Trained under the guidance of Maria Tipo, Andrea Lucchesini garnered international recognition at a very young age when he won the “Dino Ciani” International Competition at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Since then he has performed throughout the world with leading orchestras, working with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Dennis Russell Davies, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda, Franz Welser Moest and Giuseppe Sinopoli.
His wide-ranging activities, marked by a desire to explore music with no limitations, lead him to offer programs ranging from classical to current repertoire. In 1994 this earned him the recognition of European musicologists from which he received the Accademia Chigiana International Prize (the only Italian honoured so far). The following year he won the F. Abbiati Prize, which confirmed the appreciation of the Italian critics.
Lucchesini has made several recordings, the first few of which date back to the 1980s for EMI International (Liszt’s Sonata in B minor, Beethoven’s Sonata op.106 Hammerklavier and Chopin’s Sonata op.58). He then recorded Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Berg’s Chamber Concerto for Teldec with the Dresden Staatskapelle conducted by Giuseppe Sinopoli.
For BMG the pianist recorded Luciano Berio’s Concerto Echoing Curves, conducted by the composer himself. This marked one of the milestones of a close collaboration with Berio, with whom Lucchesini witnessed the creation of the composer’s final and challenging work for solo piano, Sonata. Lucchesini performed the world premiere of this piece in 2001 which – together with all of Berio’s other piano works – became part of a CD for AVIE Records, which met with unanimous international critical acclaim.
Equally appreciated is Lucchesini’s live recording of Beethoven’s complete cycle 32 sonatas for Stradivarius. The collective work obtained the recognition of the most prestigious musical magazines .
In recent years Lucchesini has immersed himself with enthusiasm in Schubert’s repertoire, starting with the recording of Impromptus op. 90 and op. 142, in a CD AVIE Records; in 2018 it began the collaboration with the German company AUDITE which published in 2018 the album “Dialogues” which was a great success by international critics who gave him many awards.
In 2019 and in 2020 Audite released three records dedicated to the Late Piano Music of Schubert, which has already obtained 5 stars from major magazines in the sector, including BBC Music Magazine, Fonoforum, Pizzicato, Ars Musique etc..
“Andrea Lucchesini signe ici un superbe CD ; il vient se placer parmi les plus éloquents témoignages schubertiens de notre temps. Le troisième volume est attendu avec une patiente impatience” Crescendo Magazine April 2020
“Sometimes a personal voice can be hard to describe. The music is very familiar, yet somehow this Italian pianist manages to make it all seem as thought “ BBC Music Magazine September 2019
Among his engagements in this season, we remind the Schumann concerto with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale di Firenze, under the baton of Zubin Mehta and the return to La Scala in 2021
Convinced that imparting musical knowledge to the younger generations is a moral duty, Lucchesini is passionately dedicated to teaching. He currently teaches at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, where he has been artistic director from 2008 till 2016. He is frequently invited to hold masterclasses at major music institutions in Europe, such as the Musik Hochschule in Hannover and the Sommer Wasserbuger Festspiele and Musik Hochschule in Salzburg and in New York.
He serves on juries at numerous piano competitions all over the world and was named Accademico of Santa Cecilia in 2008. After being artistic director of the Roman Philharmonic Academy from 2018 to 2021, he was recently appointed artistic director of the Amici della Musica di Firenze starting from the 2022-2023 season.
