CHRISTIAN LEOTTA
LATIN AMERICA
Christian Leotta has been defined by the legendary Rosalyn Tureck as “an extraordinary talent with a beautiful innate musicality”, and the great Karl Ulrich Schnabel wrote about him: “his respect for the indications of classical and romantic authors is perfect and of a considerable compression.
Christian was born in Catania, Italy, and currently lives in the city of Como. He studied with Mario Patuzzi at the Milan Conservatory, at the Theo Lieven International Piano Foundation on Lake Como, and at the Tureck Bach Research Foundation in Oxford, England. . Presented in Montreal in 2002 when he was 22 years old, Christian Leotta is the youngest pianist to present the complete cycle of Beethoven's Sonatas since Daniel Barenboim. This series has been played twenty-one times in musical capitals of the world such as Madrid, Mexico City, Kyoto, Montreal, Lima, Vancouver, Venice, Quebec City and Rio de Janeiro; Due to this, the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, awarded him the prestigious Presidential Medal in 2004.
Following the extraordinary success of his live Beethoven concerts, in 2007 Atma Classique signed Christian Leotta to record the cycle of the 32 Sonatas in a collection of ten CDs, published between 2008 and 2014 and widely recommended by the international press, qualifying Christian as “one of the most extraordinary Beethovenian interpreters of our time” (Pizzicato. Luxembourg). To crown this global response, the prestigious German publication Rondó recently wrote: “Christian Leotta has that rare Beethovenian gene that allows him to play the 32 sonatas with great creativity… This cycle reveals a Beethoven interpreter who can hardly be compared to any other pianist of his generation.”
Christian's affinity for Beethoven has also been widely recognized thanks to "his prodigious technique used to best express Beethovenian poetics" (The Whole Note. Toronto), and "his ability to grab your attention at unexpected musical moments" ( All Music Guide. United States), earning a reputation as "a pianist of the highest order: technician, musician and performer all in the same person" (La Presse, Montreal). In a recent article in La Presse, Christian Leotta was listed by Claude Gingras among "the great performers of Beethoven's Piano Sonatas heard in Montreal since 1961, alongside Wilhelm Kempff, Rudolf Serkin, Anton Kuerti and Louis Lortie."
He has also played the cycle of Beethoven Concerts and Choral Fantasy, presented with the Jalisco Philharmonic at the Degollado Theater in Guadalajara, Mexico, which showed his ability to communicate and captivate both critics and audiences. The newspaper El Informador commented: “Christian Leotta was sublime: he brought us energy, agility and a cascade of lyricism. In the Andante con moto of Concert No. 4, the pianist literally hypnotized the audience, almost forcing them to hold their breath, making each of his notes eternal”.
An extraordinary public and critical success was also recorded by Christian Leotta's recent performance in the cycle of 32 Piano Sonatas at the Alti Hall in Kyoto, Japan, awarded with eight consecutive standing ovations. The prestigious music magazine "Ongaku No Tomo" wrote: "Leotta's Beethoven recalled the interpretation of great pianists such as Schnabel, Backhaus and Kempff", and the Asahi Shimbun, one of the most important newspapers in Japan, added on the occasion of the latest recital: "after the powerful third variation of the second movement of Op. 111, the audience was more and more caught up in silent and introspective sounds, and the whole room seemed enveloped in such an atmosphere, as if we were in a church: Christian Leotta has brought the audience into a state of ecstasy."
Christian Leotta has performed as a soloist with orchestras of great importance such as the Munich Philharmonic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Italian RAI Orchestra, the Milan Giuseppe Verdi Symphony, and has performed in concert halls as famous as the Philharmonie at the Gasteig in Munich, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Tonhalle in Zurich, Sala Verdi and the Auditorium in Milan, the Sala Claude-Champagne in Montreal and the Great Hall of the Bunka Kaikan Theater in Tokyo, the Xinghai Concert Hall in Guangzhou.
Always committed as the champion of Beethoven's music throughout the world, Christian Leotta has been the first pianist to perform the complete Cycle of the 32 Sonatas in several countries, presenting it recently in Algiers, for the first time in Algeria and in the history of Africa, and in Bangkok, for the first time in Thailand.
In April 2016, Atma Classique released their recording of the Diabelli Variations, unanimously rated excellent by the international press. Remy Frank wrote in Luxembourg's Pizzicato magazine: "Christian Leotta's version of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations must be considered among the best performances available on record."
Highlights of the 2017 and 2018 Seasons include the 5 Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Bangkok Symphony, the cycle of the 32 Sonatas for piano in Bergamo, Messina and Tremezzo (Italy) and the cycle of the complete Schubert Sonatas, Wanderer Fantasy, Impromptus and Musical Moments, at the Alti Hall in Kyoto (Japan), as well as in Italy and other countries.
