The world-famous Italian pianist and conductor Maurizio Pollini (1942-2024) is dead. He died at the age of 82 in his hometown of Milan, as the Milanese Scala announced on Saturday, March 23rd, among other things on Instagram. Pollini was closely associated with the opera house throughout his life. He appeared here again and again over the years. A cause of death is not mentioned in the post.
“The Teatro alla Scala mourns the loss of Maurizio Pollini, one of the greatest musicians of our time,” the opera house said in a statement. At the age of 18, Pollini won the Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1960. Jury President Arthur Rubinstein (1887-1982) is said to have said: “This boy can play the piano better than any of us.”
But the still young piano virtuoso took the time to further perfect his playing in the years that followed. He took lessons from piano legend Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (1920-1995) and only then began his international career. In addition to classical works by Frédéric Chopin, Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven, Pollini also repeatedly played contemporary masters such as Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez in the following decades.
