Hoffmann
Liszt
Cziffra
Richter
Sokolov
Alkan

Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Beethoven
Glenn Gould

To support your thought - although I had some recordings (and thought they were respectable but rather dull), I had really had no idea of what Brendel was doing with Beethoven until I heard him live, and then I finally understood what the fuss was about. It was some of the most amazing music-making I ever expect to hear. But hearing him live was not guaranteed bliss for everyone - I know of other people who heard him live and just couldn't sync up with what he was doing.

I've heard Goode live too, and the playing was, for the most part, several notches more involving than his recordings. But I will say, it did seem to get a bit facile here and there. Still, definitely worth the price of admission.

Of the living pianists I have not yet heard live, here is a random list of ten I would bother to cross the street to go hear:

Eliso Virsaladze
Anne Queffelec
Nelson Freire
Anton Nel
Jeremy Denk
Dezső Ránki
Enrico Pace
Matti Raekallio
Michele Campanella
Mirian Conti

I'm in the fortunate position of having seen & heard live almost all the pianists whose playing I admire (including a few no longer with us, like Michelangeli). But to list those still living whom I'll always have time for, in no particular order:

Mikhail Pletnev
Yuja Wang (next year!)
Andrei Gavrilov
Ivo Pogorelich
Maurizio Pollini
Arcadi Volodos
Denis Matsuev
Lang Lang
Krystian Zimerman
Marc-André Hamelin
Grigory Sokolov

Oops! Is that 11?

Of the pianists who lived during my lifetime but who I never got to hear live, only Sviatoslav Richter, John Ogdon, Vladimir Horowitz and Earl Wild would have been on my list.

Since I hadn't paid attention to Sokolov's recording, I went and looked. I AM BLOWN AWAY: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UJsAN5FNBM&feature=related Probably the best performance of this work that I've heard on youtube. Amazing stuff! I can now see why people want to see Sokolov live.

ASAP:

Argerich
Lisitsa
Kocsis
Kissin
Hamelin

Time machine:
Liszt
Liszt
Liszt
Liszt
Liszt
Beethoven
Saint-Saëns
C. Schumann
Bach
Chopin

open bar

I think the post might benefit from elucidation.

If i had a time machine i'd most defintely traverse time to see the Liszt v Thalberg contest.

I didn't realise there were so many different Liszts!

with timemachine

Mozart
Beethoven
Chopin
Liszt
Scriabin
Rachmaninoff
Horowitz
Sofronitsky
Richter
Gould

I thought of putting Pletnev on my list, but then I remembered that he said some time back that he wasn't going to play piano in public ever again. AFAIK, he hasn't.

Argerich
Sokolov
Zimmerman
Perahia
Lupu
Goode
Denk

wish list from past
Liszt
Beethoven
Chopin
Hofmann
Horowitz
Gilels

Sokolov and Zimerman. There was a time when Argerich was on that list, but she'd probably cancel anyway, so why bother with her...

Bartok, Jason? Interesting!

I'd LOVE to see Rachmaninoff and Horowitz.

Welcome back.
And good "1st" post (or maybe it isn't 1st, I gotta look around some more.)

Time machine:

Liszt
Chopin
Busoni
Horowitz
Rachmaninoff
D'albert
Tausig
Rosenthal
Kapell
Lipatti

....and welcome back to you!! Been awhile, ain't it.....

I thought we were talking about active, living pianists, but those two ABSOLUTELY (believe it or not, Horowitz, more than Rach).

Yeah but I like to be creative =P

Not gonna touch that =p

Thanks--it's been a pretty busy spring/summer

I'd like to see you live, too!

Did he say why?
I remember that he changed his program some while back (could have been the last time I saw him play, a few years ago), substituting Tchaikovsky's G major Sonata for Prokofiev's 7th, because he was recovering from a finger injury. Maybe that's still causing him problems(?).

He's actually the one pianist I'd always pay to hear in recital, because he always think every note afresh (and sometimes provocatively), and never takes anything for granted - the most memorable recital I'd ever been to was by him, when he played Mussorgsky's Pictures (in his own version), and gave three encores, including Liszt's Mephisto Waltz No.1. I don't know of any other living pianist who would play that as one of his encores (on another occasion, Islamey was the 4th encore, after an already long program....he repeated that in Carnegie Hall too).

For me the top ones would definetely be the composer-pianists playing their own works: Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin etc. I'd lose a testicle to witness that.

C'mon.

I think I'd draw the line at lopping off body parts. No one is worth that!

Well, I'm not certain about gas mileage on time machines. At least 5 Liszt recitals at various points in his lifetime would be necessary before climbing back in for the others.