Bertolazzi received "Liszt Grand Prix du Disque" from Liszt Society Budapest

The Italian pianist Giovanni Bertolazzi, already a prize-winner at the ‘F. Liszt’ International Piano Competition in Budapest in 2021, was awarded the 43rd ‘LISZT FERENC INTERNATIONAL GRAND PRIX DU DISQUE’ 2024 by the Liszt Society of Budapest for his Liszt records, published by the Borgato Collection label and recorded on the world's longest Grand-piano, the BORGATO Grand Prix 333.

The award ceremony took place at the Old Academy of Music in Budapest (once Liszt's home) on 22 October last, on Franz Liszt's birthday.The jury, chaired by Hungarian musicologist László Gombos, awarded the Liszt Grand Prix du Disque 2024 to Giovanni Bertolazzi and the Borgato Collection label with the following motivation:‘His level of playing the piano, which is outstanding even by the highest international standards, is enchanting, delightful, calling for meditation and entertaining at the same time, at the highest level of music performance. Bertolazzi plays the Borgato company's special Concert Grand Borgato Grand-Prix 333 piano model, and the two together form an unrivalled pair!’

This prestigious award was established in 1975 by Miklós Forrai, the first general secretary of the Liszt Society, which was refounded in 1973 after a forced hiatus of 29 years. Since then, this prize has annually crowned the best Liszt-related discographic works recorded in the previous year.

The prestige of this international prize is demonstrated by the fact that the performers on the recordings include such important and world-renowned artists as Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Leonard Bernstein, Riccardo Muti, Alfred Brendel, Vladimir Horowitz, György Cziffra, Lazar Berman, Claudio Arrau, Krystian Zimerman, Zoltán Kocsis, Maurizio Pollini, André Watts, Jorge Bolet and Leslie Howard.