Maurizio Pollini (biography)
Maurizio Pollini
The name Maurizio Pollini embodies an extremely important career, a man and an artist known all over the world, prized by audiences and critics across all continents and several generations. For more than 40 years, Maurizio Pollini has been a key performer in all the major European, American and Japanese concert halls and festivals and has performed with the highest level orchestras and the most celebrated conductors, including Abbado, Muti, Boulez, Thielemann, Rattle and many others. Pollini has been awarded many of the most important international music prizes: Ernst von Siemens, Imperial and the Royal Philharmonic Society Award among them. Maurizio Pollini’s repertoire ranges from Bach to many of the 20th century composers – Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez, Manzoni, Nono, Sciarrino and Stockhausen – a testament to his great passion for these pioneers. He has also performed the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas. Lauded for his project “Perspectives,” this creative vision included composers of different centuries, from Gesualdo da Venosa to Sciarrino, reflecting Pollini’s profound knowledge and commitment to music. “Perspectives” has been performed in Tokyo (1995 and 2002), Salzburg Festival (1999), New York Carnegie Hall (1999/20 and 2000/21), Paris Citè de la Musique (2002), Wien Musikverein (2003,) Lucerne Festival (2008 – 2013) and in Rome and Milan. Many of the recordings from Maurizio Pollini’s vast discography for Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft have received several important awards including a Grammy, ECHO, Choc de la Musique and Diapason d’or. In March 2020, DGG released the first part of his project to record the last Beethoven Sonatas – op 109, 110, 111 – recorded live and in the studio in Munich. Additionally, the album includes a DVD featuring Mr. Pollini in conversation with Jorg Widmann, exploring the relationship between Beethoven and contemporary music.