5 recordings that changed your life!

[simonjp90]

For me in no particular order apart from the first one:

1. Evgeny Kissin - Chopin preludes, 2nd sonata & polonaise heroic (first cd i ever bought)
2. Leif ove andsnes - rach 3
3. daniel pollack - barber sonata
4. hamelin - kapustin concert studies
5. berezovsky - scarbo (first recording i heard of it. haha)

[m19834]

Well, of course in some way there are hundreds, but there are three in particular where they have just absolutely stunned me and from then on my whole concept of actual life and music and piano playing changed.  These are in the order that I first heard/encountered them :

1.  Mark Westcott  -- Schubert, Allegretto in C minor, D.915
2.  Marik -- Feinberg, 6th piano sonata
(3.  Beethoven -- 9th Symphony (I forget who it was conducting and playing ... sorry  )
4.  Agi Jambor -- Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue
5.  ?

[pocho]

-Zimerman's video recordings of the Chopin Ballades(They basically just got me significantly deeper into classical music).
-Leslie Howard's recording of Liszt's Reminiscences de Norma.
-Beethoven's Hammerklavier(also forgot who was playing).
-Ashkenazy's Chopin Waltzes
-Ovchinnikov's Liszt Transcendental Etudes.

[quantum]

1. Perahia - compilation CD that starts with Appassionata
2. Zimerman - Chopin Ballades
3. Laredo - Scriabin sonatas
4. Muraro - Messiaen Vingt Regards (video, it's also on CD)
5. Op.111 - no particular performer, but the piece is beyond words.

[prongated]

O.o thought-provoking...

In no order:

1. Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1 (Arthur Rubinstein with Israel Phil conducted by Mehta)
2. Schubert Sonata in B-flat major D.960 (John Perry)
3. Mozart Requiem (Sir Georg Solti conducting...live 1991 recording commemorating - I swear I was about to type "celebrating"! - Mozart's 200th death anniversary)
4. Chopin Ballade no. 3 (pretty sure it's by Istvan Szekely...simply because that's the first one I've ever heard...nicest one for me is probably Jorge Bolet)
5. Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 (Lang Lang)

[retrouvailles]

5. Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2 (Lang Lang)

I take it that changed your life for the worse, heh.

Here is a very spontaneous and no way fixed list, in no order:

1. Beethoven - Sonata Op. 109
2. Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 6
3. Louis Andriessen - De Materie
4. Messiaen - Des canyons aux étoiles...
5. Myaskovsky - Symphony No. 6

I have not listed any performers because I am struck more by the actual music than by any particular performer, despite having heard multiple great recordings of each piece.

Hmm, just noticed after posting it, but I've only listed 2 piano pieces, and one of them is for solo piano. Nice contrast to everyone else, I guess.

[pianisten1989]

In no order:

Pogorelich - Chopin's Ballade no 2 and Islamey (the first recording I've heard that accually makes sence)

Richter - Beethoven: Op 101

Myra Hess -  Brahms Intermezzo no 117 no 1

Martha Argerich - Heroic Polonaise, from the Chopin competition. I think that was the first I hear of her, and now I've got all her CDs

Dinu Lipatti - Schubert Impromptu op 90 no 2 and 3. That, I think, was the recoring that made me start with classical music more seriously

[thalbergmad]

Atwell - Black & White Rag
Berman - Transcendental Etudes
Wild - Thalberg/Rossini Semirimade
Hamelin - Henselt Concerto
Meyrick - Horowitz/Saint Saens Dance Macabre

Thal

[point of grace]

1. Argerich and Abaddo: Prokofieff piano concerto 1 and 3 and Bartok 3
2. Gilels, Richter, Maazel: Tchaikovsky piano concertos 1-3, Prokofieff 5 and Bartok 2
3. Tapiola Sinfonietta: SCHÖNBERG  Noche transfigurada
4. Ashkenazy: Rach preludes op. 23 and 32
5. Rostropovich, karajan, berlin philharmonic: Dvorak - cello concerto in b minor, op 104

[orangesodaking]

No order:
-Vladimir Horowitz playing Debussy's "L'Isle Joyeuse"
-André Laplante playing Ravel's "Miroirs"
-Emil Gilels playing Beethoven's Sonata in C Major Op. 53 "Waldstein)
-Daniel Baremboim playing and conducting Beethoven's Choral Fantasy Op. 80
-Enrico Pace playing Liszt's Totentanz

[prongated]

I take it that changed your life for the worse, heh.

Oh...he made the serious me realise that music, just like life, can be turned in musings, and it's entertaining to go to a circus every now and then

[simonjp90]

Barenboim playing richard kastles 5th concerto
 

[ronde_des_sylphes]

1. Beethoven Pastoral Symphony (probably Karajan, I can't really remember, I was two  )
2. Earl Wild Thalberg Don Pasquale Fantasy
3. Cziffra Hungarian Rhapsodies
4. Hamelin Alkan Concerto for solo piano
5. Kentner Liapunov Transcendental Etudes

[prongated]

Barenboim playing richard kastles 5th concerto
 

Eh, what? Seriously? No, SERIOUSLY? Like, such a thing exists?

[birba]

1. Mario Lanza singing "Vesti la giubba". (45 rpm)
2. Grant Johannsen playing chopin concerto in f minor.
3. Friedrich Wuhrer playing Prokofiev's second concerto.
4. Kempff's recording of Beethoven's op.111
5. Michelangeli's recording of Ravel concerto.

[ted]

In no particular order:

1. Blue Black Bottom - Waller 1927
2. David Thomas Roberts - New Orleans Streets
3. David Thomas Roberts - Everything on his 15 Ragtime Compositions CD
4. Treemonisha - Joplin, Houston 1977 version
5. Jarrett - Bremen concert

But there are very many more.

[arensky]

In chronological listening order, more or less.

1. Ja-Da, Art Tatum
2. The Complete Piano Music of Ravel, Robert Casadesus
3. Chopin Polonaises, Artur Rubinstein
4. Scriabin Sonatas 3, 4, 5 and 9, Vladimir Ashkenazy
5. The Complete Capitol Recordings, Art Tatum

Here's some more

Khachaturian Piano Concerto, William Kapell/Boston Symphony/Koussevitzky
Mephisto Waltz, Horowitz (I was there!) 
A Love Supreme, John Coltrane
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, William Kapell
Concert by the Sea Errol Garner
Le Sacre du Printemps, Karl Ancerl/Czech Philharmonic
Bartok Piano Concerti 2 and 3, Phillipe Entremont/NY Phil/Bernstein
Mozart Concerto 14 K.449, Murray Perhaia
Prokofiev Sonatas 3 and 7, Daniel Pollack

[vviola]

Sonata nş9 by Scriabin performed by Horowitz (both recordings) changed the way I see and hear Scriabin's music. There are so many bad recordings of his music unfortunately. Especially those two volumes of Preludes that Naxos released. Talk about shoddy.

[arensky]

Zarafiants? I listened to him play the Op.11 Preludes the other day. A mixed bag for sure but he has a beautiful tone and a good sense for the harmonic direction of the music. I feel that some of his tempi are too slow in the quicker ones. He ain't Horowitz or Sofronitsky, that's for sure. But who is?

[vviola]

Of course. But he overlooks a lot of small details, which bothers me. Rests, dynamics, crescendos, diminuendos. He doesn't do it too often, but when he does it takes a lot away from the music, and one would think a pianist that is offered to record for a major label would at least be able to read. 

[m19834]

Well, of course in some way there are hundreds, but there are three in particular where they have just absolutely stunned me and from then on my whole concept of actual life and music and piano playing changed.  These are in the order that I first heard/encountered them :

1.  Mark Westcott  -- Schubert, Allegretto in C minor, D.915
2.  Marik -- Feinberg, 6th piano sonata
(3.  Beethoven -- 9th Symphony (I forget who it was conducting and playing ... sorry  )
4.  Agi Jambor -- Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue
5.  ?

I'm so excited to update my list (and I'm taking the Symphony out to keep it to piano for now)!

The newest addition to the recordings which have changed my life is Alexandre Dossin playing Liszt, particularly Miserere du Trovatore and Savle Maria de Jerusalem (I Lombardi).  These are Verdi Concert Paraphrases and Transcriptions, played by Alexandre Dossin and produced by Naxos.  Definitely life-changers for me.

My updated list:

1.  Mark Westcott  -- Schubert, Allegretto in C minor, D.915
2.  Marik -- Feinberg, 6th piano sonata
3.  Agi Jambor -- Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue
4.  Alexandre Dossin -- Liszt, Miserere du Trovatore and Salve Maria de Jerusalem (I Lombardi)
5.  ??

Part of what changes my life when I have encountered these is to find out that these beautiful and amazing individuals exist!  It's really quite wonderful .

[eminemvsrach]

1. Horowitz plays Scriabin Etude Op. 12 No. 8
2. David Jalbert plays Corigliano Etude Fantasy (on youtube)
3. Jack Gibbons plays Alkan Allegro Barbaro
4. Hamelin plays Kapustin Sonata No. 2 fourth Movement
5. Eliahu Inbal conducts Mahler No. 2 (Resurrection)

[orangesodaking]

No order:
-Vladimir Horowitz playing Debussy's "L'Isle Joyeuse"
-André Laplante playing Ravel's "Miroirs"
-Emil Gilels playing Beethoven's Sonata in C Major Op. 53 "Waldstein)
-Daniel Baremboim playing and conducting Beethoven's Choral Fantasy Op. 80
-Enrico Pace playing Liszt's Totentanz

Okay, updated list:
-Vladimir Horowitz playing Debussy's "L'isle Joyeuse"
-André Laplante playing Ravel's "Miroirs"
-Emil Gilels playing Beethoven's Sonata in C Major Op. 53 "Waldstein"
-John Ogdon playing Busoni's Piano Concerto, Op. 39
-Edward Auer (piano) and Yehuda Hanani (cello) playing Alkan's Sonate de Concert Op. 47

[pianist1976]

Only five? Damned... 

Five in no particular order, only for piano. I'd need to make some more lists for non piano music 

- Chopin works (6 CD's publihshed by EMI), Alfred Cortot
- Bach Partitas, Andras Schiff
- Van Cliburn (any of his unfortunately few recordings)
- Jozef Hofmann (Phillips Great Pianists XX Century, 2 discs)
- David Helfgott Brilliantissimo (I can explain this, it's not what it looks )

[berman]

Chopin: Polonaise op. 44, Pogorelich, Chopin Competition.
Prokofiev: Sonata no. 4, Bronfman.
Liszt. Ballade no. 2, Volodos.
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto no. 3, Argerich.
Chopin: Sonata no. 2, Mats Widlund.

[liszt1022]

1. Shine: The Complete Classics (various non-Helfgott pianists)
2. Brilliantissimo (David Helfgott)...
NO! DON'T STOP READING THERE! The point is, these 2 CDs were my first introduction to "real" classical piano repertoire. Hearing Chopin on the Shine CD made me buy books and CDs of his, hearing Liszt and Gottschalk on Brilliantissimo started me up on those, and things just kind of spread out from there.

3. Glenn Gould - Beethoven/Liszt 6th Symphony - the start of my lifelong (so far) interest in transcriptions.

4. "Great Pianists of the 20th Century" series - and especially the book that listed all the tracks to all the volumes! It showed me all in one place a breakdown of standard repertoire by proportions - everybody plays Chopin, Rach's 2 and 3 are more popular than 1 and 4, Schumann gets lots of attention, you know, stuff like that. It also introduced me to lots of the personalities associated with piano.

5. Godowsky's 53 Studies, Hamelin. My brain lights up like a Christmas tree when this plays - it's not the most difficult piano music in the world, but it IS the most difficult piano music that I enjoy listening to. I've also collected Grante's set, Berezovsky, Saperton, Hobson, Bolet, Madge, and the big thick book of all the studies (signed by Hamelin!)

[stoudemirestat]

1. Jorge Bolet playing Wagner/Liszt "Tannhauser" Overture -

&feature=related
2. Zimerman playing the Chopin Ballades -

3. Zimerman playing the Liszt Sonata -

4. Zimerman playing the "Totentanz" by Liszt (yeah I love Zimerman) -

5. Andrei Gavrilov playing Rach 2, 3, and the Etude Tableaux Op 39 no 5

[m1469]

My updated list:

When |
(2001)  Mark Westcott  -- Schubert, Allegretto in C minor, D.915
https://markwestcottpianist.com/store/liverecital.shtml (his site store, not the piece I list here)

(2006)  Mark Fouxman (Marik) -- Feinberg, 6th piano sonata
https://www.samaraudiodesign.com/Company.html (his site, though not a recording of him)

(2010)  Agi Jambor -- Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue

 (Oh, man)

(2010)  Alexandre Dossin -- Liszt, Miserere du Trovatore
https://www.dossin.net/Alexandre_Dossin/Listening_room.html  (his site's listening room)

 (a YouTube of Liszt-Verdi - Aida Danza sacra e duetto final, S436)

(2011)  Sviatoslav Richter -- Chopin, Ballade no. 1 in g minor

[pianowolfi]

My updated list:

1.  Mark Westcott  -- Schubert, Allegretto in C minor, D.915

I see this repeatedly showing up in your lists I have found Westcott's site and maybe I'll buy and download that Compilation . I love this piece and I have played it myself. I am just listening to his "Au bord d'une source" and I like it very much, it's wonderful and somehow mysteriously melancholic!

[m1469]

I see this repeatedly showing up in your lists I have found Westcott's site and maybe I'll buy and download that Compilation . I love this piece and I have played it myself. I am just listening to his "Au bord d'une source" and I like it very much, it's wonderful and somehow mysteriously melancholic!

Oh, yes!  Well, the list was ongoing until I put Richter in there.  I've just carried over what I had already, as I added to it.  I guess that I'll have to make it longer as it needs to be .  But, yes, Mark Westcott is very special .  The list is in order of when I heard recordings (although, I had heard Richter before, for some reason he didn't change my life until the recording I listed there -- I suspect he'll change my life for quite awhile yet ).  I'm so glad you listen to him though, I feel he deserves the ears very much!  I'll have to listen again soon .

[nanabush]

I think there's one recording that 'changed my life', and it was the Ravel D major concerto played by Monique Haas.  My teacher lent me a CD with it, and I put it on my ipod.  I listened to it while walking my dogs (I live in the country), and it had just stopped raining, and the sun was coming out.  I was probably 13 or 14..

The part in the middle of the piece, after the little bassoon solo, when the piano plays the really high up melody... something about that part fit PERFECTLY with what I was seeing around me (trees, rain, etc.)  I think this was the first piece that I had actually had a vivid image in my head, and since then I've been able to do the same with pieces that I'm playing.  It's different having a teacher say "try to picture this" and actually seeing something entirely on your own while being in contact with nature.

I still get goosebumps when I hear that part of the piece because of the initial impact it had.

If I were to name 4 others:
-Schumann 'Estrella' from Carnaval (this used to be on an oooooooold computer Encarta encyclopedia on CD lol!).  I would not know for the life of me who was performing it, but it was amazing.  I remember playing this over and over and over again, but my parents still couldn't take a hint that I was keen on piano music until 2 or 3 years later 

-Ruth Laredo performing the G# minor sonata fantasie by Scriabin.  At this point I had only heard his later music, so I didn't even know he had anything like this at all!

-Ishay Shaer (I believe this is someone from the forum) had a recording of Scarbo in the audition room.  Again, the first time I had heard the piece, and the first time I legitimately heard a 'scary' piece of piano music that didn't involve someone incessantly banging the lowest 5 keys.  Since then, I would always look through the 'darkest pieces' or 'scariest pieces' threads, and came across some of my favorite stuff.  This was also the only Ravel I had heard other than the Sonatine (which I had just started working on) and the Prelude from le Tombeau de Couperin.  I didn't know that anyone could write a piece like that, so scary and difficult yet so many people still play it haha.

-Beethoven Waldstein first movement (again from that damn encyclopedia).  It was a 20 second clip of one of the themes, and again was one of the parts that I would constantly play over and over.  The funny thing is, this was labelled as 'moonlight sonata', so when I (much later) got access to a full recording of the moonlight sonata, I was like "hey... where did that cool part go?!"... the part in specific was the E major theme in the Waldstein first movement. 


Now that I think of it... my parents were blind!!  I'd sit on the computer for hours reading the articles on Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, etc and listening to the little clips from that Encarta, and they must have had no idea!  I think I could have been pushed so much harder and would have benefitted wayyy more!

[pianowolfi]

My updated list:

When |
(2001)  Mark Westcott  -- Schubert, Allegretto in C minor, D.915
https://markwestcottpianist.com/store/liverecital.shtml (his site store, not the piece I list here)

(2006)  Mark Fouxman (Marik) -- Feinberg, 6th piano sonata
https://www.samaraudiodesign.com/Company.html (his site, though not a recording of him)

(2010)  Agi Jambor -- Bach, Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue

 (Oh, man)

(2010)  Alexandre Dossin -- Liszt, Miserere du Trovatore
https://www.dossin.net/Alexandre_Dossin/Listening_room.html  (his site's listening room)

 (a YouTube of Liszt-Verdi - Aida Danza sacra e duetto final, S436)

(2011)  Sviatoslav Richter -- Chopin, Ballade no. 1 in g minor

I am grateful for these links! I just listened to the Alexandre Dossin recording, which is in my book phenomenal!


1. So, first of all, I heard Brendel play Beethoven's op.111 live in 1983 or 1984. That was a crucial experience and I listened many times to his recording afterwards. But the live experience was just much more than any recording can ever be. It was a sacred moment, a moment where time came to a halt...and it was a complete surprise to me!! I felt like I am suddenly catapulted to a different sphere, to something that has to do with the whole purpose of life and with humanity and love and peace and with how we just need to live at peace with each other! Brendel was communicating Beethoven's message to mankind and I was able to hear it!

2. Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, sung by Kathleen Ferrier, conducted by Bruno Walter!! A dark orange-yellow light!... and a sadness beyond any words! I had the old vinyl LP back then. This voice of a mother, this voice of love and tragic, and resignation, and again love and love!!  

3. For sure: Dvorak's Stabat mater, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Staatskapelle Dresden, 2001. I listened to it during a legendary drive from my home town to Barcelona in 2008. I had heard parts of it before and even accompanied a bit of it, and even sung a part of it in my school choir as a teenie (Eja Mater) but at this point I felt like this music comes from the core of the whole world! I believe that this is true and always when I listen again to this music I think "What in the world can ever be composed after this one??" It's like the essence of the "eternal female" (Goethe) or...well just listen to it if you like

It's like you hear some music repeatedly without noticing anything, but then suddenly the penny drops and something changes completely!

4. George Gershwin: Concerto in F, Rhapsody in Blue and the three Preludes for piano, I don't remember the pianist and the recording, but this got me electrified and passionate about music when I was 13/14! I badly wanted to learn to play these preludes and play them for "my love", back then! That girl I was in love with! But she wasn't in love with me

But just today she wrote me a message, btw  

5. Bartók: the three piano concertos and the concerto for orchestra! (I also don't remember the interpreters, it might have been Géza Anda, but I'm not sure, since I loaned them from a library, also when I was 13/14 years old.

Well there would be more, of course, Dvorak's New World Symphony, Stravinsky's Firebird and Sacre du printemps and more, and all this was music I used to dance to secretly in my room  and later to Beethoven's Appassionata/Kempff, while others were dancing to Rock'n Roll or Pop or Disco music Imagine, I could never tell those others: "You know Bartók rocks me!" or "Let's do a Bartók/Beethoven dance party!!" They anyway had no idea of who Bartók or Stravinsky was!! Lol Well I also got a Beatles tape from a classmate and listened passionately to that one, and later to Abba and Queen, but that wasn't the same feeling, it was somehow just different... but I also loved those and I still love them

[m1469]

I am grateful for these links! I just listened to the Alexandre Dossin recording, which is in my book phenomenal!

Oh!  Yes, wonderful .  I'm so glad that you listen and, I completely agree!  I feel very blessed to be studying with him .  

Oh, PS -- I very much enjoy your stories related to the recordings which have changed your life!  I don't feel like I could write out how these recordings and artists have changed my life, and why, but they very much have .

[ahinton]

It would probably need a new thread, but what about 5 recordings that might have been life-changing if only they actually existed? They'd need to be close to those that do exist, though - for example Argerich playing Prokofiev 2, Bartók 2 and Ravel left hand concertos, Pollini playing the Busoni Concerto (which he did once talk about doing), Michelangeli playing late Scriabin, Medtner playing Rachmaninov Études-Tableaux, Rachmaninov playing the Chopin/Godowsky studies, Petri playing Sorabji's Tantrik Symphony, de Larrocha playing Sorabji's Fantasia Ispanica...

Best,

Alistair

[pianowolfi]

...Beethoven playing his op.111 or op. 109...
well that would be a different thread maybe. World changing 

[pianowolfi]

Oh!  Yes, wonderful .  I'm so glad that you listen and, I completely agree!  I feel very blessed to be studying with him .  

Oh, PS -- I very much enjoy your stories related to the recordings which have changed your life!  I don't feel like I could write out how these recordings and artists have changed my life, and why, but they very much have .

Well yeah I'd have to add one of your pieces to that list, actually.... Inner circle.

[m1469]

Well yeah I'd have to add one of your pieces to that list, actually.... Inner circle.

Wolfi, thank you!  I remember exactly what it was like when I played that and sent to you .

[djealnla]

Petri playing Sorabji's Tantrik Symphony

Why this specific pairing?

[ahinton]

Why this specific pairing?

No particular reason, I guess, except that the two had become friends not long before that work was written and I think that the piece that Sorabji actually dedicated to Petri - Sequentia Cyclica - is such that Petri would have declined to try to learn it (although we can be most thankful that Jonathan Powell has not merely tried but succeeded wonderfully well with it, albeit some 6 decades after its completion - not that there are plans to record it with him just yet, however).

Best,

Alistair

[djealnla]

I think that the piece that Sorabji actually dedicated to Petri - Sequentia Cyclica - is such that Petri would have declined to try to learn it

Why? Is it really such a big deal if he were to play a 7 hour piece instead of a 4 hour piece?

I would be interested in hearing Horowitz play the Opus Archimagicum.

[ahinton]

Why? Is it really such a big deal if he were to play a 7 hour piece instead of a 4 hour piece?

You'd better ask Petri.

I would be interested in hearing Horowitz play the Opus Archimagicum

I wouldn't, actually - but, never mind - you'd better ask Horowitz.

These two should give you quite abit to do in contacting the dead and making massive requests thereof.

Best,

Alistair

[djealnla]

You'd better ask Petri.

The question was directed at your speculation. I have no idea what you're trying to voice here, but it's rather clear that you do not take this conversation seriously.

[vandermozart3]

Please forgive the generic nature of my choices...but if we have to be completely honest, here it is!

1. Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A (Harold Wright; Seiji Ozawa: Boston Symphony Orchestra)
2. Beethoven: Tempest Sonata (Kempff)
3. Chopin: Revolutionary Etude (Nikita Magaloff)
4. Mozart: Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (Ferenc Fricsay: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra)
5. Bartok: Bulgarian Dance No. 6 (Jenö Jandó)

[richard black]

One arguably did change my life - Barenboim playing the Pathetique, Appassionata and Moonlight sonatas. I was about 8 when someone gave me that.

For the rest, dunno about changed my life exactly, but had a major effect on me at least:

Mahler, 2nd symphony, Symphonica of London cond. Wyn Morris
Ronald Stevenson, piano, 'Grainger's Salute to Scotland'
Pink Floyd, 'The Wall'
Mozart, minor-key piano concertos, Clara Haskil, Berlin PO, Markevitch

I could explain, but don't want to bore everyone - anyway I still listen to all of those with great pleasure!

[ahinton]

The question was directed at your speculation. I have no idea what you're trying to voice here, but it's rather clear that you do not take this conversation seriously.

If you do indeed have no such idea, that's neither my fault nor my problem, methinks. Who can say what Horowitz, Petri or anyone else might have said or thought about performing - or hearing anyone else who might actually have been up to performing either Opus Archimagicum or Sequentia Cyclica? Anyone could indeed "speculate" on either or both were he/she to be so inclined, but I wouldn't do so personally, nor would I see any useful purpose to be served by trying to do so...

Best,

Alistair

[lontano]

To make an accurate list would be pretty much impossible but here's what I recall:

1. Ondine [followed by the rest of Ravel's piano music on a multi-LP set by Werner Haas]
2. Scriabin "Vers la flamme" [followed by rest of his music on multi-LP set by M. Ponti]
3. Beethoven Op.111 by A. Brendel
4. Messiaen "Vingt regards..." by Peter Serkin
5. Ligeti "Lontano" [along with other works Kubrick used in "2001: A Space Odyssey", which remains my all-time favorite, life-changing movie as well!]
==========
I could no doubt rebuild this list over and over several times...

[djealnla]

How can one define a piece as being life changing? There are some pieces which are extremely close to my heart, yet I'd be reluctant to say any of them truly "changed my life".

[djealnla]

Who can say what Horowitz, Petri or anyone else might have said or thought about (...) hearing anyone else who might actually have been up to performing either Opus Archimagicum or Sequentia Cyclica?

Hearing them do what? Speak? Play the banjo?

[thalbergmad]

Horowitz playing the banjo would have changed my life.

Thal

[keyboardclass]

A recording doesn't have that power.