Francesco Pollini

Francesco Giuseppe Pollini (25 March 1762 – 17 September 1846) was an Italian pianist, composer and academic. Life Pollini was born in Ljubljana (now in Slovenia) in 1762, son of a medical doctor. He moved to Vienna in 1783, and was a student there of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He returned to Ljubljana, performing there as a singer and actor. In Italy he appeared as a pianist, violinist and opera singer, appearing in several cities. From 1790 he lived mainly as a piano teacher in Milan, where in 1793 he took lessons from Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli. He made guest appearances in Paris and in German cities. From 1809 he was a professor of piano at Milan Conservatory; he died in Milan in 1846. Pollini was highly regarded by his contemporaries; Vincenzo Bellini dedicated the opera La sonnambula to him. Works He composed piano music, which demand a virtuoso technique; chamber music; two operas (Il genio insubre and La casetta nei boschi); a Stabat Mater and other church music. His instruction book for pianists, Metodo pel clavicembalo, was used as a textbook at Milan Conservatory. The three-hand effect He is associated with the three-hand effect of piano playing; his biographer in A Dictio