Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner PW's 10 Greatest Pianists of 20th Century

1. Richter
2. Gilels
3. Sokolov
4. Gould
5. Horowitz
6. Michelangeli
7. Zimerman
8. Solomon
9. Argerich
10. Ashkenazy/Brendel (I can't decide!...)

Hehe, should be interesting to see how this Richter vs. Horowitz plays out.

GODOWSKY (because of his "chopin" from carnaval !)
arrau
backhaus
rachmaninoff
fischer
kempf
richter
cziffra
lhevinne, j.
serkin

edit: whoo, i forgot horovitz... hmm, between richter and cziffra

1. Horowitz - 95
2. Richter - 92
3. Gould - 64
4. Gilels - 46
5. Rachmaninoff - 44
6. Sokolov - 29
7. Argerich, Rubinstein - 24
8. Arrau, Brendel- 23
9. Zimmerman - 19
10. Michelangelli, Cziffra - 15


Updated! Many neck and neck! The giants are starting to pull away!

Interesting to note so far Gilels and Richter both top 4, both students of Heinrich Neuhaus who was student of Godowsky and possibly Arrau or Cortot I've heard..I forget.. maybe I am wrong though.

Richter and Horowitz neck and neck though!

This is an imposible task, but here we go...

1. Gilels
2. Michelangeli
3. Lipatti
4. Kapell
5. Sokolov
6. Rubinstein
7. Cortot
8. Argerich
9. Moravec
10. Tureck

About the Liszt thing I think it's very tempting to mention him. It is true that I've never heard him play
How can you mention someone you never heard play and say that he's "your favorite"?

No pianist today has the reputation that Paderewski had in his day.
I would argue that there are two reasons for this. The first is that the community clings to a past it can never recover, constantly professing the quality of [those who are dead] and refusing to hail [those who are alive]. The second is that the community has dwindled to a great degree (at least partly due to the first reason). So, it would be impossible to garner that kind of fame today, even if someone were a better pianist than "Paderewski" (to use your example).

The sterile, pounding performances of today can't equal the musicality of some of the great artists of the first half plus of the 20th century--at least IMHO. Equaling Hofmann's or Rosenthal's technical ability would be difficult for most of today's performers.

Varcon, when were you born? I won't say what I want to say until after you tell me...just in case you are over 65.

The giants are starting to pull away!
Not really...in his day, Rachmaninoff was every bit a giant as Horowitz, and he's not "pulling away" from anything.

At least Victor Borge made the list for a time. "[Laughter,] that's my only reward. The rest goes to the government." --Borge

1. Horowitz - 98
2. Richter - 96
3. Gould - 64
4. Gilels - 56
5. Rachmaninoff - 51
6. Sokolov - 35
7. Arrau - 32
8. Rubinstein - 29
9. Argerich - 27
10. Michelangelli - 24



Updated! Wow, Brendel's been kicked out

There ar ea few that are stil in the running that could come back with another vote or two such as Borge, Fiorentino, Zimmerman, Moravec, Paderewski, Cortot, Hoffman, Schnabel, Godowsky, etc most of them all have over 10 points and with a few votes can make it into the bottom somewhere, Borge and Hoffman actually lead those under achievers.

Heh, don't mean to be picky, but the numbers are a little off. I think some of the updates by other members might have been off a little if you've been refering to them for the count.

(and yes I'm too lazy to go count them all myself ..sorry )

This is probably going to be a very controversial list of favourites but here we go.

Vladimir Horowitz
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Valentina Lisitsa
Evgeny Kissin
Sviatoslav Richter
Vladimir Askenazy
Grigory Sokolov
Alexander Scriabin
Claudio Arrau
Glen Gould

nonono they are all right

I meticulously checked and double checked them, someone posted an update before that had one or two slightly off calculations that you might be referring to but I didn't use their update after having realized that.
Plus a few updates back I miscounted Rubinstein and so one update didn't have him on the list then the next update he magically appeared but like I said I corrected that so the rest should be perfect.

1. Ivo Pogorelich
2. Mikhail Pletnev
3. Zoltan Kocsis
4. Evgeny Kissin
5. Sviatoslav Richter
6. Martha Argerich
7. Simon Trpceski
8. Michelangeli
9. Alexei Volodin
10. Nikolai Lugansky

I'll take your word for it then. I found where I miscounted Horowitz, someone added him in in a note at the bottom of their list.

1. Gilels
2. Richter
3. Rachmaninoff
4. Horowitz
5. Kapell
6. Rubinstein
7. Sokolov
8. Lipatti
9. Zimerman
10. Argerich

Derelux: My point is that someone mentioned these pianists belonged to the 19th century and not the 20th. Paderewski died in 1941, Rachmaninoff in 1943, Hofmann in 1957, etc. That means that Paderewski was in the century for 41%, Rachmaninoff 43%, and Hofmann 57%. Some, like Horowitz, covered most of the century, and some were 'middle' and some of the latest ones cover maybe less that 30%.

The post asks for opinions of the 10 for the entire century--not just the latest or the last half. I listen to many and I have recordings of Friedman (yet to be mentioned), and the others. It is easy to compare and determine a personal preference. I think that is what the post is about. I was just seconding David Ramezani's preferences. So, if you think I'm mentioning them out of deference to their age--nope--their musicality. It's easy for recordings of today to be 'doctored' in the studio and correct a mistake electronically. In the days when those artists mentioned recorded it was often a 'one-time shot' with no altering. Now they have many 'takes' and the fiddling with the controls is continual. And I've heard some fine pianists live as well and some pretty awful ones.

Anyway, if you've only listened to pianists of the present era, then you need to give the others a chance as well.

i can't beleive michelangeli hasn't figured near the top, anyway here is my favourites:

1. michelangeli
2. gould(for bach)
3. argerich
4. pollini
5. pletnev


i find it difficult compare poorer quality recordings with later ones

here are some of my faves

lipatti
cortot
gilels
friedman
perahia
goode
agerich
moiseiwich
casadesus
kempf

Oh damn I forgot good old Freddie Kempf. Squeese him in between Arrau and Gould.

I am not particularly surprised that he is not on anyone else's list, but I would put on any list, on the basis of his importance, his recorded output, and his work to advance his craft, Gerald Moore.

1. Gilels
2. Richter
3. Horowitz
4. Arrau
5. Michelangeli
6. Zimmerman
7. Rubinstein
8. Cziffra
9. Kempff
10. Rachmaninoff

Thanks for avoiding my question and trying to lecture me instead.... :rolleyes: