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By any reckoning, Argerich would most definitely be ranked among the titans. While her artistry may not be to everyone's taste, there is no denying her mastery of the piano and her musicianship. Even her detractors cannot take that away from her and most readily concede it. The Chopin International Piano Competition, Warsaw, is noted for not having awarded many first prizes. Only a handful have been awarded in their history and she is one the rarefied few first prizewinners.

I'm a little surprised by the rankings at this point -- Argerich at second is actually somewhat of a nice surprise for me, even though it was not me who put her there. I was fully expecting Richter to be higher or second and he is trailing quite a bit. It's my understanding that Richter is the pianist that invented post-1950s piano style.

Just going to throw that out there...

Vladimir Horowitz (the best. I enjoy everything I've heard from him)
Emil Gilels (Nails everything he plays)
Andras Schiff (Gorgeus Chopin prelude in D-minor)
Wilheim Kempff (Best in Beethoven)
Arcadi Volodos (Best Rach 2 ever.)

Just remember that the original post asked for our most beloved pianists - not the ones we thought were the greatest or the most influential, or groundbreaking. For me that means the pianists I love to hear playing the music I love to hear . I've no idea who does the best Rach 3, for example, and it explains why Geoffrey Parsons is on my list.

Why do you state an opinion as if it were a fact?
If by a "titan" you mean something like one of the top 10 pianists of all time, then I would say many would disagree. This is not to say I don't think Argerich is a very great pianist.

If you look here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Frederick_Chopin_Piano_Competition#Prize_winners

you'll see that in the Chopin Competition the 1st prize was awarded in all but two years.

Vladimir Horowitz
Martha Argerich
Sviatoslav Richter
Arthur Rubenstein
Roger Woodward

But of course that was just the jury's opinion too, wasn't it?

I was responding to a poster who said the first prize was rarely awarded. My post shows this statement was not correct.

As far as the jury deciding the prize(s) in a competition and their decision being based on their opinion ...yes, that's true but so what???

Indeed, Argerich has walked out on a jury. One wonders about the drama queen factor. Would have loved to have been there for what must have been a great show...

Keith Jarrett
John Arpin
David Thomas Roberts
Peter Jacobs
John Lenehan

Updated thru ander's post and also alphebetized and separated the lists to make them more digestable. The fun facts are wrong as of yet, but I will update them (and will get whoever's lists I haven't yet) sometime tomorrow.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned Bolet!

Check this out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2yoZQCLoSY

That's probably because of the limit of only five. I definitely thought of including him...and would have it we were allowed fifty names, which to my mind would be more reasonable.

And I'm surprised Alicia de Larrocha only got one vote. In her heyday, I think she could play rings around anyone who's been listed here. In addition to her, my list would include Rubinstein, Arrau, Bolet and Firkusny.

As Wikipedia also mentions, she won the Busoni and Geneva competions, too.

She was included in the Phillips label's "Great Pianists of the Century" series of recordings, which may have had a few weird choices, but she wasn't one of them.

FWIW, i would have put her as #6.

I would guess that people haven't been exposed to her as much? I myself have mostly listened to her Mozart, which is great, but not my favorite. I did hear a recording of her doing the Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto though, did she play the heck out of that thing. It was jaw-dropping. One performance doesn't quite get you in people's top 5 though.

I hate to point out the obvious, but piano competitions are hardly a good measure of whether a pianist plays in a way that the audience wants to hear or not. I can think of many jokers that have won even the Tchaikovsky.

I stand corrected about the Chopin Competition not awarding many first prizes. It's just that in the years 90 and 95 when I was following the competition closely, none were awarded. As for competitions not being a good gauge, I never said they were. It was merely a comment on somebody else's posting about whether Argerich had ever won one and the subsequent response that she won first in the Chopin in 1965. It is a fact that having won the Chopin First puts her in pretty illustrious company though.

I've just read back over my posts on this thread from over the past week--good grief could I have been more hostile???

Jason, I apologize for having misread your first post and for the righteous indignation scattered all over the rest of the page. To me it sounded like I was being sarcastically labeled as underexposed and inadequately educated, but it sounds like that was far from your intent.

To be a good sport I will be giving Argerich a listen this week.