Which pianists do you feel have consistently the most beautiful tone on their youtube recordings?
Posting s few specific youtube examples would be good.

Do you feel they also have as beautiful tone on their recordings and live performances?

For me, two that seem to have especially beautiful tone are Gilels and Volodos.

Gilels
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQtLgjZCEbQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu06WnXlPCY


Volodos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMxnv9hGAZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqkA6Qp51s4&feature=related

I only heard Gilels once live and I heard Volodos maybe three times live. Unfortunately, all these recitals were too long ago for me to remember how I found their tone.

Analyzing "tone" would seem to me to be a highly subjective exercise fraught with uncontrollable variables. Given that the impression of tone is, to a large degree, determined by the recording medium used, the piano, the recording venue, and the listening equipment, I would hesitate to base analyses of pianists' tone on YouTube recordings, whether they come from "live" or from studio recordings.

Regards,

I understand but I chose youtube recordings because everyone can listen to them. I don't think it's really just chance that someone like Gilels, who I think is known for his golden tone, also sounds great on youtube.

I don't think it's probable that a pianist with poor tone will sound good on youtube although it's possible that a pianist with good tone could sound poor.

I would say this clip of Feltsman is one.....the encore to a recital, starting at 1:13:43

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woGiow2a8Yk&feature=related

Here a couple of clips that are my favorites with regards to tone when played forte.

Evgeny when he was too young to drink.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4C2VRp1yBk8&feature=channel_page

Here he is much older playing the same piece. A darker less strident tone, but the same incredible articulation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcF4HrfF_xw

The clip below: once you're past the wolves howling at the beginning there's a short clip of Grimaud playing Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no2. I would love to have heard this live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJag7yeVQNU&feature=channel_page

Needless to say, youtube is not the greatest audio medium by any stretch. I am hoping to see Mr. Kissin in March when he performs in SF to get a live perspective.

Perhaps Mr. Kissin will treat you to dazzling encore such as this ?

One just revels in his fulsome tone- it must have been quite an exciting moment of which the YouTube video suggests.

I was a bit disappointed that last time I heard Kissin live, but it's been a few years. Hope you will report about the SF concert in March.

I went looking for examples on YouTube in answer to your question. As I was perusing the available stuff, I came across something that shows how much damage YouTube can do to a pianist's reputation.

I have enjoyed Michelangeli's Chopin Recital on CD for years. Probably it is my favorite recording of classical music. At home on the CD player, it sounds as if the piano is being played by a god. The notes are crystal-clear and gorgeous enough to bring tears of joy. As he plays the Ballade, and I listen on CD, I wonder if somehow Apollo has come down from Olympus to give us a treat: the piece is bursting with passion, brilliantly clear, a muscially rich interpretation with astonishing unity and beauty. The man must have had the most incredible ear. Listening to that CD makes it very easy to understand why some people compared him with Liszt, and you think they probably were not exaggerating.

Then I came across this hideous-sounding entry on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKwN_7LnXHw&mode=related&search=

Compared to the CD, that YouTube sound is just wretched. No wonder so many people commented that they did not like it.

I was also utterly surprised at seeing his demeanor. When I heard him playing The Ballade on CD, I had pictured a pianist in the grips of high passion. When I saw him on YouTube, he looked...well, not nearly as animated as the music had led me to expect. I guess all the passion was expressed in his fingers. I wonder if it might not be a different performance, but I think it is the same thing with low quality sound.

It makes me think that maybe a concert pianist must also be something of an actor. Or maybe I am just nitpicking because I was so surprised. I don't know.

Anyway, I highly recommend the Michelangeli Chopin Recital CD, but the YouTube video sound really stinks. It's ashame that probably a lot more people will see the YouTuber than hear the CD. Michelangeli deserves better.

I guess instead of answering your call for beautiful recordings on YouTube, I told you about one that is really bad compared to the CD. My apologies. Yet there it is.

Surely it's a different instrument, but guitarists seem to be more recognizeable to me. Obviously pianists do not play the same piano often, but I've heard guitarists (classical, flamenco or electric) on different equipment and they usually keep their "sound".
I don't have much experience on piano tone, but one pianist i think i could recognize is Richter, even if most of the music i've heard from him was recorded live and in very different circumstances, i assume.

So my question is to what extent is the tone down to the pianist, and to what extent to the instrument , sound engineer, etc ....?

Also, i saw Kissin in November, he was amazing, but the grand in the Auditorium in Madrid is agreed to be quite lame and thin sounding. The only guy i've been able to hear over the orchestra on that piano was Denis Matsuev, who looks like an NFL player.