most over- and underrated pianists!

[sevencircles]

Most overrated: David Helfgott, Artur Schnabel

(Popular music) Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis

Most underrated: Leslie Howard, Simon Barere

(Popular music) Howard Jones, Allan Wilder ex. Depeche Mode "both classically trained pianists"

[viking]

I definately agree with David Helfgott, but not Schnabel.  Many MANY judges and adjudicators hold Schnabel in the highest regards.  Not just ordinary judges either, these are judges with Doctorates from the best music schools across the world.  Schnabel is the best recording of beethoven to base a performance from.  One would never want to be exactly like Schnabel, but one can take his ideas, and change them ever so slightly to make them fit yourself.  This is how you win comptitions.
SAM

[sevencircles]

I thought Schnabel played the Slow parts in the Beethoven sonatas too slow and the fast parts too sloppy (Hammerklavier in particular).

I didn´t agree with his playing of my favorite sonata (Pathetique) in particular.

I would call him overrated If this was the best Schnabel could.

Any more names to add?

I would add Alfred Brendel in the overrated category

[Waldszenen]

Overrated: Yundi Li, Lang Lang

Underrated: Petrov, Kapell

[presto agitato]

I would add Alfred Brendel in the overrated category

WHY?

[sevencircles]

I didn´t like the way Brendel played most of the Beethoven Sonatas.

Just like when I heard Schnabel´s recordings I excepted very much of Brendel.

[Waldszenen]

I love Brendel - beautiful tone, IMO

[mlsmithz]

I don't know what to think of Brendel, as when I heard him perform live a year ago there was a strange reverberation in the auditorium that distorted the sound of the piano, preventing me from really hearing the music properly.  To this day I don't know what was causing it.  Anyway....

Over-rated: David Helfgott, Lang Lang.
Under-rated: Leslie Howard.... perhaps Hamelin?  His choice of repertoire (i.e., the most technically difficult pieces ever written) seems to keep him from a wide audience.

[orlandopiano]

Overrated pre-1960: Artur Rubinstein
Underrated pre-1960: Jose Iturbi

Overrated post-1960: Alicia de Larrocha
Underrated post-1960: Krzysztof Jablonski

[pianohopper]

Underrated: Nelson Freire from brazil
fabulous romantic pianist

[pita bread]

Overrated: Lang Lang, Evgeny Kissin

Underrated: Emanuel Ax, Michael Habermann, Angela Hewitt, John Ogdon, Vladimir Sofronitsky, Emil Gilels, Alfred Cortot

[montiverdirocks]

Remember that we can't base how good a performer truly is on whether or not we agree with their interpretations.
Overrated (and I mean really- OVERRATED)- Lang Lang. What has this world come to that this guy is even remotely famous?
Underrated- Lazar Berman- overshadowed by his contemporaries such as Richter and Gillels, but great Liszt playing and a fabulous Rach 3

[steinwayguy]

Over-rated:
Vladimir Horowitz
Marc-Andre Hamelin
Maurizio Pollini
Glenn Gould
Martha Argerich
Mei-Ting Sun

notes: Horowitz's Liszt is abysmal; Marc-Andre Hamelin's anything is abysmal, Pollini is stale and steely; Gould is a disgrace to Brahms, Mozart and anything else not Bach (and even some Bach); Argerich has some amazing Ravel, Prokofiev and Bartok but doesn't quite cut it in anything else; Mei-Ting, just wretched all over the place; Lang Lang was not mentioned due to the fact that a lot of people hate him.

Under-rated:
Sviatoslav Richter
Dubravka Tomsic
Alfred Cortot
Me

notes: Everyone should consider Richter the greatest recorded pianist; Dubravka Tomsic has some obscenely good Scarlatti; Cortot, bad technique my ass; I am amazing.

[Skeptopotamus]

omg hamelin's sorabji sonata No. 1 is magnificent.


overrated:  Mei-Ting, Lang Lang, Vladimir Horowitz, Van Cliburn, EVGENY KISSIN omg he sucks....


underrated: Pierre-Laurent Aimard.  Can't stress this enough.  Best pianist ever.

[orlandopiano]

Over-rated:

Mei-Ting Sun

Not sure what you mean by this. Who is rating Mei-Ting? He's not even recorded anything.  Last I checked he was still in school and competing in competitions. How can he be "over"rated?

(And by the way, even if he *was* rated, he'd deserve every positive thing said about him. I think he is terrific)

[steinwayguy]

Not sure what you mean by this. Who is rating Mei-Ting? He's not even recorded anything. Last I checked he was still in school and competing in competitions. How can he be "over"rated?

(And by the way, even if he *was* rated, he'd deserve every positive thing said about him. I think he is terrific)

Well when he won the Chopin competition and I said "he didn't deserve to win because he wasn't the best musician", everybody was like "omg mei-ting is liek 4wesum!!!!111"

[orlandopiano]

overrated:  EVGENY KISSIN omg he sucks....

I am beginning to think we need to change the name of this board to the "over exaggeration board".

I don't have a problem with you feeling Kissin is overrated. But you can't possibly think he "sucks".

[orlandopiano]

Well when he won the Chopin competition and I said "he didn't deserve to win because he wasn't the best musician", everybody was like "omg mei-ting is liek 4wesum!!!!111"

I don't think he won THE Chopin competition did he? Wasn't it the one out of Miami?

[musicsdarkangel]

Overrated - Artur Rubenstein (i'm sorry.), Lang Lang, Jeno Jando (yuck, so many dry recordings), Gould (sorry again. his Bach rocks), Mitsuko Uchida (come on, why the hype?  For Mozart, go Emanuel Ax, Alicia De La Roccha, Maria Joao Pirez)


Underrated - Charles Rosen, Vladimir Ashkenazy (even though he's huge), Maria Joao Pirez, Joseff Lhevinne, Earl Wilde, Krzysztof Jablonski, Marc Andre Hamelin, William Kapell, Emil Gilels, Claudio Arrau, GARRICK OHLSSON

all of the great pianists who never made it.

[MattL]

Overated: Horowitz, Lang Lang, Kissin,

Underated: Lisitsa, Lugansky, Leslie Howard,Pires

[jhon]

underrated - licad, kurschnerova

[sevencircles]

Jeno Jando (yuck, so many dry recordings)

All the budget CD.s right. But the number of works recorded by Jeno Jando must soon be up to Richter level, right?

Speaking about  Richter, I don´t think he is overrated and I don´t think he is the greatest pianist. Sometimes he played incredible but he was very uneven.


"perhaps Hamelin?  His choice of repertoire (i.e., the most technically difficult pieces ever written) seems to keep him from a wide audience"

Hamelin has been one of the most talked about players during the past 10 years. There are a lot of much better kept secrets in the pianotechnique world like Sweden´s Fredrik Ullén for instance.

Another one for the underrated list is Marian Pivka

[barbosa-piano]

 I think that the underrated ones are:
Marian Pivka (great recordings of Chopin's piano concertos)
 Ida Cernecka (In my opinion one of the best performers of Chopin's music)
Nelson Freire (I heard his recordings of Schumann and Chopin when I was in Brazil, absolutely great)
Guiomar Novaes (Outstanding Brazilian pianist, a virtuoso)
Peter Schmalfuss
Josef Bulva
and many others...

 I don't think anyone is way overrated, it is hard to tell.

[alhimia]

Overrated: Kissin, Lang Lang, Volodos

Underrated: Pires, Lupu, Frederic Meinders - this dutch guy is simply one of the greatest pianist in history, he is at least definitily on the same level as Horowitz. It's a pity many people don't know him...

If anyone is interested, this is a link to a website containing a little fragment of one of his own dazzling transcriptions:

https://www.musicaintermedia.com/english/index_eng.php

then, go to Frederic Meinders and click on 'sound clip'

go and have a look

[alhimia]

I forgot to mention Jorge Bolet and Youri Egorov (and probably many others), these are also very underrated pianists...

[Waldszenen]

Some more;

Underrated: Jorge Bolet, Shura Cherkassy, Byron Janis, William Kapell

Overrated: Leslie Howard, Leslie Howard, Leslie Howard, Evgeny Kissin, Leslie Howard.

[Pronske]

Overrated:  Lang Lang

Underrated: Earl Wild

[hodi]

Overrated : Lang Lang , Evgeny Kissin (kissin got such a DEAD sound, same about lang lang, something is just wrong with their playing!), Horowitz (he is good, but he is overrated)

Underrated:  Klara Wurtz (i bought some cd's of her playing schumann, along with perahia, she is the only one that  can play the 3rd movement of schumann concerto without leaping in the difficult parts, and her schumann sonatas are excellent),  Yundi Li (he is so much better than Lang Lang and get much less attension), Richter (well not really underrated but i think he is better than horowitz)

[sevencircles]

Volodos

It´s not easy being the labeled the greatest pianist in the world when you are on alcoholaddict that didn´t start to play until you were 17.

Can anyone imagine how good Volodos would be if he started to play the piano at 3 and skipped the drinking?

I believe that he could be the best ever actually!

[alhimia]

It´s not easy being the labeled the greatest pianist in the world when you are on alcoholaddict that didn´t start to play until you were 17.

Can anyone imagine how good Volodos would be if he started to play the piano at 3 and skipped the drinking?

I believe that he could be the best ever actually!

I don't agree with that.
If Volodos started playing from 3 years old, he would probably have a great technique (which add in fact nothing, because he now has a great technique) and a lot of repertoire more.
It's like Volodos said himself: "In the end it depends on how you deal with music".
This is very true, and this is also the problem with Volodos.
He plays Skrjabin, Rachmaninoff and some Liszt very well (although in my opinion there are from each piece several better versions), but a couple of months I heard him perform Beethoven sonatas; It was horrible. There was absolutely no line, no expression, and the balance between left and right was simply not there at all. at times it was a totally mess. If I would play it like that in front of my own teacher, I am sure she would almost try to kill me. The late Scriabin he played was a little bit better, but the Fantasy (early Scriabin) was also not good, which indicates, I think, the reason why he doesn't play Chopin. He also never plays Debussy, Ravel, Bach... so what does he play well, except for his virtuoso transcriptions (which are nearly almost the same; in 2006 he will play the 2nd Hungarian rhapsody in Horowitz version, which he played also 8 years ago, and so are many of his transcriptions) and some rather poor pieces by Rachmaninoff, Schubert and Brahms? very few...
Of course I agree that he has really a lot of talent and I admire what he does, but he is very very far from a great artist. Check out his younger collegue Severin von Eckardstein, he has almost everything Volodos does not have.

[orlandopiano]

It´s not easy being the labeled the greatest pianist in the world when you are on alcoholaddict that didn´t start to play until you were 17.

Actually Volodos started to play piano at around age 8, and from what I've heard he picked it up quite naturally.  And he began serious study at age 15.

[pita bread]

To say that Gould is overrated because his Brahms isn't great is just as absurd as saying Cortot was a horrible pianist because of all the wrong notes in Chopin 10/1.

Talk about faulty analogy

[Waldszenen]

Volodos was an alcoholic?

[steinwayguy]

Talk about faulty analogy

Well said.

[sevencircles]

[Actually Volodos started to play piano at around age 8, and from what I've heard he picked it up quite naturally.  And he began serious study at age 15./quote]

Not  really true. Volodos was studying conducting and vocals and possible spent a few minutes fooling around on a piano before that but that´s it. He didn´t abandon conducting and singing to study the piano seriously until he was 17.

[hodi]

The problem with Arcadi Volodos is that he wastes his time on ENCORES and TRANSCRIPTIONS instead of deeper music like beethoven sonatas,brahms concertos, etc...

he released an encores cd, he is just doing encores all the time and doesn't expand his (small) repertoire.

[sevencircles]

Many people thought that Volodos would turn to the greatest pianist in the world after the transcriptions and Carnegie Hall debut arrived.

His alcoholaddiction changed everything unfortunately.

[Waldszenen]

Can someone expand on his alcohol addiction? I've never heard of it. Is he still an alcoholic?

[musicsdarkangel]

Volodos has IMO one of the sickest techniques there is today.  Comparible in my mind to Hamelin, Cziffra, Gilels, Ashkenazy, etc.


I am sad to hear about his alcoholism, and had absolutely no idea.


His Rach 3, although it makes me sick, is unbelievable technically, and he has so much potential.

It's too bad that he's immature.

[hodi]

download arcadi volodos-  concerto 2001 from emule (if u want i can send it to you)
after u see it, u will NEVER think volodos has a bad technique, it's certinly the video with the most virtuosic ability i have ever seen.

[sevencircles]

Is he still an alcoholic?

He is cancelling concerts pretty often due to his drinking problem.

Hodi:Please send the Volodos file to magikern_andy@hotmail.com

[musicsdarkangel]

download arcadi volodos-  concerto 2001 from emule (if u want i can send it to you)
after u see it, u will NEVER think volodos has a bad technique, it's certinly the video with the most virtuosic ability i have ever seen.

please!

Kingsha@yahoo.com

[dmk]

Underrated

Stephen Hough: no question totally underrated and he is excellent!

[steinwayguy]

Underrated

Stephen Hough: no question totally underrated and he is excellent!

Agreed.




I wouldn't mind the Volodos file either...check the profile for e-mail...

[hodi]

//

[eusebius27]

Underrated

Stephen Hough: no question totally underrated and he is excellent!

Seconded.  He is a thoughtful musician who invests a great deal into his craft.

[dave santino]

Overrated: Yundi Li

Underrated: John Ogdon, Murray Perahia, Stephen Hough, Craig Sheppard

[steinwayguy]

Overrated: Yundi Li

Underrated: John Ogdon, Murray Perahia, Stephen Hough, Craig Sheppard

Mmmm, Murray Perahia. Over-rated I think you mean to say. That man is totally fake. And if you're going to record the Chopin Etudes one measure at a time, you could at least make them different from Pollini's. Oh, but Perahi is different from Pollini! Yeah, it's slower, and that's about it. Thanks Murray, thanks a lot.

[Waldszenen]

I like Perahia for the most part but I find some of his recordings can be a bit redundant, even lifeless at times.


An underrated pianist would be Louis Lortie - he plays really well.

[dave santino]

Perahia's Beethoven Concerti are brilliant, especially no. 2. H emanages to keep the technical aspects of the piece from outshining its musicality, which is extremely hard to do imo.