For Immediate Release: Press Contacts: September 15, 2015 Eileen Chambers, 312-294-3092 Rachelle Roe, 312-294-3090
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PIANIST MAURIZIO POLLINI OPENS THE 2015/16 SYMPHONY CENTER PRESENTS PIANO SERIES
October 4, 2015 at 3 p.m.
CHICAGO—The 2015/16 Symphony Center Presents (SCP) Piano Series opens with the return of pianist Maurizio Pollini. With a distinguished history of performances as a soloist with the CSO and also on the SCP Piano Series over more than three decades, Pollini returns Sunday, October 4, at 3 p.m. The Chicago Tribune praises Pollini for his “deep musical understanding, burnished tone and immaculate finger work.” For a complete listing of the 10 Sunday matinee programs in the 2015/16 SCP Piano Series concerts, click here.
One of the great pianists of his generation, Maurizio Pollini continues to be recognized as one of the premier interpreters of keyboard works by Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin. His October 4 program is composed of four brilliantly colorful works by Chopin including the Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60, Two Nocturnes, Op. 55, Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat Major, Op. 61, and the Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39. Also on the program is Schumann’s colossal Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17, which is regarded one of the most deeply expressive pieces ever written for the piano. All of the works on the October 4 program can be found on Pollini’s critically acclaimed 2011 and 2012 recordings on the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Pollini rose to fame as the winner of the 1960 International Chopin Piano Competition and has since performed in the world’s major concert halls in recital and as a soloist with the most renowned ensembles and conductors including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Karl Böhm. Pollini’s 2014 international tour included recital performances at the celebrated Schleswig-Holstein and Salzburg Music Festivals. In 2015, Pollini released a monumental recording collection with Deutsche Grammophon including of all of the Beethoven piano sonatas.
Tickets for all Symphony Center Presents Piano Series concerts can be purchased by phone at 800-223-7114 or 312-294-3000; online at cso.org, or at the Symphony Center box office: 220 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60604. For group rates, please call 312-294-3040.
Artists, programs and prices are subject to change.
The Symphony Center Presents PowerShares QQQ Piano Series is sponsored by PowerShares QQQ.
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Symphony Center Presents Sunday, October 4, 2015, 3:00 p.m. Piano Maurizio Pollini, piano
SCHUMANN Allegro in B Minor, Op. 8 SCHUMANN Fantasy in C Major, Op. 17 CHOPIN Barcarolle in F-sharp Major, Op. 60 CHOPIN Two Nocturnes, Op. 55 CHOPIN Polonaise-Fantasy in A-flat Major, Op. 61 CHOPIN Scherzo No. 3 in C-sharp minor, Op. 39
Tickets: $35-$102
Maurizio Pollini Since winning First Prize at the 1960 Chopin Competition, Maurizio Pollini has established an international career of the highest importance, performing in the world’s major concert halls and working with distinguished orchestras and conductors including Karl Boehm, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, and Riccardo Muti. In 1987 he was awarded the Wiener Philharmoniker Ehrenring - the orchestra’s highest honour - after performing Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with them in New York. He was also awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in 1966, the ‘A Life for Music – Artur Rubinstein’ Prize in 1999 and the Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Prize in 2000.
Pollini devised and performed his own concert series at the Salzburger Festspiele in 1995. The programs included both chamber and orchestral performances and mirrored his wide musical tastes from Gesualdo and Monteverdi to contemporary music. He subsequently performed similar series at New York’s Carnegie Hall, Paris’ Cité de la Musique and Rome’s Parco della Musica.
In summer 2004 Pollini was the ‘Artiste Etoile’ at the Lucerne Festival, performing a recital and concerts with orchestra conducted by Claudio Abbado and Pierre Boulez. In 2010 Pollini performed the Chopin Birthday recital on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth in London’s International Piano Series as part of the Chopin 200 celebrations.
He went on to present The Pollini Project - a series of five recitals charting the development of piano music from Bach to Boulez, for which he won the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award.
Pollini’s repertoire ranges from Bach to contemporary composers. He has performed the complete Beethoven Sonatas in Berlin, Munich, Milan, New York, London, Vienna and Paris, and has given world premieres of works by Manzoni, Nono and Sciarrino. His recordings of Schoenberg’s complete piano works, and of music by Berg, Webern, Manzoni, Nono, Boulez and Stockhausen, are testament to his great passion for 20th century music and his support for contemporary composers. In 1995 he opened a major festival dedicated to Pierre Boulez in Tokyo, and was responsible for commissioning the expansion of Helmut Lachenmann’s original version of Grido into the 2004 Double for string orchestra.
In 2007 Pollini won a Grammy Award as Best Instrumental Soloist and a Disco d’Oro; he is also recipient of an ECHO Award in Germany, and Choc de la Musique, Victoires de la Musique and Diapason d’Or de l’Année prizes in France. Most recently he won the ECHO Klassik Award in the Best Concerto category
for his recording of the Brahms’ Piano Concerto No.1 with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden. His latest projects for Deutsche Grammophon have included a collection of Mozart, Brahms and Beethoven piano concertos recorded with the Vienna Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic, released in 2012, and the completion of his recording compilation of all the Beethoven piano sonatas, which was released in 2015.
Maurizio Pollini was born in Milan in 1942 and studied with Carlo Lonati and Carlo Vidusso.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: www.cso.org and www.csosoundsandstories.org/ Founded in 1891, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is consistently hailed as one of the greatest orchestras in the world. Since 2010, the preeminent conductor Riccardo Muti has served as its 10th music director. Pierre Boulez is the CSO’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus, Yo-Yo Ma is its Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant, and Samuel Adams and Elizabeth Ogonek are its Mead Composers-in-Residence.
From baroque through contemporary music, the CSO commands a vast repertoire. Its renowned musicians annually perform more than 150 concerts, most at Symphony Center in Chicago and, each summer, at the suburban Ravinia Festival. They regularly tour nationally and internationally. Since 1892, the CSO has made 58 international tours, performing in 29 countries on five continents.
People around the globe listen to weekly radio broadcasts of CSO concerts and recordings on the WFMT radio network and online at cso.org/radio. Recordings by the CSO have earned 62 Grammy Awards, including two in 2011 for Muti’s recording with the CSO and Chorus of Verdi's Messa da Requiem (Muti’s first of four releases with the CSO to date). Find details on these and many other CSO recordings at www.cso.org/resound.
The CSO is part of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, which also includes the Chicago Symphony Chorus (Duain Wolfe, Director and Conductor) and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, a training ensemble for emerging professionals. Through its prestigious Symphony Center Presents series, the CSOA presents guest artists and ensembles from a variety of genres—classical, jazz, world, and contemporary.
The Negaunee Music Institute at the CSO offers community and education programs that annually engage more than 200,000 people of diverse ages and backgrounds. Through the Institute and other activities, including a free annual concert with Muti and the CSO, the CSO is committed to using the power of music to create connections and build community.
The CSO is supported by thousands of patrons, volunteers and institutional and individual donors. Bank of America is the Global Sponsor of the CSO. The CSO’s music director position is endowed in perpetuity by a generous gift from the Zell Family Foundation. The Negaunee Foundation provides generous support in perpetuity for the work of the Negaunee Music Institute.