Biography

Maurizio Pollini

Current as of August 2021

The name Maurizio Pollini evokes a unique career and the story of a man and artist known all over the world, who has been cherished by generations of audiences and critics alike.

A major figure in all the major European, US and Japanese concert halls and festivals for more than 40 years, Maurizio Pollini has performed with the most celebrated orchestras and conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Pierre Boulez and Christian Thielemann. He has been awarded many of the most important international music prizes, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, the Praemium Imperiale and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award.

His repertoire ranges from Bach to the present day and he has given the premieres of works by Manzoni, Nono and Sciarrino, as well as the complete Beethoven sonatas, which he has performed in Berlin, Munich, Milan, New York, London, Vienna and Paris.

In 1995 and 1999 the Salzburg Festival invited him to devise and present his own cycle of concerts (‘Progetti Pollini’), featuring works from different eras and in a variety of styles. Between 1995 and 2003 Maurizio Pollini employed the same philosophy with cycles at Carnegie Hall (1999/2000 and 2000/01), at the Cité de la Musique in Paris (2002), in Tokyo (1995 and 2002) and in Vienna and Rome (2003). These programmes included symphonic and chamber works, reflecting Maurizio Pollini’s broad musical interests, with repertoire ranging from Gesualdo and Monteverdi to the present day. In 2004 he was artiste étoile at the Lucerne Festival, where he performed in recital and in orchestral concerts conducted by Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez. Between 2008 and 2013 he mounted new cycles at the Lucerne Festival, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, La Scala, Milan, and in Tokyo and Berlin.

Maurizio Pollini’s recordings of Classical, Romantic and contemporary works have received numerous international accolades and prizes, including the Grammy, the Echo Klassik Award, the Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Victoires de la Musique and the Diapason d’Or. Reflecting his love of 20th-century music, he has recorded Schoenberg’s complete works for piano, as well as music by Berg, Webern, Manzoni, Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen. His latest recording was released by Deutsche Grammophon in March 2020 as the first part of his project to record the last Beethoven Sonatas, opp. 109, 110 and 111, both live and in the studio in Munich. The album also includes a DVD of Maurizio Pollini in conversation with Jörg Widmann, exploring the relationship between Beethoven and contemporary music.

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Photos and Videos

Piano player Maurizio Pollini
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Piano player Maurizio Pollini
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Piano player Maurizio Pollini
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