Biography and career
Pollini was born in
Milan, his father being the Italian rationalist architect
Gino Pollini. Maurizio studied piano first with Carlo Lonati, until the age of 13, then with
Carlo Vidusso, until he was 18. He received a diploma from the
Milan Conservatory and won both the
International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition in
Seregno (
Italy) in 1959 and the
International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in
Warsaw in
1960, after which he studied with
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
Since the mid-1960s, he has given recitals and appeared with major orchestras in Europe, the United States, and the Far East. He made his American debut in
1968 and his first tour of Japan in
1974.
In
1985, on occasion of
Bach's tricentennial, he performed the complete first book of
The Well-Tempered Clavier
. In
1987 he played the complete
Beethoven Piano Concertos in New York with the
Vienna Philharmonic under
Claudio Abbado and received on this occasion the orchestra’s Honorary Ring. In 1993/1994 he played his first complete Beethoven Piano Sonata cycles in
Berlin and
Munich and later also in
New York,
Milan,
Paris,
London and
Vienna. At the
Salzburg Festival in 1995 he inaugurated the “Progetto Pollini”, a series of concerts in which old and new works are juxtaposed. An analogous experience was done at
Carnegie Hall in 2000/2001 with “Perspectives: Maurizio Pollini”.
Recordings
His first recordings for
Deutsche Grammophon in
1971 included Stravinsky’s
Three Movements from “Petrushka”
and Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata and is still considered a landmark of twentieth century piano discography. Since then he has been one of
Deutsche Grammophon's leading pianists.
His milestone recording of Chopin's etudes Op. 10 & 25, also under Deutsche Grammophon, won Pollini international acclaim. In 2002 Deutsche Grammophon released a 13-CD commemorative edition to celebrate the pianist's 60th birthday.
Repertoire and technique
Pollini is especially noted for his performances of
Beethoven,
Schubert,
Chopin,
Schumann,
Brahms,
Schoenberg,
Webern and for championing modern composers such as
Pierre Boulez,
Luigi Nono,
Karlheinz Stockhausen,
Giacomo Manzoni,
Roberto Carnevale,
Salvatore Sciarrino,
Giovanni Sollima,
Bruno Maderna. Important modern works were composed for Pollini, notably Nono’s
…sofferte onde serene…
,
Giacomo Manzoni’s
Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse
and
Salvatore Sciarrino's Fifth Sonata. While known for possessing an exceptional technique, Pollini is sometimes accused of emotional conservatism. He has conducted both
opera and
orchestral music, sometimes leading the orchestra from the keyboard in
concertos.
Awards and recognitions
In
1996 he received the
Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. In 2001 his recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations won the Diapason d’or. In
2007, Pollini received the
Grammy Award for
Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for his
Deutsche Grammophon recording of
Chopin nocturnes.