Guido Agosti (Piano)

Born: August 11, 1901 - Forlì, Italy
Died: June 2, 1989 - Milan, Italy

The Italian pianist and piano teacher, Guido Agosti, studied piano with Ferruccio Busoni, Bruno Mugellini and Filippo Ivaldi, earning his diploma at age 13. He studied counterpoint under Benvenuti and literature at Bologna University.

Guido Agosti commenced his professional career as a pianist in 1921. Although he never entirely abandoned concert-giving, nerves made it difficult for him to appear on stage, and he concentrated on teaching. He taught piano at the Venice Conservatoire and at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome. In 1947 he was appointed Professor of piano at the Accademia Chigiana (Siena). He also taught at Weimar and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki. His notable students include Dag Achatz, Donna Amato, Peter Bithell, Angela Brownridge, Geneviève Calame, Sergio Calligaris, William Corbett-Jones, Jean-Pierre Ferey, Eric van Griensven, Klaus Hellwig, Leslie Howard, Martin Jones, Vladimir Krpan, Barbara Lister-Sink, Raymond Lewenthal, Hamish Milne, Ian Munro, Kun-Woo Paik, Daniel Pollack, Yonty Solomon, Jane Solose, and Maria Tipo.

Guido Agosti made very few recordings; his recording of preludes by Debussy was highly praised. He also recorded Mussorgsky and Janáček. His piano transcription of Igor Stravinsky’s The Firebird is in the repertoire. Agosti also made an edition of L.v. Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor, WoO 80. Ernest Bloch’s Piano Sonata was written for Agosti.

Guido Agosti played chamber music with the flautist Severino Gazzelloni and the cellist Enrico Mainardi, and with the Quartetto di Roma.

Source: Wikipedia Website (September 2011); Bits & pieces from other sources
Contributed by Aryeh Oron (October 2011)

Guido Agosti: Short Biography | Recordings of Instrumental Works

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Guido Agosti (Wikipedia)