I would like to know what's your Top 5 pianists ever...in any kind of music.

At this time i would choose:

1- Chopin
2- Claude Debussy
3- Beethoven
4- Sergei Rachmaninoff
5- Thelonious Monk

You might be interested to read this thread from just a short time back.

Chopin. I love the way he plays his own stuff.

Thanks currawong, i'm new here...

You really, really need to restate the question. Because nobody living today has ever heard Chopin or Beethoven play the piano.

Are you asking about composers for the piano? If so, that's an entirely different question.

:D

Gould
Gould
Gould
Gould
Gould

In that order:)

1. Rubinstein
2. Argerich
3. Horowitz
4. Ax
5. Richter

Matt

Faves whom I've heard playing (mostly on CD)

1. Artur Rubinstein
2. Sergie Rachmaninov
3. Vladimir Horowitz
4. Vladimir Ashkenazy
5. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

IMHO.

1]My Mother.
2]Pope Benedict XV1
3]Sylvan Zingg
4]Abert Ammons
5]Vladimir Horowitz

1. Rubinstein
2. Horowitz
3. Pletnev
4. Arrau
5. Keith Emerson (I just had to throw that in for old time's sake... )

1. LL
2. LL
3. LL
4. LL
5. LL

(Sorry, I can't help that LL spelled backwards still reads LL.)

I'm Gould fan too ... IMHO no one should try Bach again.

If you let me pick another 4, they would be Horowitz, Arrau, Gilels, Kissin ... names not in specific order.

I guess I'll update my entry in the thread Currawong linked to.

Horowitz
Rubinstein
Gilels
Arrau
Cliburn



But by no means is the other list defunct; I like 'em all! :p

Gilels
Rubinstein
Ashkenazy
Richter
Argerich

in that order..i think

In order:

1- Ian Pace
2- Marc-Andre Hamelin
3- Vladimir Horowitz
4- Martha Argerich
5- Sviatoslav Richter

^Fair enough, no arguments. But I heard Andsnes recently... he just fried my innards. I was in awe. Of course he is a gorgeous looking man, but that sound... it is unlike anything in recent memory. And what musicianship... I shudder at the thought of it all...

at the moment I have to go with
Richter
Horowitz
Ashkenazy
Zimerman
Kissin

Gary Graffman
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Evgeny Kissin
Oscar Levant
Olga Kern

I already listed 5, but I must add Alexis Weissenberg.

No specific order:

Kissin
Horowitz
Wilhelm Kempff

1. Wanda Landowska - always insisted on playing the ragtime pieces of Scott Joplin in private while steadfastly refusing to play Bach on the harpsichord in public.

2. Liberace - dazzling performer and promoter of Memphis-style Blues (although some say he was far too conservative in attire).

3. Peter Nero - thrived on the music & styles of his personal heroes - the trend-setting Billy Joel, Jelly Roll Morton & Elton John (nos. 6, 7 & 8 on my list).

4. Jerry Lee Lewis - the epitome of perfect form with great leg placement (a 3rd hand, so to speak) on the keyboard.

5. Scott Joplin - insisted on playing only classical music in public while playing only the little known compositions of Wanda Landowska in private).

Regards, JF

P.S. the question should have been: ". . . who's [/b] your favorite . . ."

No particular order, and these are just the ones that come to mind immediately:
Martha Argerich
Mikhail Pletnev
Murray Perahia
Angela Hewitt

LL ? Current Music notation for Loud and Lousy

Do you ever stop complaining and bashing other people's opinions?

1. Alfred Brendel
2. Grigory Sokolov
3. Murray Perahia
4. John Lill
5. Yuriko Asada (my teacher!)

...there are so many more and I could change the order ad infinitum!

'The five best.....' (fill in) seems to be in vogue these days. In the case of pianists, it does not make sense to me to ask who are 'the five best'. This is for two reasons.

The first is that pianists play best what they most identify with. So one could argue perhaps who plays Brahms best, or Mozart, or Bach.

The second is whether we are talking about 'in performance' or 'on record'. A live performance exposes a soloist's personality in a way that a recording does not.

The best examples I have personally experienced refer to the violin.

I listened for years to Henryk Szeryng on record and thought he was one of the greats. One day I had the opportunity to experience him live, playing Brahms (my favorite violin concerto). What a disappointment. I realized later that I was reacting to the stage personality he projected, which I did not identify with. I could not put this out of my mind and focus solely on the music.

I've heard Gidon Kremer in recording play just about everything but never felt a connection with him. One month ago I experienced him live. What a difference! Now I understand why everyone raves about the guy.

Some pianists come over better in recording. A prime example is Glen Gould, who someone in this thread seemed very keen on. After a bout or two with the concert hall Gould refused to play in public again. Probably a good decision.

One pianist who made a great impression on me in my youth was Myra Hess. Presence? Cheez! She played something (I forget what) which ended with a single note, fff. She hit it with both thumbs and no sound emerged.
"MiKod!" she said, turning to the audience, "Ze E-Flat? Vere haz eet kone?"

Ah, those unforgettable moments.

Since I've pretty much identified myself in this forum as a Schumann fan I feel obliged in this thread to assert that the finest performance of a Schumann work I have ever heard (on record) is Maurizio Pollini's CD of the Sonatas.

1. Art Tatum
2. Cziffra
3. Francis Poulenc
4. Dimitri Shostakovich
5. Maurizio Pollini

Hear, hear ...

I remember I used to care deeply about this sort of thing, who are the top 3, top 5, etc ... Come to think of it, that's when I was in the kindergarten.

1. My Dad
2. Art Tatum
3. Volodos
4. Horowitz
5. Valentina Lisitsa

Thanks for your reply. I will agree with you as well. I limited myself to the 5, but I would have indeed included Piers Lane, Stephen Hough, Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Evgeny Kissin ...

The 5 I mentioned have something *too* good about them. I've seen Hamelin, Pace, and Argerich perform live many many times, and they have almost never dissapointed. Argerich has a mastery that seems supernatural. Pace plays the supernatural, and Hamelin's technique is supernatural. Horiwitz' tone and range of dynamics in my opinion is stupendous and under my eyes only Richter grasped this concept of dynamics as good as Horowitz did; and Richter was never formally trained as a pianist!!! He was expelled twice in his 1st year at the conservatory. The man was also a genius.

Pace is 1st on that list simply because every single time I see him play he puts on a good recital, and every recital was usually 'completely' different. I hear him play 'Grand Hotel' once and the crowd went nuts for that piece. 40 minutes long seemed to go by un-noticed.

My list of 5; I consider them all masters at what they do. Just listening to Argerich's rendition of 'Gaspard de la Nuit' gives me shivers!!!

xD

And just imagine Horowitz's Scarbo!! He played during the 1932-33 season and in 1940.

argerich
horowitz
rubinstein
askenazy
rachmaninoff

1. Martha Argerich

Liszt
Gould
Pollini
Lupu

(don't know whom i should put at 5th, so give up for now)

Aloha, William my good mate, how to explain the Argerich phenomenon? I once asked my piano teacher about her recording of the Liszt B minor. He just shook his head and mumbled: 'she has sex with Liszt'.

I'll never forget when I was 10 or 11, cannot recall exactly. I heard this utterly dynamite recording of the Liszt Eb concerto on Radio 3. It was Argerich, and that started my love affair with this fantastic woman. Subsequently such glorious women as Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Birgit Nilsson and Grace Slick came into my life. Yes, I was late to the party, but better late than never. Such riches in my life...

I'm still just discovering piano music, so I have to admit this is mostly based on watching/listening performances found on youtube.
They all seem to have total mastery over the music and the instrument. With these 5 pianists especially I feel there is unlimited potential. They could do justice to any piece by any composer and give it their own unique touch.

Like this one from Ashkenazy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI8KnHO2F8s&fmt=18
After the majestic ending chords I immediately realized I had just heard one the greatest things in my life ever.

horowitz
kissin
wilhelm kempff
blechacz

I don't understand why you would mention a pianist (though reportedly a complete master ) that no one alive today has heard play.

1. Vladimir Horowitz
2. Arthur Rubinstein
3. Cyprien Katsaris
4. Georges Cziffra
5. Maurizio Pollini

My favorite living pianist is Cyprien Katsaris.

Murray Perahia, Vladimir Ashkenazi, Vladimir Horowitz, Aimi Kobayashi

Not "top"(what does THAT mean?) but some favorites:
Ignaz Friedman
Benno Moiseiwitsch
Gyorgy Cziffra
Leon Fleisher
and--in the young whippersnapper category:
Vassily Primakov

1. Bill Evans
2. Herbie Hancock
3. Chick Corea
4. Michel Camilo
5. Jimmy Smith (B3, but close enough:))

Wow, that's interesting. Camilo has great ascending octaves in his right hand -which he struts out at every opportunity- but otherwise I'm at a loss to find anything of interest in his -admittedly- efficient piano playing.

Corea, Evans and Hancock IMHO should not be mentioned along with Camilo. That does them a disservice. Oh, and you forgot Fats Waller...

Richter Gilels Rubinstein Argerich

OMGOSH YES! Pletnev - the best.... and Chopin of course.

1. Larrocha
2. Rubinstein
3. Arrau
4. Sokolov
5. Richter

oh and I totally forgot about Alicia de Larrocha, and Helene Grimaud, and Keith Jarrett, and Earl Wild... can't fit 'em all in! And I have to confess to having a soft spot for Lang Lang - I feel the same way about Liszt's music, it's either sublimely beautiful or circus music.

No Richard Kastle fans ?

Seize this traitor! Clap him in irons!


If there is any pianist I hate, it's that pompous jerk Richard Kastle. I'll even take LL over that galoot any day of the week.

I cannot give you just 5, but I can give you 10.

All time - deceased:

Rubinstein
Horowitz
Gilels
Rachmaninov
Richter
Kempff
Sofronitsky
Bolet
Arrau
Hofmann

Still with us:

Argerich
Perahia
Pollini
Ashkenazy
Brendel
Goode
Lugansky
Sokolov
De Larrocha
Kissin

And up and coming....

Blechacz

And best of the "undiscovered"

Prats

And last but not least - the one I should be horse-whipped for forgetting in the first group above:

Michelangeli

This is an update to my previous list to include those pianists currently alive. These five are not in a particular order of preference.

Van Cliburn
Zoltan Kocsis
Leif Ove Andsnes
Marc-Andre Hamelin
Valentina Lisitsa (I'm captivated watching her play her 1925 Bosenforfer 275)

Horowitzian
Rubinstein
Richter
Argerich
lang lang!!

Has anyone mentioned Ivan Moravec? No better Chopin player alive to my ears.

Here he is

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL4ChhWLykk

i didn't know this guy ... will listen to ity when i get home

Not necessarily in this order...
Art Tatum...how many hands did he really use? Definitely more than 2.
Gould...i LIKE the humming. boo on the engineers for editing it out.
Elton John...great glasses, too.
Brendel...the 'Sean Kelley' of piano
Horowitz...Vlad the fingerer

Angela Hewitt
Emmanuel Ax
Idil Biret(specialized in Chopin)
Murray Perahia
William Joseph

The Others who I love to listen: Lang Lang, Pletnev, Kissin, Volga Kern, Gabriela Montero.

No way I could put them in order, but they are

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Vladimir Horowitz
Valentina Lisitsa
Martha Argerich
Louis Lortie

1) W.A.Mozart
2) L.V Beethoven
3) Elena Mouzalas
4) Chopin
5) Bach

:D

Horowitz
Rubinstein
Gutierrez
Curzon
Argerich

Passed Away:

-Liszt
-Horowitz
-Borge
-Chopin
-Czriffa
-Richter, Sviatoslav

Alive:
-MARTHA ARGERICH AHHHHHhahahahaahhhhhhh (girlsqueal)
-Evgeny Kissin
-Li Yundi
-Nobuyuki Tsujii
-Lang Lang
-Valentina Lisitsa isn't bad at all

Arrau
Ashkenazy
Brendel
Richter
Rubinstein

No one has mentioned Clara Schumann.

It's so hard for me to pick five, but Alicia de Larrocha has to be one of them.

Richter
Pollini
Argerich
Brendel
????? (reserved)

OSK
AngelinaP
Chobeethaninov
Kreisler
Entheo
......and sorry to the many that I forgot

Top 20th century:
1. Horowitz
2. Rubinstein
3. Cliburn
4. Brailowsky
5. Lili Kraus
....with dozens of others close behind.

I agree completely, but you got the order wrong. It should be . . .

Gould
Gould
Gould
Gould
Gould

Brendan!!!

Koji!!!!!!!!!

Baris!!!!!!!

Hmmm...There's gonna be more than five on my list:

Top Five Favorite Young Ones (in no particular order):
Aimi Kobayashi
George Li
Jan Lisiecki
Daria Korotkova
Annie Zhou

Top Six Favorite Old(er) Ones
Evgeny Kissin
Martha Argerich
Mitsuko Uchida
Wibi Soerjadi
Khatia Buniatshivilli
Daniil Trifonov

Top Five Favorite Dead Ones
Vladimir Horowitz
Arthur Rubenstein
Sergei Rachmaninov
Van Cliburn
Alfred Cortot

Two posters seems to think Van Cliburn is dead?

Prokofiev
Rachminoff
Brahms
Chopin
Liszt

Played BY:_____
Bolet
Arrau
Gutierrez
Argarich

That is hilarious.

How can someone's favorite pianist be someone they could never have heard live or on recording (Liszt, Brahms, Chopin, Clara Schumann, etc.)?

Played BY:_____
Bolet
Arrau
Gutierrez
Argarich

LOL I hope Van Cliburn won't see this thread...

Yeah, what kind of crap is that.....

WAIT A MINUTE......my post was one of them!!
Jesus! Obviously I screwed up, wasn't thinking.....I mean, I just said hi to him a few weeks ago....
(post fixed)

After I typed 'Horowitz' and 'Rubinstein,' I flipped into thinking just of the greatest pianists of the last century.

I know that you think I've done some bad posts, and at least in this case I have to agree with you.

You are right of course, but I would love to hear these masters play.

By the way, Brahms wasn't supposed to have been the most stellar pianist.

Yeah -- my impression is that he was quite good at first but then got sloppy.

And we never hear at all about Schubert at the piano, do we....I'd have to guess he was the least accomplished pianist of all the great piano composers.

Isn't there the famous story of his breakdown while performing his own Wanderer Fantasie?

I also wouldn't conclude that great composers for piano were necessarily great pianists. I read the Brahms simplified his own 2nd piano concerto for performances later in life. Enough recordings of Shostakovich exist that are musically fascinating and effective, if not always a little technically sloppy.

-Daniel

Oops! I was just thinking about pianists from 20th century and typed Van Cliburn. Nope Van Cliburn certainly is alive and kicking!

I think lots of people do -- at least the run in 3rd's near the end of the last mvt.....

And BTW if you 'simplify' it well, virtually nobody would notice, or think about it.
I worked on the concerto and played it for my teacher -- and I don't even remember if I 'simplified' that run....but whether or not I did, I sure didn't get all the notes.

Exactly what I did....

I believe Schubert didn't play his Wanderer Fantasy because of its difficulty as opposed to having a breakdown while performing it.

Brahms, from everything I've read was an excellent pianist early in life if perhaps not a great one. Shostakovitch was a child prodigy.

Virtually all the greatest composers for piano/other keyboard were excellent and often world class pianists/other keyboardists with the probable exception of Schubert.

The lists below are my personal opinion, but I doubt many would disagree with much of the first list. If I left a composer out it may be because I don't know about their pianistic'keyboard skill(Scarlatti, Haydn, Handel, etc.).

World Class Composer and World Class Pianist: Bach, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Bartok, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Medtner, Scriabin

World Class composer and Excellent Pianists:Schumann, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel, Albeniz.

Great Pianists but perhaps among the greatest composers:Clementi, Alkan, Moszkowski, Busoni, Godowsky, Rzewski, Franck, Messiaen, Gershwin, Ignaz Friedman.

My current favorites (subject to change)

-- Emil Gilels
-- Murray Perahia
-- Evgeny Kissin
-- Arthur Rubinstein
-- ??

don't forget Saint-Saens! He was apparently not only an extremely good pianist but one of the greatest sight-readers ever, maybe even on a par with Liszt. As well as an all-around accomplished prodigy in a number of fields.

Sophia

(recorded musicians only)
1) Nobuyuki Tsujii
2) Yundi Li
3) Evgeny Kissin
4) Martha Argerich
5) Rachmaninoff

Honorable Mentions:
Olga Kern and Marc Andre Hamelin

I don't disagree with any of this. You are spot on.

Hi there,

Sorry to inform, but De Larrocha has passed on.

Please note: this is IMO only!

I heard de Larrocha several times live in London, and of course I heard her many recordings. I never could understand what the excitement was all about. Her Mozart and Mendelssohn were appropriately effete -if this is how you view those composers- but in the bigger works, I never sensed much of an overall grasp of their architecture. Typical was the Chopin F minor concerto which seemed reduced to a lot of mincing 'personal' moments. I have never heard a more frustrating recording of that piece.

Her Bach 'Italian Concerto' had the most odd moments of emphasis, she was being so cute, and her Beethoven was competent without being striking in any sense.

Of course, she plowed her way through Iberia with insolent ease -hats off for that- but many pianists have matched that since.

In the grand scheme, I wish I had the tiniest fraction of her talent -and I have bigger hands!- but I cannot think of one recording by her which is not exceeded by another pianist, even Falla's Nights in the Gardens.

She was still alive when he posted... This is a resurrected thread.