Tipo, Maria (1931—)
Tipo, Maria (1931—)
Italian pianist known for her Romantic performances. Born in Naples in 1931.
Maria Tipo studied with her mother Ersilia Cavallo , a gifted pianist who had studied with Feruccio Buson and given the Naples premiere of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto. At age 17, in 1948, Tipo won first prize in the Geneva Piano Competition. At the Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels in 1952, she came in third but was heard by Artur Rubinstein who assured her that she would have a great career. Rubinstein arranged a recital for Tipo in Paris, where she was heard by the famous impresario Sol Hurok, who launched her American career. Her U.S. tour of 1955 was a great success, but she did not return to America until 1991. In Europe, she built up her reputation and repertoire with stylish performances of Mozart, Bach and Scarlatti. In an age of "authentic" period-instrument performances, her Romantic approach seemed anachronistic to some listeners and critics, but for many enthusiastic fans Tipo could do no wrong. Some went so far as to call her "the Neapolitan Horowitz."
sources:
Kozinn, Allan. "Maria Tipo, Pianist," in The New York Times. November 9, 1991, p. 16.
Michener, Charles. "The Phantom of the Piano," in New York. Vol. 26, no. 38. September 27, 1993, pp. 50–54.
Schonberg, Harold C. "Maria Tipo is Back. Why Did She Dally?," in The New York Times. November 3, 1991, section 2, pp. 26, 40.
John Haag , Athens, Georgia