Daniele Pollini

Maurizio Polini was born in 1942 in Milan and studied with Carlo Lonati and Carlo Vidusso. He gave his first public concert as early as 1952, and the first part of his career culminated in 1960 with his victory at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw. He then continued his studies, taking further instruction with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli and Arthur Rubinstein. It was also in this period that his friendship with Claudio Abbado and Luigi Nono began, which led to his deep involvement with contemporary music.  Since the middle of the 1960s, Pollini has appeared as a soloist in all the leading musical centers around the world, performing a repertoire that spans from Bach to Boulez, and he has partnered with the most eminent conductors of our time. In 1995 he launched the “Progetto Pollini,” a series of concerts under his artistic direction and featuring music from the Middle Ages to the modern era, which he initially presented at the Salzburg Festival and, in later years, around the world. A regular guest artist at LUCERNE FESTIVAL, he was named “artiste étoile” in 2004.  In 2011 and 2012 he presented a new cycle here, “Pollini Perspectives,” juxtaposing sonatas by Beethoven with music by Stockhausen, Manzoni, Lachenmann, and Sciarrino. Pollini’s extensive discography has received many awards; his most recent recording, released in April 2014, contains new accounts of the two piano concertos by Brahms with the Staatskapelle Dresden under Christian Thielemann. The filmmaker Bruno Monsaingeon paid homage to him with the documentary film Maurizio Pollini – Man and Master, which was just released this spring. Maurizio Pollini’s many honors include the Siemens Music Award, the Rubinstein Award, the Benedetti Michelangeli Award, and Japan’s Praemium Imperiale. In 2012 he received the Royal Philharmonic Society Award. d

LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 26 August 1976 playing three sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven (Opp. 28, 57, and 106).

June 2014