Fazioli F308.