Obituary, Maurizio Pollini (1942-2024)

The great Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, whose impeccable technique was allied to an equally formidable intellect, has died in Milan aged 82.

Pollini was born into an artistic family in Milan in 1942: his father was the modernist architect Gino Pollini, his mother Renata an amateur pianist and singer, and his maternal uncle Fausto Melotti an eminent sculptor. He began learning the piano aged five, studying with Carlo Lunati and subsequently Carlo Vidusso before graduating from the Milan Conservatory, where he studied composition and conducting as well as piano. (In a somewhat surprising development in the early 1980s, Pollini was heavily involved with the establishment of the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, conducting La donna del lago there in 1981 and recording the opera for Sony two years later).

A 1956 recital of the complete Chopin Études in Milan gave an early indication of Pollini's exemplary technical command and affinity with the composer; four years later he took first prize at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, prompting juror Arthur Rubinstein to declare that ‘that boy already plays better than any of us’. Pollini accepted a recording-contract with EMI whilst the competition was still underway, but declined numerous high-profile invitations in the immediate aftermath of his victory in order to gain some breathing-space and focus on broadening his repertoire (despite his admiration of the composer, he was anxious not to be pigeonholed as a Chopin specialist at this stage in his career).

The EMI contract yielded a 1960 account of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Paul Kletzki and the Philharmonia which was applauded for the ‘total spontaneity, poetic feeling and refined judgement’ (Penguin Guide) of Pollini’s playing, but the young pianist was dissatisfied with a recording of the Études and refused to authorise its release (the set eventually appeared on Testament many years later, apparently to Pollini’s disapprobation).

After further study with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (whose lucidity and restraint became hallmarks of his own playing), Pollini expanded his repertoire to include Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Brahms, and in 1963 he made his London debut with the LSO and Colin Davis in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3; although his swift tempi raised a few critical eyebrows on that occasion, Pollini’s subsequent Beethoven recordings with Karl Böhm and with his long-term friend Claudio Abbado (both on Deutsche Grammophon) were far more warmly received.

Pollini’s friendship with Abbado began in the 1960s, and was rooted in shared political beliefs as well as artistic affinity; both staunchly committed to left-wing ideals, the pair performed a series of concerts at La Scala which were specifically aimed at attracting factory-workers and students, though Pollini subsequently reflected that despite being ‘very positive and interesting’ the initiative had never really taken flight as he had initially hoped.

It was around this time that Pollini struck up a friendship with the composer Luigi Nono, a fellow member of the Italian Communist Party and fierce opponent of the Vietnam War; Nono’s Como una ola de fuerza y luz (dedicated to the memory of the Chilean left-wing activist Luciano Cruz) was premiered by Pollini and Abbado in 1972, and five years later Pollini gave the first performance of Nono’s ... sofferte onde serene … (scored for piano and tape, and inspired in part by their shared recent experience of bereavement).

Pollini began another significant relationship in 1971, when he signed an exclusive recording-contract with Deutsche Grammophon; his debut recording of Stravinsky and Prokofiev prompted Gramophone to declare that ‘Critics are not paid to be lost for words. But then human beings are not supposed to be able to play the piano like Pollini.’ He remained with the Yellow Label for the rest of his career, winning a Diapason d’Or for his account of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations in 2001 and a Grammy for his recording of the Chopin Nocturnes in 2007; other highlights included a survey of Schoenberg’s complete solo piano works, a cycle of the Beethoven piano sonatas, a recording of Debussy’s En blanc et noir with his son Daniele, and Boulez’s enormously challenging Piano Sonata No. 2 (which he had championed since the 1970s and frequently performed from memory).

Pollini’s repertoire was eclectic but curated with the utmost care; his programming decisions were, as he put it, ‘based on ‘the absolute certainty that I will never grow weary of the works I’ve selected’. Despite his near-superhuman technical abilities, he never revelled in virtuosity for its own sake and also resisted the temptation to impose too much of his own personality upon the music; his clear-eyed interpretations of Chopin and Schumann in particular were notable for his unwillingness to wear his heart on his sleeve.

But his emphasis on clarity, fidelity to the score and near-mathematical precision was underpinned by a fervent belief in the transformative power of music-making: in a 2011 interview with The Guardian he opined that “In a way art is a little like the dreams of a society. They seem to contribute little, but sleeping and dreaming are vitally important in that a human couldn’t live without them, in the same way a society cannot live without art.”

Pollini died at home in Milan on 23rd March, and is survived by his wife Marilisa and their son Daniele; the pianists Víkingur Ólafsson, Beatrice Rana, Nelson Goerner and Shai Wosner were among those who paid tribute to his artistry on social media.

Maurizio Pollini - a selected discography