which pianists performance(s) do you take to your heart?

[mila5405]

I'm curious ... isn't this the core of musicanship. Which pianist takes you beyond the horisont to new experiences? It's like a good speech, inspiring embodying visionary that takes you beyond your boundaries. Read between the lines of my stumbling words. This is the fuel, this is the energy that gives you the strengt to carry out  your goals. It's transmitted from great musicians all over the world to all musicians. An urge to take the message and carry it on to the next generation. You're the messenger, this should be you highest mission.
/Mike
P.S Happy new year!!:)

[m1469]

I will admit that, so far, those pianists whom have really "touched" me have been people whom I also tend to feel a personal connection with.  However, I have not necessarily felt touched by everybody that I have a personal connection with.   

There are about 4 or 5 pianists that I know of whose music I really feel I want to hear and listen to ... and sometimes that depends very much on what kind of person they are or have been to me (so my interest in these people's musicianship is a bit tempremental at times).  Often I am just not interested in what a "musician" has to say if they can't be a person with me.  On rare occasions I will first hear somebody's music and then wish to know the individual personally.

Anyway, I am not sure what all of that means (maybe it means I am approaching music from a wrong standpoint or that I just need to grow... or maybe I am exactly on the right track ... I am not sure).  I do know that at different points, things mean different things to me and that often times, what I "get" out of a performance will depend on a few factors within myself.

I have little interest in watching something like the Van Cliburn contest, for example.  Even though I know that these types of contests are swarming with people whom are considered to be outstanding musicians, generally, I just don't feel connected to these people and to their music. 

I generally wish for music to grab me and not let me go.... and that actually very rarely happens.

[rc]

For recodings, they're generally very well done, quite polished.  Sometimes ya gotta take it on a case-by-case basis.  Like Gould, who I often think does a great job of communicating but other times I think what is this?

For the most part, with recordings sometimes I'm just in a more receptive mindset than others.  Probably has to do with how busy I am and how much other things are running through my head ("gotta hurry before the store closes, that guy really pissed me off, what would steak be like with PB and jam?").

I don't know many pianists personally, most of my social circles are partyers but I've been drifting from that lifestyle.  Later this year I'll meet more musicians when I go to school.

In the summer the university got a new Steinway from NY, so they put together a concert to show off the new piano.  The faculty played really well of course, and the new piano sounded great, but what really stood out for me was a guest pianist.  She might've been a student, I'm not sure, her playing was captivating.  I think it was her rhythmic timing, when she can keep my attention on every note through a piece I've heard so often as Debussy's Claire de Lune, I'm impressed.

Anyways, I agree with your thoughts Mike.  Sometimes it's important to just listen to some good music to refuel the motivation.

[richard black]

Loads of them! In no particular order:

Benno Moiseiwitsch
Martha Argerich
Ronald Stevenson
John Ogdon
Marc-André Hamelin
Walter Gieseking
Wilhelm Backhaus
Ramsey Lewis

- for various reasons, of course.

[mcgillcomposer]

Ivo Pogorelich
Sviatoslav Richter
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli

[amelialw]

stephen hough
Martha Argerich
Horowitz
Rachmaninoff

my teacher is a wonderful pianist as well, every time I listen to her play it just sounds so beautiful that I always just wonder when i'll be able to play like her or just never want to stop listening to her. It's great though each time when I finally master a piece and sometimes i'll play it so beautifully that my teacher will just sigh and say that she wishes that I could play like that all the time as people will then truely know how good I can be. I can understand her playing very well partly also because we are really close.

I have one friend who's doing the same as me. he tends to lean towards 18th and 20th C music while I towards the classical and romantic era. Neverthless, since we listen to each other play every single week we understand each other alot and critic each other. It does help alot .

[mahvash]

Horowitz
Richter
Evgeny kissin
 

[burstroman]

Leon Fleischer
Alicia Delarrocha
Claudio Arrau
Daniel Barenboim
Myra Hess

[gerry]

For me, it's more often the music, not the performer, that reaches into my heart. It doesn't necessarily have to be played by one of the "big ten" so to speak, but just by one of the thousands of really top-notch, unheralded pianists available to us via the media. Interestingly enough, they're often the ones who play and record the lesser-heard repertoire that is more apt to touch my soul.

[Petter]

does it have to be a positive experience? 

[point of grace]

VALENTINA LISITSA
every piece of music that she plays

[gerryjay]

i don´t have to think to answer that. in no particular order:

mitsuko uchida
martha argerich
rosalyn tureck

coincidence or not, three women... 

[Petter]

rosalyn tureck

agreed.

[keymoo]

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Me

[gerryjay]

agreed.

are not her performances of bach absolutely beautiful? i mean, it´s beyond playing very well, she just...just...

[Petter]

I love her. I´ve been looking for the "Introduction to The Performance of Bach"  that she wrote but it seems to be long out of print unfortunately.

[gerryjay]

I love her. I´ve been looking for the "Introduction to The Performance of Bach"  that she wrote but it seems to be long out of print unfortunately.

i heard about this book several times, but unfortunately i did never see even its cover. it´s rather strange (and a shame) that the oxford press had discontinue its publication.
i hope someday find it on a used books store, or a library, or wherever. hope you´re able to do so as well. 

[gerryjay]

hey petter!

do you have US$ 150 available?

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=1039255400&searchurl=an%3Dtureck%26kn%3Dbach%26x%3D0%26y%3D0

good luck!

[guendola]

I like to listen to recordings of the very great pianists when they are old. Some interpretations of the last years of Horowitz, Perelmuter, Gilels, Kempff, to name a few. They eventually drop a few notes, they aren't as fast as before, but there is no match to the musical expression they are able to produce.

Younger pianists marvel in speed, accuracy and virtuosity and they even have their moments but there is still a big difference.

[gerry]

I like to listen to recordings of the very great pianists when they are old. Some interpretations of the last years of Horowitz, Perelmuter, Gilels, Kempff, to name a few. They eventually drop a few notes, they aren't as fast as before, but there is no match to the musical expression they are able to produce.

Younger pianists marvel in speed, accuracy and virtuosity and they even have their moments but there is still a big difference.

Amen to that.

[slobone]

At various times and in various repertoire

Murray Perahia
Andras Schiff
Rubenstein
Rudolf Serkin
Radu Lupu
Charles Rosen
Schnabel
Gieseking
Dinu Lupatti
Richter

... guess I'm an old-school kind of guy.