Pianist Michael Ponti

Hi,

A friend heard yesterday that Michael Ponti got a kindof physical problem and won't be able to play the piano anymore or for a long time or so. Does anybody know details?

B. Haydin

Could it be confusion with Murray Perahia, who has recently been coming back from an injury?

I don't know. My friend has lots of Ponti recordings so I think he should know what he's talking about. How old is Ponti? He must be quite old.

On the theory that there is only one injured pianist?

The piano list (classical-pianists) has had word of Ponti's problems, no details, but he's apparently not going to play again (or that's the claim).

Jeff

Jeffrey F. Friedman

On the theory that there are two pianists with similar names (same initials and same syllable count, which are the two most salient characteristics of words when retrieving them from memory), one of whom has just been doing interviews about the injury that sidelined him for several years, during which he intensively studied J. S. Bach.

To answer the other question, he seems to have been in his 30s when he made those Vox Romantic Concerto recordings, so he might be in his 70s

Ponti was born in 1938, I'm told Joe P.