What makes a pianist sound good?

[adagio1]

I would much rather listen to a simple piece done well than a complex piece done without skill.   I know everyone has a different musical taste.... I also know most people do not know why they like one performer and not another.   Some of my students have sounded great and some not... but they all want to know just why some sound so fine and why some do not.    Standard answers are that the performer must be well prepared, have good technique, etc....   What are the very most important items that make audiences appreciate one musician more than another?   I am sure members of this forum have many answers and that while there may be no one final answer.. that we all would benefit from a variety of answers.
Put simply..... what makes a pianist sound great?

[pianistimo]

part of it must be the instrument and for some, like me, familiarity with it.  i've not often had the luxurious experience of a bosendorfer or steinway that is in new or good condition.  but, once you have experienced that - even if you are a halfway good musician - you can sound a lot better than on the usual upright or wacked out grand in the practice room.

what i don't understand is how performing artists can sometimes play on an instrument they are completely unfamiliar with.  of course, for others (hearsay from the steinway factory) they are in control of the exact piano, the exact touch, the exact tone and probably the exact tuning. 

then, there is the 'zen' of really good performing artists - that for me is simply prayer.  you know - i think everyone has a bad day once in a while. but there are those great moments that you play or hear someone else play really really well.   your fingers are limber, they do exactly what you want, what you hear in your head comes out, and you feel sort of 'guided.'  i've only felt this maybe twice in my life - and i think both was due to praying before playing.  so, i call this the spiritual side.

then, there's the physical.   exercise, diet, rest.  maybe the other 'zen' is finding a balance in your life so you exude the most relaxation to your audience.  if you are uptight, then the audience will be uptight (right?)  andre watts may be the extreme (and perhaps afew others)... since he looks like he's sitting down to a cup of tea and from the neck up you just look at his head (i've done this at a recital of my piano teacher, too) and he looks like he's just admiring the scenery (unless it's a really difficult passage and there's sweat dripping down his nose).   

perhaps learning to control your nerves is another aspect.  some people smoke, some drink, but for me - it's a banana milkshake.  the fight between adrenalin and breathing is  a learned thing.  if you get breathing too fast, it's not good.  so you have to control your breathing.  first to get yourself relaxed and then to control your nerves - and get into that performance mindset.  the best thing i found was to reconcile in my head the possibility of a mistake and have the alternate plan for those unexpected jumps to the next few measures, bars, or page.  once everything is settled in your mind, then you start.  if you start too early or without thinking - i think it makes the pianist look bad and sound bad.   who wants to hear a broken record when you get to that spot you worried about and can't get past it. 

[cfortunato]

[[Standard answers are that the performer must be well prepared, have good technique, etc....   What are the very most important items that make audiences appreciate one musician more than another?]]

Feeling, feeling, feeling.  I have seen technically skilled musicians get no response whatsoever.  Then someone with less skill will sit down, play one arpeggio, and the whole room will start listening.  If the less technically skilled musician feels the music more than the finger wizard, and is able to communicate what he feels to the audience, the audience will respond.

Usually, the audience doesn't CARE how hard it is to play.  They just care what it sounds like.

[bearzinthehood]

All it takes is a good ear and discipline.

[forevere2]

Yea most of the slow pieces I play are very beautiful (at least that's what I've been told). However, I try very hard to practice those fast songs cause they are just so much fun. My chopin etudes definately need more practice, but I don't have much time to play. On the weekends I could possibly play about 2-3 hrs, but on weekdays at only 1 hr max. I've stopped taking piano lessons for a few years now when I did so I was probably palying pieces like the fur elise... etc. After that I just jumped right into these difficult songs, which ended up badly, but after learning a few of the hard songs such as fantasie-improptu and scherzo in b-flat minor, etude op.10 no1, the other things came in easily.

All in all, I feel that beautiful music is highly subjective, but it ultimately depends on your inner feelings. Your mood influences the music. So play music that your in the mood for and it'll better suit you.

[jas]

If I knew the answer to that I'd be a happy pianist.

I think if the answer is too complicated, it can't be right.

[gruffalo]

if the answer is simple, it cant be right.

[yoshiki]

Play with your heart of course.
AND PLAY ON A PIANO THAT SOUNDS GOOD 

[pizno]

Articulation, tone control, shaping, LEGATO, evenness of tone, voicing, emotion, dynamic range, no tension, not striking the keys, sensitivity.  So many things go into making one pianist sound better than the other!  As Josef Hoffman said, there are no bad pianos, only bad pianists.