Why has nobody heard of Maurizio Pollini?

[contrapunctus]

    I just found some LPs of this guy playing Chopin's Preludes, Etudes, and Polonaises.

He displayes absolute technical control over the piano and plays the Chopin in a clasical

style. Seriously, I can only listen to Chopin when it is played by Pollini or else I would

have to kill myself. I believe he also won the international Chopin piano competition

somewhere in the sixties. Every must get a recording of this now.

[randmc]

I've heard of him.

[mrchops10]

Whoa never heard of him, but I'll give him a try...

Actually I'm glad you're enthusiastic about Pollini's playing, and your comments on his style are dead on. Your tastes are shared by many around the world, as Pollini is an EXTREMELY famous and popular pianist, whose playing has been discussed numerous times both positively and negatively on pianoforum. Happy listening!

[orlandopiano]

Pollini? Who's that?

[dmk]

    I just found some LPs of this guy playing Chopin's Preludes, Etudes, and Polonaises.

He displayes absolute technical control over the piano and plays the Chopin in a clasical

style. Seriously, I can only listen to Chopin when it is played by Pollini or else I would

have to kill myself. I believe he also won the international Chopin piano competition

somewhere in the sixties. Every must get a recording of this now.

I always thought of Pollini as pretty famous, particularly when compared to other classical pianists!!!

I have to admit, he is a marvellous pianist.  Not at all too my taste personally though

[arensky]

   
 Seriously, I can only listen to Chopin when it is played by Pollini or else I would

have to kill myself.

Please do us all a favor; get it over with now.

[prometheus]

Isn't he as famous as Richter and Horowitz?

[superstar]

    is this kinda joke or something how can be Pollini not be known he is one of the biggest legends in Europe ...  Pollini and Argerich and Zimerman the best winners of the Chopin comp ... oh my gosh ... its happenin ... Spears took over da house

[Waldszenen]

Pollini?

Sounds like some sort of fancy Italian cheese.

>_>

[pseudopianist]

Isn't he as famous as Richter and Horowitz?

That is what I thought

[BoliverAllmon]

That is what I thought

as did I.

[Floristan]

Pollini?  Pollini is NOT famous!  Who knew?  Man, you learn something every day.  All this time I've been laboring under the impression that he IS famous.  Dang! 

I find a lot of his interpretations lacking in warmth, including his Chopin.  Maybe it's just me. 

[maxy]

hum...

Pollini is considered as one of the best pianists alive.  He is certainly one of the best paid.   

His recs are known for being "perfect" and full of editing.  Yet, he is also a great performer.

[la_leggierezza]

is this kinda joke or something how can be Pollini not be known he is one of the biggest legends in Europe ... Pollini and Argerich and Zimerman the best winners of the Chopin comp ... oh my gosh ... its happenin ... Spears took over da house

he is indeed a great pianist and a very well known one!!! i have his rec of chopin etudes and i think it is excelent!  really one of the best interpretantions of etudes!!! and it s not only me that thinks so... so i don t understand why the subject of this topic is : "Why has nobody heard of Maurizio Pollini?" it is riddicullous!!!

[BoliverAllmon]

maybe he was being sarcastic?

[stevie]

i still know him best for his hilarious 'worst wrong note ever'

he ****s up the last note of the chopin 28/24...

[Etude]

i still know him best for his hilarious 'worst wrong note ever'

he ****s up the last note of the chopin 28/24...

Haha, I must hear that.

[stevie]

you can see it, its on DVD

[mikey6]

Wierd! He was included on the Great pianists label.  His chopin is considered amongst the best (i'm not a huge fan of it though) - his recording of the first concerto when he was 18 is on the EMI (I think) classic recordings label.  His disc of 20th century piano works (prokofiev 7, petrouchka, webern variations and soemthing else I don't remember) is ranked as one of gramophones greatest 100 cd's released.

[mrchops10]

i still know him best for his hilarious 'worst wrong note ever'

he ****s up the last note of the chopin 28/24...

That's probably his only wrong note, and that's the one you remember him by.

[pianistimo]

i've always been in awe of mario pollini's playing.

[sevencircles]

When did he screw up the last note 28/24 ?

I have always found Pollini in his prime  the cleanest and most technical "big repertoire" player around.

You should have  heard his Bartok 2. The cadenza he did was awesome.

Hamelin has got a huge repertoire as well but he sometimes plays surprisingly sloppy (I think he had a problem with Chopin too)

[Waldszenen]

There's this one DVD of him playing Brahms 2 with Abbado (I think) and there's a particular camera shot from inside the piano, looking at him - the way he moves up and down, his facial expression and coupled with his severe sweat, makes him look like he's having a massive orgasm.

[stevie]

When did he screw up the last note 28/24 ?

on an EMI classics DVD, he plays a few preludes as the bonus

he has about 3 seconds to aim for one note, and still f***s it up, its HILARIOUS

[frombachtobarber]

I've heard of him! He's my hero, and he's famous, from my perspective.

[practicingnow]

OK - I have to remember that name...
By the way - Anybody ever hear of this guy Horowitz???  How come nobody knows him?  He's like sooo good, and I can't even take it - he should be famous or something!

[mrdaveux]

I know Horowitz! He owns the bakery at the corner of my street, and makes the best bread in town. I didn't know he plays the piano, though... I'll ask him when I get my muffins tomorrow morning.

Well, jokes aside, Pollini recording of Chopin Polonaises is pretty famous and I consider it the best along with that of Rubinstein.

He's, of course, technically impeccable (his Boulez 2nd sonata or Stravinski Petroushka are amazing), but his style can be considered a bit cold (compared to Argerich, for example). Surprisingly, I bought his CD of Beethoven last sonatas expecting to be blown out with the Hammerklavier but not with the others, and I found his op. 111 quite moving... Although I haven't found my definitive version of op. 111 (I can't get the perfect performer for it yet), Pollini is one of the tops on my list for that sonata.

[mrchops10]

Have you heard of Schnabel? Don't feel bad...he's pretty obscure...
anyway, I like very much his op. 111, if you can put up with some inaccuracies in the first mov't. The second mov't is really visionary, IMO.

It's too bad Gilels didn't record it. My former teacher heard Yudina play it back in Moscow, he says it was pretty unbelievable. Does a recording exist?

[mikey6]

It's too bad Gilels didn't record it. My former teacher heard Yudina play it back in Moscow, he says it was pretty unbelievable. Does a recording exist?

Gilels didn't record it? I thought he recorded the complete set 3 times? (or are you being sarcastic as is the common approach to this thread now)

[arensky]

That's probably his only wrong note, and that's the one you remember him by.

Oh no; I saw him in concert about 10 years ago, lots of wrong notes, sloppy passagework, disinterested playing. He was better 10 years before that, and hopefully better now...

[sevencircles]

Oh no; I saw him in concert about 10 years ago, lots of wrong notes, sloppy passagework, disinterested playing. He was better 10 years before that, and hopefully better now

Pollini was amazing in the seventies but for some reason he seems to have given up during recent years.

Maybe it would be better for him to stop playing the piano and start to conduct again perhaps.

Regarding that infamous wrong note. I actually think that it was his way of being funny.

Italian humour can be very strange sometimes and I wouldn´t surprised if everything was planned.