Dino Ciani

Dino Ciani (June 16, 1941 - March 28, 1974) was an Italian pianist.

Ciani was born in Fiume (now Rijeka in Croatia) and studied piano with Martha Del Vecchio in Genoa. He obtained his diploma at the Conservatory in Rome at the age of 14 and in 1958-1962 attended the advanced courses of Alfred Cortot, whom he most revered, in Paris, Lausanne and Siena. Cortot opined that Ciani was "miraculously gifted ... one of the most remarkable examples of the rarest talents one could hope to find". Ciani's career begun when he won second prize at the Liszt-Bartók Competition in Budapest in 1961. The venues in which he performed included Salle Pleyel, Carnegie Hall and Chicago Philharmonic, Kennedy Center. He made his debut at Teatro alla Scala under the baton of Claudio Abbado with Beethoven's fourth piano concerto in 1968. With Abbado he also performed Prokofiev's fifth Piano Concerto in 1968 at RAI Auditorium in Rome (then also at La Scala) and Mozart's D-moll Concerto at Salzburger Mozarteum. Ciani also played with the young Riccardo Muti Beethoven's Fantasia Corale at La Scala and the II Piano Concerto by Bartòk at Milan RAI.

His repertoire was broad and diverse for a pianist of his age. It encompassed the complete sonatas of Beethoven, works by Weber (he was the first to record the complete sonatas, in 1967), Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, Debussy, and Bela Bartòk. His recordings for Deutsche Grammophon of the complete Debussy Preludes (1972), Schumann's Noveletten (1968) and Weber's second and third piano sonatas (1970) are particularly renowned.

He collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Thomas Schippers. John Barbirolli, Gianadrea Gavazzeni, Carlo Maria Giulini. Among his last concerts were renditions of the complete set of Chopin's Nocturnes and Schubert's Winterreise with baritone Claudio Desderi. His last appearance on stage was in Beethoven's third concerto with Giulini in Chicago.

Ciani died in a road accident in Rome at the age of 32.

The "Dino Ciani piano competition" was created in his memory. Inaugurated in 1975, it is held at Teatro alla Scala. Distinguished members of the jury have included Nikita Magaloff, Martha Argerich, Maurizio Pollini, Lazar Berman, Rudolf Firkusny and Aldo Ciccolini. From 2007 there is a Festival and Academy "Dino Ciani" in Cortina d'Ampezzo