The Italian piano virtuoso Maurizio Pollini has died at the age of 82

Italian virtuoso and winner of the VI International Chopin Competition (1960) Maurizio Pollini has passed away at the age of 82. Tributes have been flooding in from musicians and music media including Polish Radio.  

Maurizio Pollini.

Photo: PAP/ EPA/BRITTA PEDERSEN

Maurizio Pollini was born in Milan on 5 January 1942 to the architect Gino Pollini and Renata Melotti. He studied piano with  Carlo Lonati until the age of 13 and then with Carlo Vidusso, in adulthood also taking lessons with the legendary Italian pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. 

After winning the 1959 International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition in Seregno and the VI International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960 he took time off to deepen his understanding of music. Artur Rubinstein, who led the jury at the 1960 Chopin Competition, famously said that "that boy can play the piano better than any of us".

Polish Radio has been honouring Pollini today:

Dzisiejszą audycję „Chopin osobisty” Róża Światczyńska poświęci w całości zmarłemu w sobotę Maurizio Polliniemu, włoskiemu pianiście, zwycięzcy VI Międzynarodowego Konkursu Pianistycznego im. Fryderyka Chopina (1960). Emisja o godz. 16.00.https://t.co/8x3uwY3bhb

— Dwójka - Program 2 Polskiego Radia (@RadiowaDwojka) March 24, 2024

Many other tributes have been made, including this one from the President of Deutsche Grammophon:

“We are in disbelief and mourning as we learn the terribly sad news about Maurizio Pollini’s passing. One of the truly great and groundbreaking musicians of our time has left us. His achievements in the field of modernist and contemporary music as well as in the classical and… pic.twitter.com/KwBCXgSNsK

— Deutsche Grammophon (DG) (@DGclassics) March 23, 2024

Sources: Polish Radio (Dwójka), X, Deutsche Grammophon

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