The best female pianists today

[eduard]

Who is the best female pianists today in your opinion.
For me: Argerich, Virsaladze, Zilberstein.

[kreso]

MARTHA ARGERICH!!!!!!!

She is the best!!

Also I like Olga Kern (her Rachmaninov disc is amazing), Eliso Virsaladze (her Schumann is the best!) and of course Mitsuko Uchida (the best living performer of Mozart (and Debussy' Etudes also))

I love Alicia de Larrocha but I did't know that she is still giving recitals..

And I recently heard Polina Leschenko, she is superb, maybe she'll be like Argerich in the future-she has a fire!!

[quantum]

Angela Hewitt!!!  Probably one of my most favourite Bach performers. 

[brahmsian]

Other: Helene Grimaud

......and Martha Argerich of course

[arensky]

I wanted very much to vote for Senora de Larrocha but she has retired, and evidently was not playing well    and since your subject stipulates "today", my choices were...

1. Martha Argerich. The greatest living pianist period IMO, man woman or vegetable.
2. Elisso Virsaladze. Brilliant in all the repertoire, particularly Schumann and Beethoven
3. Helene Grimaud. An extraordinary talent, hopefully she will live up to her potential and continue to grow and develop as an artist. Listen to her "Credo" album, it shows her off in a variety of repetoire...

Why the segragation? Are women in some sort of a seperate class? I have never seen "the greatest male pianist" thread...why is that?   

[pianistimo]

thanks for the suggestion of elisso virsaladze!  will take a listen.  i think helen grimaude is the first woman that i've heard live.  i don't think women are in a separate category, there's just less of them professionally making careers in performance - therefore it is easier to pick one you like. 

it's odd, but i've never heard an artist play chopin better than a female friend in college (who may well be playing recitals again).  i remember her playing ballades, etudes, and sonata and getting so transfixed - and she transfixed her audiences too.  there was absolutely no background noise when she played.  also, she told a story in her playing.  you could hear the unfolding.  the b minor sonata has stuck in my head forever because she caught the audience with a sort of angst passion i never heard before and never will again.

[Floristan]

I wanted very much to vote for Senora de Larrocha but she has retired, and evidently was not playing well and since your subject stipulates "today", my choices were...

1. Martha Argerich. The greatest living pianist period IMO, man woman or vegetable.
2. Elisso Virsaladze. Brilliant in all the repertoire, particularly Schumann and Beethoven
3. Helene Grimaud. An extraordinary talent, hopefully she will live up to her potential and continue to grow and develop as an artist. Listen to her "Credo" album, it shows her off in a variety of repetoire...

Why the segragation? Are women in some sort of a seperate class? I have never seen "the greatest male pianist" thread...why is that?

I'm with you, my friend -- your selections and your comment.

[pianistimo]

elisso virsaladze (also spelled wirsaladze - i think) is very good! i like her bass.  and, the energy she has.

[etudes]

check out some more (for young age!)
Ayako Uehara,Yu Kosuge,Polina Osetinskaya,Sa Chen,Joyce Yang

[pianistimo]

i've heard joyce yang - and she's very good, too.  will listen to the others if they have recordings.  thanks for the list! 

[arensky]

check out some more (for young age!)
Ayako Uehara,Yu Kosuge,Polina Osetinskaya,Sa Chen,Joyce Yang

I have Osetinskaya's recording of the Mozart Concerto #24 in c minor K.491. At first I didn't like it but the more I listen to it I really admire her playing. It's strong without being harsh, and it's very well proportioned. She gets a good tone out of the piano, and I can hear that she is very effective in  literature up to Debussy, although this is the only recording of hers that I've heard. She's very good!

[apion]

Oh Martha!

[brokenagraffe]

Pires and de Larrocha all the way. 

[stevie]

where is valentina lisitsa?

argerich is no1 though

[musicsdarkangel]

ditto with the Pirez + la Roccha comment.

Unfortunate that Pirez is mispelled, I almost missed it.

Biret is great as well.

SCREW UCHIDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*cough* sorry

[demented cow]

I agree that Valentina Lisitsa is worth mentioning, though there's no way she's up there with Argerich. Her homepage:
www.valentinalisitsa.com/valhome.html
I find her Chopin etudes (I mean the audio-only free downloads) on average as musically and technically good as most of the other sets.
Her 10/5 suggests she may be an improvisational talent: She has a concentration lapse but improvises her way back into the piece so cleverly that you wouldn't notice the lapse if you don't know the piece.
Don't judge her by her video of the Don Juan, which has too many wrong notes to be listenable. Most of the other stuff I've heard from her is much better.

[leewsumner]

I would absolutely add a not-already mentioned musician named Masycheva Maria to the list of great female pianists today.

Her rendition of Mozart Piano concerto No 20 K.466. at the Concours Géza Anda 2012 is fabulous.

[qpalqpal]

Alicia de larrocha has a certain elegence, an air of respect and of having a task: perform the work as its supposed to. When you listen to her and see her play, you think "so this is how it ought to be played."

And why female  pianists? Because they are a minority and the major pianists were all male. There were many woman pianists but not many concert pianists. Its like living in the U.S. and descripting somone as "black". ex/ "I met this black man by the name of ... so on and so forth". You wouldn't say "I met this white guy at work".

Its not racist or sexist. Its distinction between majority and minority.

[roninsamarov]

https://www.ranker.com/list/top-15-female-pianists-alive/pianolover

Top 15 are listed here for vote... The contenders, spanning 3 generations, in alphabetical order.

Martha Argerich
Yulianna Avdeeva
İdil Biret
Imogene Cooper
Anna Fedorova
Hélène Grimaud
Angela Hewitt
Olga Kern
Polina Leschenko
Valentina Lisitsa
Maria-João Pires
Mitsuko Uchida
Anna Vinnitskaya
Yuja Wang
Marina Yakhlakova

https://www.ranker.com/list/top-15-female-pianists-alive/pianolover

[beethoven_ii]

I know that Valentina Lisitsa's ability is debated on this thread, but at least put her on the poll and let the votes decide. I bet all 7 "some others" were for her

[pianoplunker]

Who is the best female pianists today in your opinion.
For me: Argerich, Virsaladze, Zilberstein.

I like Gabriela Montero

[stevensk]

Martha Argerich
Yuja Wang
Yeol eum son
Valentina lisitsa

[visitor]

Yeol eum son

word up. I felt alone in my chiming in Yeol's name here and there. glad someone else agrees!!

her Kapustin is tops in my book, one of the very select few i think really 'gets' it, feels it right

[ahinton]

word up. I felt alone in my chiming in Yeol's name here and there. glad someone else agrees!!

her Kapustin is tops in my book, one of the very select few i think really 'gets' it, feels it right

Certainly stylish work. Kapustin does rather tend to do the same kind of thing a lot but his grasp of a certain kind of jazz composition has a kind of consistent elegance for which you can quite easily forgive any such sens of possible repetitiousness. Hamelin is good in this repertoire too, as indeed is its composer himself.

Interesting and hardly surprising to see that Martha A. still seems pretty much to retain her longstanding position at the top of the female pianists' list!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Hamelin is good in this repertoire too

Nice to find something he hasn't desecrated

Thal

[ahinton]

Nice to find something he hasn't desecrated

Mon Dieu, you really do have it in for Mister Ham, don't you?!

Best,

Alistair

[diomedes]

Interesting and hardly surprising to see that Martha A. still seems pretty much to retain her longstanding position at the top of the female pianists' list!

Seems absolutely absurd, but i discovered an affinity to Martha Argerich after all these years. I have not been spending much time with listenings in the past as i should have, so in some ways that's not much of a surprise.

Very unfortunate that she withdrew from solo presentations fairly early on.

Yuja Wang does occupy my interest in some ways, but i still don't know what to make of her as a whole yet.

[toughbo]

Pires, Wang and Chochieva for me, the latter's chopets are the best total set I've heard.

[stevensk]

Sukyeon Kim, one of the best pianists tomorrow?

[stevensk]

..and HJ Lim, the most interesting pianist today?

[visitor]

Certainly stylish work. Kapustin does rather tend to do the same kind of thing a lot but his grasp of a certain kind of jazz composition has a kind of consistent elegance for which you can quite easily forgive any such sens of possible repetitiousness. Hamelin is good in this repertoire too, as indeed is its composer himself.

Interesting and hardly surprising to see that Martha A. still seems pretty much to retain her longstanding position at the top of the female pianists' list!

Best,

Alistair

she continues to amaze me. by far in my top 3 for fav pianists (ie not just female, but anyone, in any genre)
this diddy seems to have popped up a few mo's ago and I somehow missed, glad I found it