Internationally renowned Italian pianist and conductor Maurizio Pollini has died at the age of 82, the Teatro alla Scala opera house in his native Milan said on Saturday.
The Scala was mourning "one of the great musicians of our time," it said.
Pollini, whose repertoire stretched across the major piano works of classical music to contemporary music, had his breakthrough at the age of 18, winning Warsaw's renowned international Chopin Piano Competition in 1960 which is dedicated to the works of the Polish composer.
The head of the jury at the time, piano legend Arthur Rubinstein, praised Pollini, saying he "plays the piano better than any of us."
The Italian later honed his skills studying with Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, another great pianist, further helping him build a global career.
Critics called his style unsentimental and intense, perfect and unique, clear and brilliant. Piano concertos, sonatas and ballads by Frédéric Chopin, Franz Schubert and Ludwig van Beethoven, solo or accompanied by an orchestra made up the core of Pollini's work.
Over the decades, he expanded his programme to include contemporary music including by Luigi Nono, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Pierre Boulez.
Pollini also played concerts at gymnasiums and factory halls. In 1976, he was voted the "best pianist in the world" in a critics' poll.
Over the decades, he has performed no fewer than 168 times at La Scala, the world famous opera hall in his native Milan, where he gave his final performance in February last year.
While some critics sometimes lamented a lack of intensity and dramatic suspense, Pollini always managed to set new impulses. Over the decades, he received numerous prizes, including the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize and the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra) for a Chopin performance.
