Two Boys; Maurizio Pollini – review | Music | The Observer

Two Boys; Maurizio Pollini – review | Music | The Observer

...On the piano at home in those days were some of Chopin's 24 Preludes. A year later, Maurizio Pollini would win the 1960 Warsaw competition, his facility with Chopin dazzling the judging panel so much that Arthur Rubinstein declared: "That boy plays better than any of us!" He gripped music lovers all over the world with his broadcasts and recordings, and my mother, like so many talented amateur pianists, envied his apparently effortless technique.

How I wish she could have heard him last week at the Festival Hall, bringing his extraordinary Pollini Project to a triumphant close. At nearly 70, he still plays Chopin with the ease that floored even Rubinstein more than 50 years ago.