Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, who played frequently at La Scala, dies at age 82

By GIADA ZAMPANO
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Grammy-winning Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini has died. He was 82. Pollini performed frequently at Milan’s La Scala. The opera house said in a statement that he died on Saturday without giving a cause of death. But Pollini had been forced to cancel a concert at the Salzburg Festival in 2022 because of heart problems. Pollini had a six decades-long international career and his repertoire expanded beyond the standard classics. He embraced early 20th-century masterpieces and postwar modernists. La Scala called the pianist “one of the great musicians of our time and a fundamental reference in the artistic life of the theater for over 50 years.”