As the Scala in Milan announces today, the exceptional Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini is dead. He died today at the age of 82.
At the age of 18, he won the world-famous Chopin competition in communist Warsaw. It would have catapulted him onto the world's biggest stages straight away, but he took a few years before he started taking on the big engagements. Despite his fame, he never lost contact with the working class, organized discounted student tickets for his concerts, gave free concerts in factory halls and protested against Berlusconi's corrupt government in his concerts.
Nevertheless, Pollini was never politically vindictive. He worked closely with Nazi collaborator Karl Böhm, whom he deeply admired for his musical flair. Today we lost one of the greatest pianists in history.

Produced by Tom Rodrigues

Photos by Tom Rodrigues
Photographed in Cologne (Germany) and Lugano (Switzerland)
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