Michael Ponti

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Michael Ponti (October 29, 1937 at Freiburg im Breisgau): pianist.

[edit] Life and career

Michael Ponti was born in Germany, and studied piano in Washington DC with Gilmour McDonald from 1954–1955, who was a pupil of Leopold Godowsky. He then studied with Eric Flinsch, who had studied with and later been an assistant to Emil von Sauer in Frankfurt am Main from 1955–1961. In 1964 he won first prize in the Busoni-Wettbewerb.

In 1977 he founded his own trio (with violinist Robert Zimansky and cellist Jan Polasek).

[edit] Recordings and reputation

Ponti is remembered fondly by a generation of music lovers for his wide-ranging recordings of the unknown romantic repertoire on the Vox label. He recorded a series of concertos, many of which had never been recorded before, and some indeed unrecorded since, by such composers as Ignaz Moscheles, Charles-Valentin Alkan, Sigismund Thalberg, Moritz Moszkowski and Hans Bronsart von Schellendorf. He also recorded the complete piano music of Scriabin, much of which was otherwise unavailable. Vox was cutting costs and Ponti recorded these on an upright piano, and slept in the studio with a blanket. Also he recorded the complete piano music of Rachmaninoff and Tschaikovsky. His output amounts to more than 80 discs.^[1] His playing had a verve and technical virtuosity which well suited this romantic repertoire. Live recordings from the 1980s reveal him to be a sensitive interpreter of the classical repertoire too.