Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini dies at 82

Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, a
virtuoso of Chopin and Beethoven who enjoyed a decades-long collaboration
with La Scala, died Saturday age 82, the Milan opera house announced.

He had been in poor health in recent years and obliged to cancel some
concerts.

La Scala called the pianist “one of the great musicians of our time and a
fundamental reference in the artistic life of the theatre for over 50 years”.

From 1958 to his last recital in February 2023, Pollini played La Scala 168
times, it said, not including countless workshops with students and
conferences.

“Pollini was an interpreter capable of revolutionising the perception of
composers such as Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven himself, and of promoting …
listening to the historical avant-gardes, above all Sch”nberg, and the music
of today,” said La Scala.

Born January 5, 1942 in Milan into a family of artists, Pollini stormed the
classical music scene in 1960 where, aged 18 and the youngest person in the
contest, he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition.

Arthur Rubinstein, president of the jury, was famously to have said that the
young prodigy “already plays better than any of us”.

Half a century later Pollini corrected Rubinstein’s quote, saying “I played
‘technically’ better than any member of the jury.”

“I always thought he said that to make fun of the colleagues on the jury.
Someone doctored that statement by removing the ‘technically’ and it became
an exaggerated compliment,” Pollini said in a 2014 documentary.

Instead of embarking straight onto the concert scene, Pollini put his career
on hold to study, explaining that performing right away would have been “a
little premature for me”.

In the late 60s, Pollini participated in improvised concerts in factories and
student programmes for students and workers at La Scala, conducted by his
friend Claudio Abbado.

Pollini made his first American tour in 1968.

From the 1970s to the 90s, he made a string of recordings with the
prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, while maturing into an acclaimed
interpreter of Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and
Johannes Brahms.

Pollini’s albums earned numerous awards, including a Grammy in 2007 for best
instrumental soloist performance (without orchestra) for Chopin: Nocturnes.

He is survived by his son and wife Marilisa. (BSS/AFP)