RIP Maurizio Pollini

[Crudblud]

I do not have a Pollini recording that I do not treasure. May his recordings be heard far and wide for a long time to come.

[(poco) Sforzando]

I am one of those. 

Just listened to that Testament recording. Blazing performance throughout!

[JBS]

Italian wikipedia says he played Berio. Is that true.

It also says that Sciarrino's 5th sonata was written for him - is there a recording?

Closest I see is that Daniele Pollini (his son) is the piano soloist in Recitativo oscuro in this recording

[T. D.]

Italian wikipedia says he played Berio. Is that true.

Not clear.
He's often mentioned as a Berio advocate.
But in
https://www.steinway.com/news/features/illuminating-the-masters

What drew you to these more modern voices?

I had already heard a performance of composers of the Second Viennese School. I had a recording of [Dimitri] Mitropoulos' Wozzeck and had heard many performers doing this music. So, gradually, I started to add some of these pieces to my repertory: Schoenberg first, then Boulez's Second Sonata, and later, in the seventies, Stockhausen, Manzoni. I liked Berio but didn't play him. Nono, with whom I had an important friendship, has composed two pieces for me. Ultimately, it is clear that my modern or contemporary recordings are not many, but I want to point out that this relationship with modernity has been very important for me.

[Mandryka]

I've been listening to Sciarrino's 5th sonata today, because it was written for Pollini. Those five Sciarrino sonatas are very highly thought of by the cognoscenti, I will give them all more attention soon.

[Todd]

Italian wikipedia says he played Berio. Is that true.

It also says that Sciarrino's 5th sonata was written for him - is there a recording?

He performed a lot of modern music that he did not record in the studio.  Pirate live recordings may start appearing now.

[San Antone]

Two titans of the piano gone in just over a week.  A crummy March.

RIP Mr Pollini.

Who was the other titan that died recently?

[Todd]

Who was the other titan that died recently?

Byron Janis.

[San Antone]

Byron Janis.

Ah, yes - I had seen that but had forgotten.  Thanks.

[pianoforever]

A Pollini memoir. 1982, a few days following Rubinstein's death. Pollini comes to Tel Aviv with a 2/3 days notice for an in memoriam recital. Friday afternoon. Mann auditorium fully packed. Symphonic Etudes op.13 and Brahms Op. 118/119. The Brahms stands as the greatest live piano performance I've ever attended. Pity he didn't record it

[Mandryka]

A Pollini memoir. 1982, a few days following Rubinstein's death. Pollini comes to Tel Aviv with a 2/3 days notice for an in memoriam recital. Friday afternoon. Mann auditorium fully packed. Symphonic Etudes op.13 and Brahms Op. 118/119. The Brahms stands as the greatest live piano performance I've ever attended. Pity he didn't record it

I have a recording of him playing Brahms op 119 in Salzburg in 1989, a concert with Schoenberg op 19, two Stockhausen Klavierstucke and the Hammerklavier. I agree that his rather patrician style is good in late Brahms - as was Rubinstein. You're welcome to the files if you want.

[Mandryka]

Disturbing account of his last London concert - possibly his final concert ever. I missed it

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/26/london-salutes-a-legend-maurizio-pollini-the-story-of-a-miracle-by-antonio-morabito/

This will give you a flavour

. . .Double-checking the program to see if I remember correctly. No mistake, he's playing another piece. But what?After a very short time I understand that Pollini is improvising. Rapid arpeggios and harmonic sequences that occasionally recall passages from the Fantasy but nothing that has to do with a real piece nor with the Fantasy.The atmosphere is surreal.My heart is pounding, I empathize with him, I can't believe it's really happening.The great Pollini forgot the beginning of Schumann's Fantasy.The confirmation comes when he stops playing and in a great state of confusion brings his hands to his head as if to say: "what's wrong with me?". . .Pollini stands up, tired, weary, angry, incredulous and extremely sad.The entire audience bursts into thunderous applause, the maestro almost in tears is forced to bow down and gestures with his hands as if to say "I'm sorry, forgive me".And here the public does something unthinkable: they all stand up, stalls, stage,anyone, even the hall staff, in an ovation that I have personally never seen in my life!At that moment it was the piano world, and not only,present in London that embraced the sacrosanct fragility of a man who is a giant, but still a man and, with that embrace, they were reminding him of it.Pollini leaves the scene but the public doesn't stop cheering him on. They praises the great man but also the great pianist that he is.It won't be a performance to compromise a stratospheric career!

The Milanese pianist returns with a page turner and the concert continues.The Fantasy ends which is affected by the initial event but which in any case is completed with dignity . . .

[Iota]

Disturbing account of his last London concert - possibly his final concert ever. I missed it

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/26/london-salutes-a-legend-maurizio-pollini-the-story-of-a-miracle-by-antonio-morabito/

This will give you a flavour

. . .Double-checking the program to see if I remember correctly. No mistake, he's playing another piece. But what?After a very short time I understand that Pollini is improvising. Rapid arpeggios and harmonic sequences that occasionally recall passages from the Fantasy but nothing that has to do with a real piece nor with the Fantasy.The atmosphere is surreal.My heart is pounding, I empathize with him, I can't believe it's really happening.The great Pollini forgot the beginning of Schumann's Fantasy.The confirmation comes when he stops playing and in a great state of confusion brings his hands to his head as if to say: "what's wrong with me?". . .Pollini stands up, tired, weary, angry, incredulous and extremely sad.The entire audience bursts into thunderous applause, the maestro almost in tears is forced to bow down and gestures with his hands as if to say "I'm sorry, forgive me".And here the public does something unthinkable: they all stand up, stalls, stage,anyone, even the hall staff, in an ovation that I have personally never seen in my life!At that moment it was the piano world, and not only,present in London that embraced the sacrosanct fragility of a man who is a giant, but still a man and, with that embrace, they were reminding him of it.Pollini leaves the scene but the public doesn't stop cheering him on. They praises the great man but also the great pianist that he is.It won't be a performance to compromise a stratospheric career!

The Milanese pianist returns with a page turner and the concert continues.The Fantasy ends which is affected by the initial event but which in any case is completed with dignity . . .

What a troubling and moving account that is. I hope Pollini was able to take the clear message from the audience, 'We don't care, we don't care, we're just grateful for your existence!' The iniquities of ageing on the body and mind are well documented, but communal compassion for its ravages is given a rare chance to express itself unmistakably when its manifestation is so public.

[Florestan]

Disturbing account of his last London concert - possibly his final concert ever. I missed it

https://christopheraxworthymusiccommentary.com/2023/06/26/london-salutes-a-legend-maurizio-pollini-the-story-of-a-miracle-by-antonio-morabito/

This will give you a flavour

. . .Double-checking the program to see if I remember correctly. No mistake, he's playing another piece. But what?After a very short time I understand that Pollini is improvising. Rapid arpeggios and harmonic sequences that occasionally recall passages from the Fantasy but nothing that has to do with a real piece nor with the Fantasy.The atmosphere is surreal.My heart is pounding, I empathize with him, I can't believe it's really happening.The great Pollini forgot the beginning of Schumann's Fantasy.The confirmation comes when he stops playing and in a great state of confusion brings his hands to his head as if to say: "what's wrong with me?". . .Pollini stands up, tired, weary, angry, incredulous and extremely sad.The entire audience bursts into thunderous applause, the maestro almost in tears is forced to bow down and gestures with his hands as if to say "I'm sorry, forgive me".And here the public does something unthinkable: they all stand up, stalls, stage,anyone, even the hall staff, in an ovation that I have personally never seen in my life!At that moment it was the piano world, and not only,present in London that embraced the sacrosanct fragility of a man who is a giant, but still a man and, with that embrace, they were reminding him of it.Pollini leaves the scene but the public doesn't stop cheering him on. They praises the great man but also the great pianist that he is.It won't be a performance to compromise a stratospheric career!

The Milanese pianist returns with a page turner and the concert continues.The Fantasy ends which is affected by the initial event but which in any case is completed with dignity . . .

I hope it was all recorded, it would make for probably the most sensational and fascinating recording ever made bar Lipatti's last recital.

[ultralinear]

Disturbing account of his last London concert - possibly his final concert ever. I missed it

I wasn't there either, but TBH it doesn't really come as a surprise - either the performance or the audience response.

His recitals used to be one of the highlights of the year, which I would never miss.  But then came an all-Beethoven recital in which there were just too many mistakes, some quite egregious.  And the next time was an all-Chopin recital - which was OK - but they were all long-time warhorse pieces that he could surely have played in his sleep, and the whole thing had the feel of a Greatest Hits farewell tour - one was responding to all the great experiences he had given us over the years, rather than what was happening in the moment.  So I decided to call it a day at that point.  Watching a great artist in decline is not something I particularly want to do.

He was much loved here and will be hugely missed.

[Spotted Horses]

I never had the privilege of hearing him perform live, but I have treasured many of his recordings, not the least of which being the set of Beethoven Late Sonatas recorded in the 1970's.

[Mandryka]

He was much loved here and will be hugely missed.

Absolutely. The last time I saw him was just before Covid - January or February 2020 I think, I was really impressed by the number of younger people in the audience at RFH - presumably many of them piano students. That being said I was right at the top, in the one and nines, to use one of my grandmother's expressions.


I was with an elderly Italian friend, now passed away but at the time he was in his late 80s, maybe as late 89. At the end of the concert, Debussy and Chopin, he grouched "He ain't no Michelangeli!"  That comparison must have plagued him. I noticed on his Italian Wikipedia he's reported as saying that the one thing he learned from ABM was a fabulous way of playing trills - I don't know if that's damning with feint praise.

[Holden]

Absolutely. The last time I saw him was just before Covid - January or February 2020 I think, I was really impressed by the number of younger people in the audience at RFH - presumably many of them piano students. That being said I was right at the top, in the one and nines, to use one of my grandmother's expressions.


I was with an elderly Italian friend, now passed away but at the time he was in his late 80s, maybe as late 89. At the end of the concert, Debussy and Chopin, he grouched "He ain't no Michelangeli!"  That comparison must have plagued him. I noticed on his Italian Wikipedia he's reported as saying that the one thing he learned from ABM was a fabulous way of playing trills - I don't know if that's damning with feint praise.

Correct, he wasn't a Michelangeli though I suspect that he might have tried to be. If you hypercritically analyse ABMs playing you could possibly consider it dry and cold which was an accusation thrown at Pollini on many occasions. However, you can't apply that to ABM. While his playing was very economical it seemed to get to the depth of the music. I remember hearing his YT video of the first Ballade and he just simply drew me right into the heart of the work.

Pollini never did that for me. I wonder what Pollini might have been like if he hadn't had Michelangeli as his teacher and mentor after the 1960 Chopin win because the Pollini that emerged after his post Chopin Competition sabbatical was certainly not the one everyone heard in Warsaw.

[Atriod]

What I would love to hear is the rumored Klavierstücke, not just partial boots from live recordings, but the full thing that DG is supposed to have recorded.

[Spotted Horses]

What I would love to hear is the rumored Klavierstücke, not just partial boots from live recordings, but the full thing that DG is supposed to have recorded.

Supposed to have recorded when? He supposedly vetoed the release?