According to the New York Times, he is a ‘Poet-aristocrat with the profile and carriage of a Renaissance prince’, while for Le Monde de La Musique ‘l’éritier des Moritz Rosenthal, des Busoni et des Godowsky’ and for Corriere della Sera ‘a sprinkling of lordliness that we thought was lost in the archives of piano performance’. D’Avalos dedicated all his solo piano pieces to him and Isotta called him ‘the greatest living pianist’.
Francesco Libetta
He has made piano integrals of Beethoven, Händel, Chopin, Godowsky, Paisiello, Bosso; he has released recordings of Schumann, Liszt, Ligeti, Ravel, Debussy. His recordings have won awards from Diapason, Le Monde de la Musique, Classique, Amadeus among many others.
He has collaborated with conductors such as Pappano, Andreae, Mandeal and artists such as Sollima, Caterina Antonacci, Devia, actors such as Boni, Laurito, Preziosi, Marchini, dancers such as Carla Fracci and founded the dance group Corerofonie.
After studying composition with Marinuzzi in Rome and Castérède in Paris, he wrote music for theatre, cinema, acousmatic, chamber and symphonic music, and the opera L’Assedio di Otranto, staged in Puglia and Rome and published on CD.
‘Libetta composer is poet doctus,’ wrote Isotta, sanctioning the profile of one of the world’s most esteemed and versatile Italian artists, from conducting to musical essayist, visual art recorder and in turn protagonist of documentaries by Monsaingeon and Battiato, formerly a teacher for the Miami Piano Festival and now in Martina Franca with the Grassi Foundation. Francesco Libetta is a Steinway Artist.