The biography of Maurizio Pollini

Origins and Training

Maurizio Pollini was born in Milan on January 5, 1942, into a family deeply connected to art and culture. His father, Gino Pollini, was a well-known Rationalist architect originally from Rovereto, while his mother, Renata Melotti, was a musician and the sister of sculptor Fausto Melotti. Raised in this intellectually stimulating environment, the young Pollini showed extraordinary musical talent from childhood.

He began studying piano with Carlo Lonati and continued his training with Carlo Vidusso between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Parallel to his piano studies, he attended the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan, where he graduated while also studying composition with Bruno Bettinelli. During these formative years, Pollini developed a very solid technique and a particular focus on the structure of the score, elements that would become defining characteristics of his career.

Early Competitions and Youthful Success

As a very young man, Pollini began to distinguish himself in major international piano competitions. In 1957, he won second prize at the Geneva International Music Competition, which featured over two hundred candidates from across Europe; the first prize was awarded to Argentine pianist Martha Argerich. Two years later, in 1959, he won first prize at the Ettore Pozzoli International Piano Competition in Seregno, establishing himself as one of the most brilliant young promises of Italian pianism.

His consecration came in 1960 with his victory at the prestigious Chopin Competition in Warsaw. His performance deeply impressed both the jury and the audience. The great pianist Arthur Rubinstein, a member of the committee, commented that young Pollini played technically better than all the other competitors and possessed an interpretative maturity surprising for his age.

During the same competition, music critic Piero Rattalino, listening to Pollini's performance of four Chopin Études, was struck by the young pianist's technical boldness. Chopin's Études are among the most demanding pages of the piano repertoire, and tackling four of them in an international competition at just eighteen years old was an event that left a great impression on musicians and observers alike.

Early Recordings and the Choice to Mature Away from the Limelight

Following his victory in Warsaw, Pollini received numerous concert and recording proposals. Between 1960 and 1968, he made several recordings for the EMI label, primarily dedicated to the music of Chopin: these included the Nocturnes Op. 15 and Op. 27, the Ballade Op. 23, the famous Polonaise Op. 53, and the Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 11, recorded with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Paul Kletzki.

During the same period, he also recorded the Études Op. 10 and Op. 25, along with other works by Chopin. However, these recordings remained unreleased for a long time because Pollini himself decided not to publish them: he feared the public might identify him exclusively as an interpreter of Chopin's music. For this reason, he preferred to temporarily interrupt his concert activity, canceling numerous engagements in Europe.

For about a year and a half, the pianist withdrew from the public eye to deepen his study of the classical, romantic, and contemporary repertoire. This choice, which initially slowed the start of his international career, reflected his desire to mature artistically at his own pace and to build a broader, more conscious interpretative path. The recordings of the Études, which remained in the archives for over fifty years, were finally published only in 2011.

Repertoire and Piano Technique

Throughout his career, Maurizio Pollini was considered one of the greatest pianists of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. His choice of repertoire was always extremely selective: the pianist exclusively favored works with which he felt a deep and lasting connection, avoiding music that did not fully convince him from an artistic standpoint.

The core of his repertoire included authors such as Beethoven, Chopin, Schubert, and Schumann, alongside the composers of the Second Viennese School—Arnold Schönberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern—whom Pollini helped introduce to the general concert-going public. Alongside these composers, he tackled works by Bach and Mozart as well as major works of late Romanticism, including Brahms and Liszt. His interpretation of Brahms' Second Piano Concerto was particularly famous, considered by many to be one of the most authoritative readings of this masterpiece.

From his youth, Pollini also showed a strong interest in contemporary music. He collaborated with some of the most important composers of the 20th century, including Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono, Luciano Berio, and Karlheinz Stockhausen, becoming one of the primary interpreters of this repertoire. Several works were written specifically for him, such as ...Sofferte onde serene... by Luigi Nono, Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse by Giacomo Manzoni, and the Fifth Piano Sonata by Salvatore Sciarrino.

Technically, Pollini was famous for his absolute control of the instrument, precision of touch, and extraordinary clarity of articulation. His interpretation always aimed to render the structure of the score with maximum fidelity, combining analytical rigor with expressive intensity. The work most closely associated with him was Chopin's Études, seen as a manifesto of his technical perfection and his ability to handle the most difficult pages of the piano repertoire with naturalness.

Artistic Maturity and Final Years

In the years following his training, Pollini further refined his technique by attending courses with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli at Castel Paschbach in Appiano, South Tyrol, the master's residence since the post-war period. During these lessons, he received invaluable technical advice, including a specific fingering for trills that he used throughout his life and which helped strengthen his control of the instrument.

From the mid-1960s, he began an intensive international concert career, collaborating with major European, American, and Asian orchestras. In 1968, he debuted in the United States, presenting, among other works, Pierre Boulez's Second Sonata, revealing his strong interest in contemporary music to the American public. In 1972, he signed an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, and in 1974, he undertook his first tour of Japan. After 1980, he also briefly engaged in conducting, although the piano remained the center of his career.

The cultural environment in which he grew up exerted a strong influence on his personality. Coming from a Milanese middle-class family deeply tied to the world of art and intellect, Pollini maintained a keen interest in cultural and social issues throughout his life, occasionally participating in public debate.

During his career, he was linked by a long friendship and a particularly intense artistic collaboration with conductor Claudio Abbado, with whom he shared numerous musical projects and significant concert interpretations.

Maurizio Pollini died in Milan on March 23, 2024, at the age of eighty-two. The lying-in-state was held in the foyer of the Teatro alla Scala, where many musicians, friends, and admirers paid tribute to his memory. The funeral was subsequently held in private.