Who Would You Most Like To Have Seen/Heard Perform?

[bach-liszt]

My top three to see in person would be:

    1.) Bach playing the organ;

    2.) Liszt playing the piano; and

    3.) Art Tatum playing the piano.

[henrah]

Rachmaninov, Liszt and Chopin. I would kill to see and hear Chopin play some of his pieces, to hear exactly how he played them and to hear the true nature of the piece.
Henrah

[raskolnikov]

1.)  I would love to hear Bud Powell, before his incident with the NY police.

2.)  Michelangeli playing privately.

3.)  Some of the ledgendary cutting contests:
       a.  Art Tatum vs.  Willie "the lion" Smith,  James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and anyone else with enough courage to go against him.
       b.  Liszt vs. Thalberg.

[tompilk]

Definitely Liszt vs Thalberg - a private session with Liszt would be truly amazing.
Watching Alkan play would be mind-blowing i guess, seeing as Liszt was amazed by his technique!
I suppose my final one would have to be left open because I'm unwilling to devote myself to one of many other pianists and composers I love!
Tom

[bach-liszt]

3.)  Some of the ledgendary cutting contests:
       a.  Art Tatum vs.  Willie "the lion" Smith,  James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and anyone else with enough courage to go against him.
       
 

Great choice!!   When Tatum came to New York in the early 1930's he created quite a stir.  Even the great Fats Waller had to concede that Tatum was the greatest.

[jas]

• Chopin. I'd rather hear him that Liszt because there have been so many pianists since Liszt with incredible techniques that he probably wouldn't be quite as impressive today as he was then. But the accounts of Chopin's playing are very interesting, I'd love to hear him play his own works.
• Bach improvising on the organ. I can't even comprehend being able to improvise a 6-part fugue! Well, I doubt I could play one...
• Oh, alright, Liszt. If only to get to witness a load of elegant nineteenth-century ladies fighting over his gloves.

Jas

[tompilk]

hahahaha... yes. I would just like to be in teh presence of a dominating Liszt figure...

[ted]

Waller.

[houseofblackleaves]

Although I would have really liked to see Rachmaninoff perform in person... you can find his recordings all over the place.

Chopin or Rach... I don't know..


I just would want to hear how they meant their music to be played, and how much we've massacred it over the years. 

hehehe...

[henrah]

I just would want to hear how they meant their music to be played

That's the main reason why I want to see the composers I mentioned play. Chopin especially, as I read somewhere that Chopin asked for strict rubato use, i.e. very little. I would love to hear how he made his pieces sound, without any rubato.
Henrah

[Waldszenen]

• Bach doing one of his four-hour improvisations on the organ
• Liszt playing... well, anything
• Anton Rubinstein also playing anything

[andyd]

I'd add to many of the above...

Dinu Lipatti



Andy

[jehangircama]

1. Liszt playing any of his own compositions
2. Chopin playing any of his compositions
3. Beethoven playing Appasionata

[shoshin]

Bach playing Brandenburg concerto  no. 5
Bach playing Toccata and Fugue in D minor
Bach just improvising sh*t.

Beethoven just playing whatever he wanted to on the piano (before going deaf)
Beethoven playing Fur Elise...because I just cant believe he composed that piece.

[mandel]

Liszts face expression listening to Prokofieffs third concerto. He would love it.

[demented cow]

-Beethoven improvising, but on a modern piano.  The audiences found it very moving, and it also sounds like he played like the psycho man from hell.
-Dreyschock playing Chopin 10/12 at full speed in octaves.
-Hofman & Godowsky around 1900. By all accounts amazing, much better than the records.
-Tatum
-Liszt & Chopin of course.

[infectedmushroom]

- Scriabin playing some of his Etudes
- Liszt playing Mazeppa and Feux Follets
- Chopin playing all of his Etudes/Preludes Op. 28


 

[arensky]

I've answered this in a similar thread before, but again...

Chopin

also,

Liszt

Beethoven

Mozart

Bach

Rachmaninov

Josef Hofmann

William Kapell

Michelangeli

Ossip Gabrilowitsch; my piano tuner years ago heard all the greats from the 20's and 30's in recital, and he said Gabrilowitsch was the best of them all; makes me curious

[da jake]

I think of this question the following way:

Who would you just like to chill with in front of the piano? i.e., them just talk to you and demonstrate, play around with stuff on the keyboard.

Bach and Gould  or Alkan and Liszt
 

[elevateme]

richter 10/4 all the way

[thorn]

Debussy playing pretty much anything. I have some piano rolls of his so technically i have heard him... but its not the same.

[pianistimo]

beethoven.  i don't know why.  bach seems, well, too distant.  liszt seems too close.  beethoven seems to speak from eternity to eternity.  suppose many feel that way about bach.  i just don't.  the fugues, though i LOVe to play them, are not 'natural.'  do you ever hear a bird sing a fugue?  only when there are two or three and they come in at different times.  but, they dont' follow it all the way through.

i hear the wind in the trees, the birds, a stream, a path, light, darkness, spiritualness, everything 'classic and romantic' in beethoven.  i hear pathos, yearning, fulfillment, eagerness, wandering, idealized love - i guess much of the same stuff as schumann.  can i change my answer to beethoven /schumann?  guess they were much like bach, as they thought vocally as well as for keyboard.

[gyzzzmo]

Liszt and Chopin, definitly.