Chopin holds a pre-eminent place in Pollini's career; in 1960 he was awarded the first prize at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw and appeared in the same year at La Scala, Milan, playing Chopin's First Piano Concerto under Sergiu Celibidache. This was the start of his extraordinary musical career. Maurizio Pollini says that Chopin composed almost exclusively masterpieces and that he didn't tolerate music that had no thinking behind it.



