Maurizio Pollini

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Maurizio Pollini

Maurizio Pollini (born January 5, 1942) is an Italian classical pianist.

He was born in Milan, the son of the Italian rationalist architect Gino Pollini. Maurizio studied piano first with Carlo Lonati, until the age of 9, then with Carlo Vidusso, until he was 18. He received a diploma from the Milan Conservatory and won the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960, after which he studied under Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.

Since the mid-1960s, he has given recitals and appeared with major orchestras in Europe, the United States, and the Far East. He made his American debut in 1968 and his first tour of Japan in 1974.

Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of the day, he is especially noted for his performances of Chopin and modern composers such as Pierre Boulez. He displays an absolute technical sovereignty over the piano, but is sometimes criticized for his emotional conservatism. He has conducted both opera and orchestral music, sometimes leading the orchestra from the keyboard in concertos. With a sizable repertoire, he is currently one of Deutsche Grammophon's leading pianists and has performed the complete first book of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and several cycles of the complete Beethoven sonatas, among many other works.

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