This Saturday before Easter we are surprised by the sad news of the death of the universal Milanese Maurizio Pollini at the age of 82. Unlike some of the most outstanding colleagues of his generation, the great pianist was still present on stage, although in recent times there were warning signs and the subsequent cancellations, such as those for next April in which he had planned – in the framework of a tour – return to the Palau de la Música Catalana, the usual setting for their presentations, which always left us reflecting on what this fundamental generation of Pollini and his colleagues Argerich, Brendel, Barenboim has meant… In the eighties of the last century we left by the greats Rubinstein and Horowitz, it was another world of the keyboard, more spectacular perhaps compared to the depth that Pollini later expressed, who had won first prize in the famous Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1960. In the next competition, in 1965, the winner It was Martha Argerich.
That generation of Rubinstein lived in the midst of the most devastating European wars. Maurizio Pollini, who was born in Milan in 1942, lived his youth in a world with strong changes that led him to express his political ideas – an attitude not so common in the musical field – along with other artists of the generation of he. And he was a singular musician in it, among other things because his recitals, even though he was already established, expressed that commitment to contemporary art, as did his beloved Claudio Abbado. He even wanted to show it in what I believe was his last concert at our Palau de la Música on October 27, 2021; His health had forced him to cancel the appointment he had scheduled shortly before in Madrid. The program began with op. 11 and 19 by Schönberg and then recalled his work from those seventies of the youth rebellion with Luigi Nono in “…sofferte onde serene…” for piano and soundtrack from 1976. And this commitment was a mark in his life as a pianist who He understood the modernity of Beethoven and Chopin along with that of his generation and their ideas.
And if then we sensed his farewell, now, what was his pianism, his masterful art, leads us simply and profoundly to be grateful for that exemplary life dedicated to interpreting beauty, and to fighting against the limitation of freedoms, with his attitude, certainly invariable until the end, which only death could stop.
We began by talking about generations, and in which – so different and distant – will now take its place in the first ranks of the international piano, it would be very important not to lose sight of this culmination of the piano art that Pollini represented.
Thanks, teacher.
