String Quartet No.14 in C sharp minor, Op.131: 1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
Maurizio Pollini (born January 5, 1942) is an Italian classical pianist. Read Full Bio ↴Maurizio Pollini (born January 5, 1942) is an Italian classical pianist.
He was born in Milan, the son of the Italian rationalist architect Gino Pollini. Maurizio studied piano first with Carlo Lonati, until the age of 13, then with Carlo Vidusso, until he was 18. He received a diploma from the Milan Conservatory and won the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960, after which he studied under Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
Since the mid-1960s, he has given recitals and appeared with major orchestras in Europe, the United States, and the Far East. He made his American debut in 1968 and his first tour of Japan in 1974.
Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of our age, he is especially noted for his performances of Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Schoenberg, Webern and for championing modern composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Important modern works were composed for Pollini, notably Nono’s …sofferte onde serene…, Giacomo Manzoni’s Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse and Salvatore Sciarrino's fifth sonata. He displays an absolute technical sovereignty over the piano, but is sometimes criticized for his emotional conservatism. He has conducted both opera and orchestral music, sometimes leading the orchestra from the keyboard in concertos. His first recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in 1971 included Stravinsky’s Three Movements from “Petrushka” and Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata and is still considered a landmark of twentieth century piano discography. Since then he has been one of Deutsche Grammophon's leading pianists. In 1985, on occasion of Bach's tricentennial, he performed the complete first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. In 1987 he played the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos in New York with the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and received on this occasion the orchestra’s Honorary Ring. In 1993/1994 he played his first complete Beethoven Piano Sonata cycles in Berlin and Munich and later also in New York, Milan, Paris, London and Vienna. At the Salzburg Festival in 1995 he inaugurated the “Progetto Pollini”, a series of concerts in which old and new works are juxtaposed. An analogous experience will be done at Carnegie Hall in 2000/2001 with “Perspectives: Maurizio Pollini”. In 1996 he received the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. In 2001 his recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations won the Diapason d’or. In 2002 Deutsche Grammophon released a 13 CD commemorative edition to celebrate the pianist's 60th birthday.
In 2007, Pollini received the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Chopin nocturnes.
He was born in Milan, the son of the Italian rationalist architect Gino Pollini. Maurizio studied piano first with Carlo Lonati, until the age of 13, then with Carlo Vidusso, until he was 18. He received a diploma from the Milan Conservatory and won the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960, after which he studied under Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli.
Since the mid-1960s, he has given recitals and appeared with major orchestras in Europe, the United States, and the Far East. He made his American debut in 1968 and his first tour of Japan in 1974.
Regarded as one of the greatest pianists of our age, he is especially noted for his performances of Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Brahms, Schoenberg, Webern and for championing modern composers such as Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Important modern works were composed for Pollini, notably Nono’s …sofferte onde serene…, Giacomo Manzoni’s Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse and Salvatore Sciarrino's fifth sonata. He displays an absolute technical sovereignty over the piano, but is sometimes criticized for his emotional conservatism. He has conducted both opera and orchestral music, sometimes leading the orchestra from the keyboard in concertos. His first recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in 1971 included Stravinsky’s Three Movements from “Petrushka” and Prokofiev’s Seventh Sonata and is still considered a landmark of twentieth century piano discography. Since then he has been one of Deutsche Grammophon's leading pianists. In 1985, on occasion of Bach's tricentennial, he performed the complete first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier. In 1987 he played the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos in New York with the Vienna Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado and received on this occasion the orchestra’s Honorary Ring. In 1993/1994 he played his first complete Beethoven Piano Sonata cycles in Berlin and Munich and later also in New York, Milan, Paris, London and Vienna. At the Salzburg Festival in 1995 he inaugurated the “Progetto Pollini”, a series of concerts in which old and new works are juxtaposed. An analogous experience will be done at Carnegie Hall in 2000/2001 with “Perspectives: Maurizio Pollini”. In 1996 he received the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. In 2001 his recording of Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations won the Diapason d’or. In 2002 Deutsche Grammophon released a 13 CD commemorative edition to celebrate the pianist's 60th birthday.
In 2007, Pollini received the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Chopin nocturnes.
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String Quartet No.14 in C sharp minor Op.131: 1. Adagio ma non troppo e molto espressivo
Maurizio Pollini Lyrics
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Hotspur
telemachus53 maybe that’s why he gets such a lush,
expressive sound? Anyone can beat time - it takes vision to conduct.
Karajan, Giuliani - two other greats whose beats weren’t razor sharp.
The HIP movement has placed way too much emphasis on ensemble and literalism. Result is a loss of spirituality in performance.
This is a project that probably would never happen today...if by some off chance it did, the results would be bloodless.
While I prefer this and opus 135 (also undertaken by Lenny with the VPO) played by an actual quartet, there are aspects of these compositions that only larger forces can bring out.
Awesome upload
jdj830
Bernstein considered this performance the pinnacle of his work with the VPO and is reported to have said that it's "the best thing I've ever done." While I would dispute the latter statement - his work as a composer and teacher was arguably even more valuable than his work as a performer - I do think that, if you had to pick one document of Bernstein the conductor, this is the one to take to the desert island. The fact that it isn't an orchestral repertory staple gave him the creative room to put his own stamp on it, an interpretation unburdened by the memories of no conductors other than his beloved mentor Mitropoulos, to whom this is meant as a tribute. It's also a tribute to the virtuosity of the Vienna string section; there are times when he backs off and just lets them play it like the chamber music that it is, a true collaboration between ensemble and conductor. And you can tell he's in absolute awe of the piece itself and relishing the chance to introduce it to this larger audience and less intimate milieu. He makes the case that it's just as profound and important a statement as the Ninth symphony or the Missa Solemnis, and in this case, he has no competition from Karajan or anyone else.
That being said, it can't be claimed that this version improves on Beethoven's; it's definitely more suited to be played by four musicians rather than sixty. But it's also true that this music is so intimate, at times frighteningly so, that a concert performance almost feels too public; in its original guise this is the ultimate headphone music, a direct communication between composer and listener. So Bernstein performs a valuable service by conveying a sense of deep intimacy that can somehow still fill a concert hall, a skill he honed by conducting Mahler. (There are moments in this performance that are reminiscent of his interpretation of Mahler's Ninth with this same orchestra; they seem to inhabit the same world.) This is in any case a unique synergy of strong musical personalities of genius.
Thank you so much to whoever posted this.
sarah jones
Bernstein was a far better conductor in fact he was one of the best if not best ever, composer not so good, educator and communicator of the classics marvelous.
Judith Nelson
It is good but the orchestration is a distortion, no matter what the conductor does, of the dynamics of Op131. In my view, Lenny's monument on desert island or not, is his later conduction of Schumann No.2, also live, with VPO and on video. He weeps at the end, and well he might. see youtube.
Everything Que
Yeah I’m not reading all that.
I’m happy for you though.
Or sorry that it happened.
Walter Ausiello
I agree, Bernstein's ability is to do that Beethoven anticipates Mahler ! very beautiful
Shiuan Chang
Beautiful writing
SDnikko
Beethoven could take 2 notes and an interval and turn it into a gift from the Gods.
Alexandre Harvey
@Robert Allen borrowings...can you explain...
Cinema Satsang
And so could Bernstein!
yeah
Thats called counterpoint