Maurizio Pollini

A marquee name among classical pianists since the 1970s, Maurizio Pollini was noted for performances of some of the most monumental works of contemporary music and for pairing such works with standard repertory of the 19th century. Pollini's decades-long relationship as a recording artist with the Deutsche Grammophon label was among the most stable in the early 21st century. Pollini was born on January 5, 1942, in Milan. His father was modernist architect and educator Gino Pollini. In Milan in 1957, he performed a concert of Chopin etudes that drew wide attention. Pollini attended the Milan Conservatory and won several major prizes as he completed his formal education, including the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960. Arthur Rubinstein, one of the judges, is said to have remarked that the boy "can play the piano better than any of us." Pollini's concert and recording careers were launched, and he made his recording debut on the EMI label with the Philharmonia Orchestra, playing Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11. In the early and mid-'60s, however, Pollini hesitated, withdrawing from the scene for further study with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Michelangeli's precise and graceful style exerted a formative influence on Pollini, who returned to the scene amidst the student unrest in the late '60s and, together with conductor Claudio Abbado, performed concerts for students and workers. Pollini made a major reappearance with his Carnegie Hall debut in New York in 1968, and for the next 50 years, he would be an almost uninterrupted presence in the world's top concert halls. He made his first recording for the Deutsche Grammophon label in 1971, featuring works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev. Pollini played contemporary works, including some, such as Luigi Nono's ...sofferte onde serene... that were composed for him, and he often collaborated with the likes of Nono, Pierre Boulez (whose profoundly difficult Piano Sonata No. 2 was one of his specialties), and Karlheinz Stockhausen to perform Beethoven, Schubert, and Schumann, as if to emphasize the continuity of the classical tradition. In 1987, he rejoined Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in New York for performances of all five of Beethoven's piano concertos. Later in his career, Pollini conducted piano concertos from the keyboard and sometimes led performances of opera. Beginning in 2000, he presented a concert series under the name "Pollini Project" (or "Progetto Pollini") that moved between the 19th century and contemporary works. In 2019, he released a recording on Deutsche Grammophon of works by Chopin, who always remained at the center of his repertory. Although sometimes sidelined by illness, he remained active in the concert hall and recording studio well into old age. In 2020 and 2022, he released a pair of albums covering Beethoven's technically difficult final five piano sonatas. By the time he died in March 2024, Pollini's recording catalog comprised some 150 CDs and many LPs. Among his many awards was a 2007 Grammy for Best Solo Instrumental Performance, again on Deutsche Grammophon, with his recording of Chopin. ~ James Manheim, Rovi