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Young Pianos. A perfectionist with a penchant for turtleneck pullovers and gold-tipped Turkish cigarettes, Michelangeli has made only a few recordings because he has "never quite been satisfied with the quality of the sound." On tour he travels with his own Steinway ("Can you imagine Oistrakh playing with Stern's violin?") and personal piano tuner, 71-year-old Cesare Augustus Tallone. With a surgeon's knowledge of the piano's inner workings, Michelangeli treats his Steinway like a high-strung child, recently relinquished it to be overhauled, explaining: "It's still too young and hasn't been broken in yet." For the Paris concert, Tallone scoured the city for days to find a substitute piano, then spent 20 hours preparing it for the master's hands—and feet. "The pedals are like my lungs," explains Michelangeli. "Three notes with the right pedal work can become another world."
Unlike the pianists who open doors with their elbows, Michelangeli is not one to pamper his "strangler's hands." He is an avid skier, mountain climber and high-speed sports-car enthusiast (as a prewar professional driver, he once won the Mille Miglia). As a result he cannot find an insurance company that will insure his hands. Or his future. Even his manager, marveling at Michelangeli's "sudden return to the world," openly wonders: "How long will it continue?" Hopefully until next January, when the reluctant master is scheduled to perform in the U.S. for the first time in 17 years.