Francesco Libetta performs works by Strauss, Liszt and Saint-Saëns
La Roque d'Anthéron 2002
Cast
Francesco Libetta — Pianist
Program notes
An ace at the keyboard in an astoundingly pyrotechnical programme.
We owe this film to a discovery in 2000 by filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon who heard for the first time the Italian pianist, who was born in 1968, play in a festival for young talent in Miami. He felt he was in the presence "of one of the most remarkable virtuoso prodigies of all time."
Francesco Libetta chose for this film a kaleidoscope of pieces demonstrating his vertiginous pyrotechnics: arrangements by Strauss, Etudes reputed to be impossible to play that Godowski composed based on the Etudes by Chopin (Libetta is the only one to have played the complete fifty-three etudes), Totentanz by Liszt and The Devil's Stairway by Ligeti... seemingly effortlessly, without even a grimace or a smile, totally impassive Libetta overcomes all difficulties. Startling!
