Milan La Scala Theater Announces Passing Through Official Statement
World-renowned Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini has passed away at the age of 82.
According to AFP on the 23rd (local time), the Italian opera house La Scala announced that the Italian pianist Pollini, a master of Chopin and Beethoven's music, passed away at his home in Milan on the same day.
La Scala stated in a press release, "Pollini was one of the greatest musicians of our time and demonstrated the artistic foundation of the theater for over 50 years."
The specific cause of death was not disclosed. However, Pollini had previously canceled a Salzburg Festival concert in 2022 due to heart disease issues.
In April last year, Pollini was scheduled for his first-ever recital visit to Seoul at the Seoul Arts Center but also canceled due to health problems. Prior to that, two recital visits planned for May 2022 were canceled due to worsening bronchitis, preventing him from meeting domestic audiences.
Pollini was renowned for his complete performances of Chopin's ?tudes. Over his career spanning more than 60 years, he was also famous for steadily expanding the scope of his repertoire beyond traditional classical music.
He performed works by classical composers as well as early 20th-century masters such as Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern (Austria), and postwar modernists including Karlheinz Stockhausen (Germany), Pierre Boulez (France), and Luigi Nono (Italy), among other contemporary music giants.
La Scala praised him as "someone who elevated the recognition of composers like Chopin, Debussy, and Beethoven" and described him as "an interpreter who introduced avant-garde, especially Schoenberg and contemporary music, to audiences."
Born in January 1942 into an artistic family in Milan, Pollini won the 'Chopin International Piano Competition' in 1960 at the youngest age of 18. At the time, jury chairman Arthur Rubinstein famously remarked, "He already plays 'technically' better than any of us."
However, after winning the competition, Pollini entered a year of seclusion. Later, he reflected, "Performing was a bit premature for me," and said, "I wanted to better understand the repertoire through study before playing works by Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms."
In the late 1960s, Pollini returned to the stage by performing an impromptu solo piano recital for music students and La Scala staff. Subsequently, he gradually expanded his repertoire to include contemporary music by Pierre Boulez and Luigi Nono.
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Pollini worked on a complete collection of recordings with the German record label Deutsche Grammophon. Through this, he was acclaimed for his outstanding interpretative abilities in classical music by Beethoven, Schumann, Schubert, Brahms, and others.
In 2007, Pollini received several international awards, including the Grammy Award for 'Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra)' for his complete recording of Chopin's Nocturnes.
He is survived by his wife Marilisa and son Daniele, who is also an acclaimed pianist and conductor. Pollini's funeral will be held at La Scala.
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