Word: pollini
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Last Sunday Maurizio Pollini pleased a packed Symphony Hall with a program of Chopin and Debussy that can only be described as populist, plain and simple. Choosing so many warhorses and so few dark horses was not, however, merely a safe bet. It also gave him the chance to play them better than, well, anybody...
Take for instance Pollini's performance of Chopin's first Ballade in G minor, the second item on the program after the opening Prelude No. 25. In spite of a few oddly reassuring finger slips (proof, perhaps, that Pollini is not a cybernetic organism) the interpretation seemed scarily authoritative. A percussive left hand and a sometimes sotto voce right transformed this standby into a sleeker, more macho epyllion...
Still, for many years the musical world has seemed loath to view Wild as anything other than a consummate master of a vanished pianistic style. For the past 40 years audiences have favored the colder, more analytical approach of pianists like Leon Fleischer, Gary Graffman and Maurizio Pollini. The brief romantic revival of the late 1960s highlighted his expertise with such composers as Chopin and Lizst, but Wild has never received the critical acclaim he deserves...
Piano Music of the 20th Century (Deutsche Grammophon, 5 LPs). Pollini plays the best selection of modern classics available in one album...
CLASSICAL. Beethoven: Concerto No. 5, "Emperor" (Deutsche Grammophon). Maurizio Pollini's rendering is a model of vigor, precision and elegance...