F. CHOPIN:Heroic Polonaise op.53 - M.POLLINI 1975 - (Poland photos)

Maurizio Pollini plays:Frederic Chopin - Polonaise Heroic op.53 (1842)




Recorded in 1975
POLAND PHOTOS

The Polonaise in A-flat major, Op. 53 for solo piano was written by Frédéric Chopin in 1842. This masterpiece is one of Chopin's most popular compositions and has always been a favorite of the classical piano repertoire. The piece requires exceptional pianistic skills and requires virtuosity in order to be played at an appropriate level of quality. It is also sometimes referred to as the Drum Polonaise.

Although the piece is labeled as a polonaise, it has little to do with the typical polonaise style. It presents two sections with a polonaise rhythm, but most of it has no particular polonaise attribute. It has been said that Chopin had composed the piece having a free and powerful Poland in mind, which may have led him to label it as a polonaise.

Maurizio POLLINI
Biography and career

Pollini was born in Milan, his father being 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 both the International Ettore Pozzoli Piano Competition in Seregno (Italy) in 1959 and the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1960, after which he studied with 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.

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 orchestras 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 was done at Carnegie Hall in 2000/2001 with Perspectives: Maurizio Pollini.

Recordings

His first recordings for Deutsche Grammophon in 1971 included Stravinskys Three Movements from Petrushka and Prokofievs 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.

His milestone recording of Chopin's etudes Op. 10 & 25, also under Deutsche Grammophon, won Pollini international acclaim. In 2002 Deutsche Grammophon released a 13-CD commemorative edition to celebrate the pianist's 60th birthday.

Repertoire and technique

Pollini 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, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Giacomo Manzoni, Roberto Carnevale, Salvatore Sciarrino, Giovanni Sollima, Bruno Maderna. Important modern works were composed for Pollini, notably Nonos sofferte onde serene, Giacomo Manzonis Masse: omaggio a Edgard Varèse and Salvatore Sciarrino's Fifth Sonata. While known for possessing an exceptional technique, Pollini is sometimes accused of emotional conservatism. He has conducted both opera and orchestral music, sometimes leading the orchestra from the keyboard in concertos.

Awards and recognitions

In 1996 he received the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. In 2001 his recording of Beethovens Diabelli Variations won the Diapason dor. In 2007, Pollini received the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Chopin nocturnes.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Maurizio
• POLLINI
• plays
• Frederic
• CHOPIN
• Heroic
• Polonaise

[reganBuffalo]

Beautiful! And thank you for the video. So this is what the homeland of my ancestors looks like.

[miliona1re]

@reganBuffalo It is a beautiful land.I went to Poland 5 times in the last 3 years.I'd like to go to Zelazowa Wola one day.

[watutman]

My favorite performance of this work.

[ojosmasverdes]

Wonderful piece of art...

[DonAgalloch]

Easily my favorite Chopin polonaise and this is one of the best renditions of it.

[BBBQ4]

Ive kept listening this for oh how many months, years?

this is the best ever.

[0011486]

@reganBuffalo and sounds like.

[velocirrober]

I love this piece from the first time I ran into it on an episode from "The Addams Family", when Lurch was playing it.

[jessy100rockindie]

me quedo impactada. solo dire hermosa, hermosa. una obra maestra

[Rachmaninoffkid]

@chutdigadut This piece has to be proud. Should it not, the word heroic should be taken out of it, and Horowitz never would have performed it. Horowitz playing a piece more than once is any time span is a rarity. Horowitz playing it at least three times recorded, one in Moscow and one at the White House, it must be observed with an attentive mind. Beautiful, except for his banged out chords at 3:16

[chutdigadut]

such a proud performance

[BukanVanji]

My favorite song ^_^

[yusukeaoki1234]

raped my replay button...