Maurizio Pollini Essentials

Maurizio Pollini, who died in March 2024, was one of the true giants of 20th- and 21st-century pianism, admired as much for Boulez and Stockhausen as he was for Chopin, Schumann and Beethoven. Victory at the 1960 International Chopin Piano Competition was accompanied by the legendary comment from the chair of the jury, Arthur Rubinstein: “That young man can play the piano better than any of us jurors.” From then on, and with the help of his teacher Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Pollini strived for and succeeded in attaining technical perfection. This imbued his playing with a pristine textural clarity that, for some, opened the music up in revelatory ways, particularly in Debussy, Mozart and Chopin. For others, it betrayed a certain coolness of expressivity. Here, however, you can judge for yourself—our handpicked playlist will sweep you through the breadth and depth of Pollini’s remarkable recording career that continued almost up until his death.