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Topic: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?  (Read 20044 times)

Offline mephisto

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #50 on: August 16, 2005, 05:48:42 PM
In no particilar order.

Rubinstein
Horowitz
Gould
Pollini
Argerich
Arrau
Andsnes
Gilels
Richter
Gieseking

Sorry Hamelin I love you to  :'( If I could put eleven I would have put you up as soon as possible. :)

-The Mephisto

Offline mwarner1

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #51 on: August 16, 2005, 07:09:12 PM
In no particular order...

Pollini
Argerich
Gieseking
Michelangeli
Solomon
Kempff (not Kempf)
Hungerford
Casadesus (French!) ;)
Gilels
Richter

Other favorites:

Arrau
Horowitz
Ashkenazy (sometimes)
Rubinstein
Barenboim (sometimes)


(Note how all my choices play good Beethoven --  :))

Offline practicingnow

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #52 on: August 17, 2005, 04:55:14 AM

After considerable thought, here's my list (in no particular order)...

Horowitz
Fiorentino
Berman
Lipatti
Gilels
Watts
Rubinstein
Cliburn
Schnabel
Anievas
I find this group the most musically satisfying overall...

I always like Cziffra, but his musical taste is too often questionable to be put on a list of 10 greatest

Hamelin seems to make everyone's list, but I feel a great pianist should be able to play the masterpieces of Chopin or Beethoven or Mozart extremely well, not just Alkan and Godowsky, etc. (even though I like them very much also), and he can't

Rachmaninoff is so close to being on the list, so is Friedmann and Kapell...

This topic is always fun  : )

Offline MattL

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #53 on: August 17, 2005, 05:51:51 AM

Horowitz
Pletnev
Ashkanozy (If I spelled it right thats a plus)
Lugansky
Argerich
Zimmerman
Lisitsa
Osetinskaya
Fiorentino
Pollini

Offline mephisto

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #54 on: August 17, 2005, 08:19:16 AM

Ashkanozy (If I spelled it right thats a plus)

It is Ashkenazy ;)

-The Mephisto

Offline Waldszenen

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #55 on: August 18, 2005, 12:35:12 PM
Jorge Bolet

Feel the love
Fortune favours the musical.

Offline thracozaag

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #56 on: August 18, 2005, 01:45:21 PM
Might as well chime in (even though these kind of lists are rather silly):

Kapell
Lipatti
Gilels
Moiseiwitsch
Cziffra
Cortot
Horowitz
Bolet
Sofronitsky
Hofmann

  ...plus about a million other pianists.

koji
"We have to reach a certain level before we realize how small we are."--Georges Cziffra

Offline tompilk

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #57 on: August 18, 2005, 06:53:12 PM
My favourite is definitely Horowitz...
Working on: Schubert - Piano Sonata D.664, Ravel - Sonatine, Ginastera - Danzas Argentinas

Offline pianistimo

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #58 on: August 18, 2005, 07:38:28 PM
richter
pollini
michelangeli
my teacher (carl cranmer)
pogorelich
murray perahia
argerich
jean-ives thibaudet
barry douglas
barry douglas






Offline dmk

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #59 on: August 18, 2005, 11:42:01 PM
This is so hard..!!! I like so many pianists for different reasons

Arrau (earlier)
Bolet
Kapell
Hough
Kiernan-Harvey
Gilels
Hewitt
Howat
Lane
Lipatti
"Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence"
Robert Fripp

Offline krittyot

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #60 on: October 22, 2006, 06:14:58 AM
John Rusnak

Definitely one of the best!
To be is to do (I. Kant)
To do is to be (A. Sartre)
Do-be-do-be-do (F. Sinatra)
Yabba-Dabba-Doo! (F. Flinstone)

Offline ksnmohan

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #61 on: October 22, 2006, 06:57:55 AM
Horowitz
Uchida
Gould
Richter
Ashkenazy
Rubinstein
Rachmaninoff
Previn
Kempff
Gilels

Prof K S (Mohan Narayanan)
Musicologist, Composer, Teacher
Chennai (Madras), India

Offline cloches_de_geneve

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #62 on: October 22, 2006, 08:55:02 AM
Wilhelm Kempff (not Freddy Kempf)
Grigory Sokolov
Maurizio Pollini
Alfred Cortot
Sviatoslav Richter
Mikhail Pletnev
Murray Perahia
Alfred Brendel
Myra Hess
Sergio Fiorentino*

*To those who are surprised by this name: I also discovered Fiorentino only recently. His playing is simply magnificent. Too bad he had such an erratic career not playing in public or recording for decades.
"It's true that I've driven through a number of red lights on occasion, but on the other hand I've stopped at a lot of green ones but never gotten credit for it." -- Glenn Gould

Offline _____

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #63 on: October 22, 2006, 10:53:39 AM
Claudio Arrau
Alfred Brendel
Glenn Gould
Sviatoslav Richter
Daniel Barenboim
Alfred Cortot
Koji Attwood
Vladimir Horowitz
Mitsuko Uchida
Emil Gilels

If Yundi Li sticks around a while longer, he'll be right up there as well.

Offline asyncopated

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #64 on: October 22, 2006, 08:40:28 PM
in no particular order,

bach,
chopin,
liszt,
schumann  (before he broke his hand) / clare is not bad either
beethoven,
clementi,
scalartti,
my teacher -- she's very good
me -- I'm no good but what's there not to like?

Offline jakev2.0

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #65 on: October 22, 2006, 09:03:34 PM
1. Horowitz
2. Cziffra
3. Gilels
4. Hofmann
5. Gould
6. Lipatti
7. Rachmaninov
8. Richter
9. Hamelin
10.Moiseiwitsch

My list has changed a bit in the last year:

1. Horowitz
2. Gould
3. Rachmaninov
4. Schnabel
5. Moiseiwitsch
6. Hofmann
7. Friedman
8. Gilels
9. Cziffra
10. Lipatti

Offline infectedmushroom

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #66 on: October 22, 2006, 10:25:53 PM
Random order:


Perlemuter
Kissin
Pogorelich
Berezovsky
Richter
Kemal Gekic
Volodos
Cziffra
Horowitz
Sergio Tiempo

Offline opus10no2

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #67 on: October 23, 2006, 01:41:29 AM
My list has changed a bit in the last year:

1. Horowitz
2. Gould
3. Rachmaninov
4. Schnabel
5. Moiseiwitsch
6. Hofmann
7. Friedman
8. Gilels
9. Cziffra
10. Lipatti

Wisdom comes with age, as does ignorance.
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https://www.dasdc.net/

Offline ccnokes

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #68 on: October 23, 2006, 03:04:20 AM
ME.  ME.  ME.
"Maybe there's something more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good-looking." --Zoolander

Offline burstroman

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #69 on: October 23, 2006, 04:38:18 AM
In no particular order:
Arrau
DeLarrocha
Schnabel
Hess
Richter
Lupu
Rubenstein
Lipatti
Gould
Rosen

Offline mikebechstein

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #70 on: October 23, 2006, 11:20:28 AM
1.   Horowitz
2.   Rachmaninoff
3.   Cortot
4.   Lipatti
5.   Richter
6.   Hoffman

7.   Perahia
8.   Moiseiwitsch
9.   Gilels
10.   Arthur Rubinstein

I cannot really separate Horowitz and Rachmaninoff and they should be equal first.

I also think 1-6 are my piano gods and that there is a big leap in quality between them and the last four who are outstanding but not quite in the same league. I could name at least 10 more pianists who are as good as 7 – 10.  For me, numbers 1 – 6 have, without exception, been interesting (even when I haven’t loved the interpretation) in every recording I have ever heard of them. I cannot say that about any other pianists except my top 6.

I would also like to mention a special case of Gerald Moore who does not get mentioned enough on these pages and, were it not for his limiting himself to accompaniment (for want of a better word), would possibly be in the top 10 list. I would love to hear him in some solo works (especially Schubert) and maybe some Mozart concertos.

Noticing that only one of my top 10 is still alive (and I know that many pianophiles think he is overrated) it begs the question: Are pianists today giving the (informed/educated) public what we actually want?

Più Vivo

Offline arensky

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #71 on: October 24, 2006, 12:38:44 AM
Posted in this last year. Without looking back, I will vote again.

Horowitz
Richter
Michelangeli
Gould
Kapell
Rubinstein
Hofmann
Cortot
De Larrocha
Argerich
=  o        o  =
   \     '      /   

"One never knows about another one, do one?" Fats Waller

Offline beethoven2

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #72 on: November 20, 2006, 05:50:38 PM
Beethoven
Chopin
Mendlessohn
Handel
Bach
Mozart
Hayden
Hans Zimmer(21st century)
Rimsky-Korsakov
Rachmoninov
~__ />
 /\ /\        The Horsey ROCKS!! 

(curtosy of rach n bach)

Offline beethoven2

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #73 on: November 20, 2006, 05:54:03 PM
*Rachmaninov
~__ />
 /\ /\        The Horsey ROCKS!! 

(curtosy of rach n bach)

Offline gidselgrisen

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #74 on: February 01, 2007, 11:06:53 PM
In no particular order:

Horowitz (bleh)
Rachmaninoff
Rzewski
Aimard
Gould
Kuerti
Zimerman
Hamelin
Francois
Richter
Moiseiwitsch

ok...that's 11...and...yeah...I could think of more...

DLu

Good to see somebody remembered Samson Francois  :)

Offline gwk

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #75 on: March 31, 2007, 01:22:35 PM
In order:

1. Pachelbel
2. Beethoven
3. Chopin
4. Debussy
5. Bach
6. Mozart
7. Brahms
8. Haydn
9. Handel
10. Listz
To play the music, you must become the music...

Offline mephisto

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #76 on: March 31, 2007, 02:00:06 PM
In order:

1. Pachelbel
2. Beethoven
3. Chopin
4. Debussy
5. Bach
6. Mozart
7. Brahms
8. Haydn
9. Handel
10. Listz

Maybe you are old enough to have heard all of these people play the piano, but I think you may have confused pianists with composers.

Offline gwk

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #77 on: March 31, 2007, 02:08:32 PM
Maybe you are old enough to have heard all of these people play the piano, but I think you may have confused pianists with composers.

Sorry.  :)
To play the music, you must become the music...

Offline jonze701

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #78 on: March 31, 2007, 03:04:54 PM
1:LISZT!
2:tchaikovski
3:chopin
4:rachmaninov
5:wagner
6:Grieg
7:volodos
8:paganini
9:ravel
10:gershwin
Playing Atm:
Liszt: Liebestraum
Brahms: Hungarian Dance 1 Duet.
Mozart:Rondo Alla Turka

Offline mephisto

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #79 on: March 31, 2007, 07:32:07 PM
1:LISZT!
2:tchaikovski
3:chopin
4:rachmaninov
5:wagner
6:Grieg
7:volodos
8:paganini
9:ravel
10:gershwin

You have never heard Liszt play the piano.
You have never heard Tchaikovsky play the piano.
You have never heard Wagner play the piano.
You have never heard Paganini play the piano!
You have never heard Chopin play the piano.
Ravel was a terrible pianist.
And I doubt that you have ever heard Gershwin and Grieg play the piano although recordings of them are available.

Offline jakev2.0

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #80 on: March 31, 2007, 08:34:32 PM
QUISUISJE?

Offline mephisto

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #81 on: March 31, 2007, 09:07:31 PM
Busoni

Offline mephisto

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #82 on: April 02, 2007, 09:27:28 AM
Was it correct?

Offline sevencircles

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #83 on: April 02, 2007, 06:34:27 PM
Quote
[Hamelin seems to make everyone's list, but I feel a great pianist should be able to play the masterpieces of Chopin or Beethoven or Mozart extremely well, not just Alkan and Godowsky, etc. (even though I like them very much also), and he can't/quote]

I have a strong feeling that Hamelin can do better when playing standard repertoire in General.

He has stated he doesn´t practice more then 3 very effective hours a day these days and that time is propably mostly spent on perfecting the motorics and technique.

Offline tompilk

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #84 on: April 15, 2007, 10:01:03 PM
hamelin does play standard repertoire - I have a feeling that he has got quite a few people into Haydn, including me who has spurned all pre1800 music. It is truly superb cd - and Haydn is pretty standard rep.. He is releasing Beethoven's final three sonatas and Schubert D 960 later in the year - we can then see. His beethoven supposed to be not very good but his Schubert is supposed to be godly.
Tom
Working on: Schubert - Piano Sonata D.664, Ravel - Sonatine, Ginastera - Danzas Argentinas

Offline prongated

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #85 on: April 16, 2007, 06:30:57 AM
Of those I have actually heard recordings/performances of, in no order:

Schnabel
Kempff (W)
Bolet
Fleisher (he was great before he stuffed up his hands...)
Pletnev
Rubinstein
Cziffra
Perry (his D960 = AMAZING!)
Vlassenko
Soriano

Offline dmburke007

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #86 on: February 12, 2010, 10:06:59 PM
1-Arthuro Michelangeli Benedetti
2-Arthuro Michelangeli Benedetti
3-Arthuro Michelangeli Benedetti
4-Arthuro Michelangeli Benedetti
5-Arthuro Michelangeli Benedetti

6-Rachmaninov
7-Richter
8-Alexis Weissenberg
9-M. Pollini
10-Dinu Lupatti

Offline weissenberg2

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #87 on: February 12, 2010, 10:19:23 PM
1.Weissenberg
2. Gould
3. Moiseiwitsch
4. Michelangeli
5. Pletnev
6. Rachmaninoff
7. Zimerman
8. Cherkassky
9.Horowitz
10. Kapell
"A true friend is one who likes you despite your achievements." - Arnold Bennett

Offline alpacinator1

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #88 on: October 08, 2015, 01:42:57 AM
In rough order, and at the moment, as my opinions tend to change

Alfred Cortot
Maria Yudina
Emil Gilels
Vladimir Sofronitsky
Annie Fischer
Alicia de Larrocha
Vladimir Horowitz
Claudio Arrau
Maurizio Pollini
Murray Perahia
Working on:
Beethoven - Waldstein Sonata
Bach - C minor WTC I
Liszt - Liebestraume no. 3
Chopin - etude 25-12

Offline ajlongspiano

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #89 on: October 08, 2015, 01:52:24 AM
Daniil Trifonov, Alfred Cortot, Ignaz Friedman, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Babayan, Sviatoslav Richter, Grigory Sokolov, Glenn Gould, Vladimir Horowitz, and Arthur Rubinstein.

Offline pencilart3

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #90 on: October 26, 2015, 09:21:38 PM
Krystian Zimerman, Rafal Blechacz, Maurizio Pollini, Vlademir Ashkenazy, Yuri Rozum, Idil Biret, Evgeny Kissin, Pascal Roge, Eric Lu & AJ Long.
You might have seen one of my videos without knowing it was that nut from the forum
youtube.com/noahjohnson1810

Offline rubinsteinmad

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #91 on: October 27, 2015, 12:02:24 AM
Krystian Zimerman, Rafal Blechacz, Maurizio Pollini, Vlademir Ashkenazy, Yuri Rozum, Idil Biret, Evgeny Kissin, Pascal Roge, Eric Lu & AJ Long.
FINALLY, SOMEONE PUTS 2 AMERICANS IN THEI LISZT

Offline irrational

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Re: Who Are Your Top 10 Favorite Classical Pianists?
Reply #92 on: November 16, 2015, 09:09:05 AM
So many choices especially for specific works.

Gilels
Schiff
Perahia
Pollini
Richter
Zimmerman
Shelley
Ashkenazy
Horowitz
Melvyn Tan - I saw him perform once. He was spectacular.
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