A brilliant pianist, teacher and conductor, Zecchi came from Rome and studied with Busoni and Schnabel. While he was in awe of Busoni's ideas and coaching, their association was rather brief, due to Busoni's final illness. Instead it was the lengthy period of study with Schnabel that furthered Zecchi's musicality. He combined a strong sense of form and content with the utmost beautiful tone, pedalling and phrasing imaginable. Luckily several hours of his playing were recorded as an auto accident obliged him to abandon work as a soloist, although he continued playing the most demanding chamber music and conducting. In his last years, two fingers on his left hand were paralyzed, yet he performed Schubert's Trout Quintet and made several recordings shortly before his death. His Schumann, Liszt and pieces from the Baroque era, such as the Vivaldi-Bach Concerto, Scarlatti and Galilei remain unparalleled. While Michelangeli was better known and often recorded, Zecchi represents the height of pianism to emerge from Italy.
Excerpts from an interview given on August 10, 1981 at his home on Via Pacini in Rome. Zecchi was about to conduct a touring Romanian orchestra in an all- Mozart program before leaving for his seventh trip to Japan to give masterclasses where he would also play Schubert's Trout Quintet despite two of his left hand's fingers being paralyzed :
I had a letter of introduction to Busoni from an Italian violinist. It was 1923: he looked very tired and said "I am finished with giving lessons. I only teach composition. I have an interesting pupil, Egon Petri, and I can give you to him." I said "Maestro, I came from Rome just to study with you. Don't give me such a disappointment." "Very well," he said, "today is Sunday. Next Sunday come again and bring me the Goldberg Variations." I said "But Maestro!". "Yes", he said, "or this is the door and you'll go out.!" So I said that I would try my best and I came back after a week and played ten variations for him. He was behind me and remained standing for almost three hours. It was one of the most important lessons I ever had in my career. He was very interested in the character and fingering of each variation, concerned with the hand position, a smooth hand. He used pedal in Bach: very little and only when necessary for having the sound remain. After my lessons with Busoni I took notes on what he said. But I was so excited, I was feverish, [it was] beautiful!
I studied with Schnabel [after Busoni's death], first at his home in Berlin. The people he taught each day came from everywhere. I listened to him teach ["private" lessons were always audited so that the students would have more exposure to his ideas and the repertoire]: with his cigar he would say "Very good, but. . ." and he began to explain in this place and in that place take care of this, take care of that, very long lessons, [interrupted by] his wife who would say "Artoor, you must eat!" The last time was at Lake Como where he had a villa. I studied many Beethoven Sonatas with him, Schubert, Schumann's Kreisleriana, Davidsb¸ndler, Fantasiest¸cke, Kinderszenen, Humoresque. He loved me and I loved him very much. He was obliged to go to America. I was also a close friend of Serkin. Serkin and Schnabel were my idols.
During this period Berlin was the world's musical center: Zecchi was able to frequently hear many great artists perform. He once mentioned Emil von Sauer, Jose Vianna da Motta, Eugen D'Albert, Paderewski, Schnabel and Fischer as "being texts for me, sources for study". Berlin's Golden Age ended in 1933. Schnabel and his family left for good, symbolizing the end of an era.
I was in Berlin when Hitler came to power and one evening the Italian ambassador said to me "Zecchi, you must play for Hitler. He is coming this evening because Italy is the first nation to recognize him as Germany's leader." I remember that this evening Schnabel gave a concert at the Philharmonie and always had a full house, but this evening it was almost empty. I left during intermission to get to the embassy. Hitler looked at me: his eyes were like glass and his hand very soft and without strength. I said I would play a Sonata by Mozart and he asked which. I said in D major and he asked which one. Then he asked for Beethoven. I told him I would play from Opus 31. He asked "Which one? There are three Sonatas!" I also played Petrushka for him. It was a very exciting evening, the first meeting with. . . [Zecchi paused. . .] this Devil.
My career began in Berlin. I knew Mendelssohn, the oldest son from the family and often went to visit Edwin Fischer at home. In Paris I knew Cortot, he was a close friend. My agent wanted me to play for Toscanini, but I because of my shyness, I said I had to work more and more before presenting myself before this great man. But I played with Erich Kleiber, Georg Szell, and with Stokowski in Philadelphia the Brahms D-minor Concerto: he said to me "If there's something you don't like just stop me." I never stopped him. It was splendid.
Zecchi again referred to Schnabel, the man who instilled a great love for music in him :
His advice was such as to full one's life. My gratitude to him is eternal.
© Allan Evans, 1996