Right now i am enjoying Alexnadre Tharaud; his piano recordings of Couperin and Rameau are beautiful. What a talented young artist he is, i love his repertoire choices too.

A set of recordings that are really worth getting are Eva Knardahl playing Grieg. She recorded 10 albums on the BIS label. Really wonderful, especially the Lyric Pieces and the Norwegian Dances.

Dan

Eva Knardahl is awesome. Her recordings of Grieg -in superb sound from BIS- are landmark status. Wasn't she pianist for the Minnesota Orchestra for some years?

Well indeed, no argument.

Here you go:

Argerichfan, yes Eva was the pianist for the Minnesota Orchestra for 15 years. She returned to Norway at the end of her career to record the Grieg piano works. One other fun note, she recorded most of the pieces on a Bosendorfer 275.

Dan

Josef Rheinberger's Piano Sonatas were completely new to me when I found this CD of Antonio Pompa-Baldi playing the first 3. The music is absolutely amazing. These are some of the finest post-Beethoven Sonatas that I've heard. They're much different than the Brahms and Schumann Sonatas; Rheinberger's are more Classical in structure.

The 3rd Sonata, Op.135 is just plain stunning. I can't recommend it too highly. The score was scanned by the Sibley Library:

Rheinberger Sonata No.3 in E flat, Op.135




Mel

Well, you didn't say classical

so even though that seems to be the direction so far...for this post, let me contribute by adding some non-classical wonderful solo piano CDs:

Keith Jarret's: The Koln Concert
Brad Mehldau's: Elegiac Cycle

Glenn Gould's 1955 Goldberg Variations (Sony)

Well, Pianist is a pretty charged term. My favorite keyboard player of all time would have to be Jordan Rudess, a progressive metal keyboardist famous for his work with Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment. Incredible creativity, incredible form and technique, and just an unparalleled overall sound makes him my number 1 inspiration. But while he is certainly a "Pianist," he is by no means some kind of classical performer.

what about bernd glemser's rachmaninov cd? worth checking out!

Yes she was. At the time, the Minnesota Orchestra was known as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. Antal Dorati was conductor for most of her many years here. She did a lot of collaborative work around Minneapolis. A very memorable appearance for me was with the Danish tenor turned baritone, Aksel Schiotz, in Schubert's "die Winterreise." It must have been more than forty years ago, and I've been to hundreds of excellent concerts since, but this one stands out.

Tomasino

Evgeni Bozhanov, his Chopin op.60 is the best i have ever heard:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jptOIW_8DjQ

Paulena Carter playing light classicals on an old LP called: (97 keys." The odd thing is they say the piano is a Bechstein and yet no one thinks Bechstein ever made a piano with this may keys. So...maybe it's really a Bosendorfer.

The great news is this is now available at Amazon.com with free samples. Digitally remastered MP3s. I bought the whole package for a little over 8 dollars.

Best piano sound I've ever heard! The old LP is still available but pricey. Of course even better sound via good stereo equipment.

Bech

Sweet Dreams & Starlight by David Nevue. Saw him in concert and love his music.

http://www.amazon.com/Sweet-Dreams-Starl...1944&sr=8-7

Zimerman is one of my favourite pianists, especially for Chopin. His 2 CD Brahms set has long been deleted and isn't likely to ever resurface again because Zimerman feels it doesn't represent him at his best (despite the fact that the Sonatas won him a Gramophobe Award) - ditto for the marvellous Chopin 14 Waltzes which only ever appeared on LP/cassette. Luckily, I've never lent them out to 'friends'...

My other favourite pianist, a very different kettle of fish altogether, is Mikhail Pletnev - his Mussorgsky Pictures is truly amazing, his Scarlatti Sonatas quite unique in its coloristic range and brilliance, his Tchaikovsky Concertos and piano works (including his own transcriptions of the ballets) is still the best around. All in superb digital sound too.

I'm relative new to classical pianists but two I like very much are: Valentina Lisitsa and Lola Astanova. I do like Argerich and others but what I like about these two is how they have gone out of their way to make lots of their playing available--for free on YouTube and at their sites! It's just tremendous to be handed such value for nothing.

Of course their being on video makes it more special in that you can not only hear how good they are but also see it.

The good and great classical pianists amaze me with their ability and have my respect for the very high "price" they had to pay for that ability.

Bech

Although I don't really have any favourite CDs of pianists, two that do come to mind are:

Radu Lupu playing Schubert Impromptus (a beautiful CD)

Pollini playing Webern, Prokofiev and the Stravinsky Petrushka (a wonderful disc)

My old and never failing favourites: Brendel playing Schubert Impromptu's, the old one!, Ashkenazy playing Chopin's Ballades on his first Decca, Zimermann-Brahms sonatas, Gilels Chopin 1st concerto on Melodya, as well as his Weber 2nd sonata, as well as his Medtner 5th and Glazunov 2nd sonata's, Lipatti with everything he did, Cortot's Barcarolle, Anda's Paganinivariations, as well as his Liszt sonata, Hamelin's Alkan.

I totally agree with you on Martha Argerich and DG. I have the DG cd of her playing Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto / Tchaikovsky's 1st piano concerto with conductors Kiril Kondrashin and Riccardo Chailly. I also have her debut CD with Liszt's B Minor sonata. I cherish both cd's and listen to them often.

Have to agree on that. Love the 1955 version, even though Gould himself later dismissed it as being "too youthful".

Thanks for that suggestion! I picked up this recording and you are right. The third Sonata is a fantastic piece. Very nice indeed.