Maurizio Pollini, a prominent and well-known Italian pianist, has died. He was 82 years old and resided in Milan, where he was born on January 5, 1942. He began learning piano at a young age - his mother was a musician, Renata Melotti - and improved his technique in his adolescence with pianist and teacher Carlo Vidusso. In 1960, he won the Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition in Warsaw, one of the most renowned and long-running international piano contests. After hearing him perform, the great pianist Arthur Rubinstein famously stated, "This young man plays better than the rest of us". Pollini went on to make a name for himself throughout Europe, America, and several Asian countries. Pollini was well-known for his renditions of compositions by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Mozart, and Brahms. In the 2000s, he garnered significant popularity thanks to a series of recordings of his renditions of Chopin's "Nocturnes" on the Deutsche Grammophon label. His interpretations were executed with tremendous technique, which some critics saw as a weakness because it rendered them "colder". He won the Grammy Award for "Best Solo Instrumental Performance (without Orchestra)" for "Nocturnes" in 2007. He continued to perform until a year ago, despite having some health issues in previous years that required him to be hospitalized multiple times. The funeral home was built up at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
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