Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, a Chopin and Beethoven virtuoso who collaborated with La Scala for decades, has died at the age of 82, the Milan Opera House announced.
In recent years he has been in poor health, forced to cancel some concerts.
"La Scala" called the pianist "one of the greatest musicians of our time and a main reference in the artistic life of the theater for more than 50 years", reported AFP.
From 1958 until his last concert in February 2023, Pollini played at La Scala 168 times, it said, not including countless seminars with students and conferences.
"Pollini was able to revolutionize the perception of composers such as Chopin, Debussy and Beethoven himself and to encourage listening to the historical avant-gardes, above all Schoenberg, and to the music of today," La Scala said.
Born on January 5, 1942 in Milan into a family of artists, Pollini "stormed" the classical music scene in 1960 when, at the age of 18 and as the youngest participant in the competition, he won the Warsaw Chopin Competition.
Arthur Rubinstein, chairman of the jury, is known 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 was saying that to make fun of his fellow jurors. Someone tweaked that statement by removing the 'technical' and it became an exaggerated compliment," Pollini said in a 2014 documentary .
Instead of jumping straight into the concert scene, Pollini put her career on hold to study, explaining that performing right away would be "a bit premature for me".
"I wanted to learn, to get to know the repertoire better, to play the music of Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms..." he says.
He gradually expanded his repertoire to include contemporary music, in particular that of Pierre Boulez and Luigi Nono, with whom he became close friends.
He also collaborated with conductors - from Riccardo Muti to Daniel Barenboim and Riccardo Chai.
From Beethoven to Brahms
In the late 1960s, Pollini participated in impromptu factory concerts and programs for students and workers at La Scala, conducted by his friend Claudio Abbado.
Pollini made his first tour in America in 1968.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, he made a number of recordings for the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon label, becoming a recognized interpreter of Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, Franz Schubert and Johannes Brahms.
Pollini's albums have won numerous awards, including a 2007 Grammy for Best Performance by an Instrumental Soloist (without Orchestra) for Chopin: Nocturne.
He leaves behind his wife, Marilisa, and his son, Daniele, who is an accomplished pianist and conductor, under whose tutelage Pollini sometimes performs and records. /BGNES
