This Week in Classical Music: March 25, 2024. Maurizio Pollini, one of the greatest pianists of the last half century, died two days ago, on March 23rd in Milan at the age of 82.His technique was phenomenal, even though he lost some of it in the last years of his life (he performed almost till the very end of his life and probably should’ve stopped earlier).His Chopin was exquisite (no wonder that he won the eponymous competition in 1960), as was the rest of the standard 19th-century piano repertoire, but he also was incomparable as the interpreter of the music of the Second Viennese School, and even more so as the performer of the contemporary music, much of it written by his friends: Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna, and many other.He will be sorely missed.Speaking of Pierre Boulez: his anniversary is this week as well: he was born on March 26th of 1925.
Also this week: Franz Joseph Haydn, born March 31st of 1732; Carlo Gesualdo – on March 30th of 1556; Johann Adolph Hasse, onMarch 25 of 1699; and one of our favorite composers of the 20th century, Béla Bartók, on March 25th of 1881.
Hiatus 3. 2024
This Week in Classical Music: March 25, 2024. Maurizio Pollini, one of the greatest pianists of the last half century, died two days ago, on March 23rd in Milan at the age of 82. His technique was phenomenal, even though he lost some of it in the last years of his life (he performed almost till the very end of his life and probably should’ve stopped earlier). His Chopin was exquisite (no wonder that he won the eponymous competition in 1960), as was the rest of the standard 19th-century piano repertoire, but he also was incomparable as the interpreter of the music of the Second Viennese School, and even more so as the performer of the contemporary music, much of it written by his friends: Luigi Nono, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bruno Maderna, and many other. He will be sorely missed. Speaking of Pierre Boulez: his anniversary is this week as well: he was born on March 26th of 1925.
Also this week: Franz Joseph Haydn, born March 31st of 1732; Carlo Gesualdo – on March 30th of 1556; Johann Adolph Hasse, onMarch 25 of 1699; and one of our favorite composers of the 20th century, Béla Bartók, on March 25th of 1881.