fast pianist

[okoie]

hi friends,
who is the fastest pianist you have heard? For me there are not great pianists or little pianists, instead pianists people like and others dislike

[pianisten1989]

I don't understand what you mean after the question, and what that has to do with anything. But Yuja Wang is probably the fastest...

[pianowolfi]

Well I don't know if he was "the fastest" but I have read that he practiced for 10 years to get the Hammerklavier up to that speed...

But you see, (better you hear) that speed is very relative...

[brriker]

Gyorgy Cziffra seems pretty fast to me, especially in Liszt's Grand Galop Chromatique.

[lelle]

Well I don't know if he was "the fastest" but I have read that he practiced for 10 years to get the Hammerklavier up to that speed...

But you see, (better you hear) that speed is very relative...

10 years? What's the point, it doesn't even sound very good to my ears

[fleetfingers]

Check out Rod Miller starting at 1:50.

[birba]

Well I don't know if he was "the fastest" but I have read that he practiced for 10 years to get the Hammerklavier up to that speed...

But you see, (better you hear) that speed is very relative...

It's still not up to speed though.  Beethoven clearly states quarter note=138.  This is somewhere between 126 and 132.  Shame on him.

[bleicher]

Ah, but how accurate was Beethoven's metronome?

[richard black]

The fastest ones I've heard (on record) are probably Art Tatum and Kentaro Noda.

[dlipatti]

Ah, but how accurate was Beethoven's metronome?

According to Schiff (check out his lecture on the Hammerklavier), it's as accurate as any other. I know this is almost blasphemous, but I doubt even Beethoven played it that fast!

[scottmcc]

schiff said that beethoven's metronome had a bit of a jazz swing to it, but that it kept accurate time otherwise.  he claims to have even tested that particular metronome himself.  pretty cool.

I don't think beethoven played any of his later sonatas due to his deafness.  I don't know exactly where the cutoff point was in terms of which he did and didn't play, but I do know that it was famously quite some time before the hammerklavier was played publically at all, and that Liszt was the first to do so.

[franz_]

It's a stupid question in the first place. But pianists like Hamelin, Volodos, Cziffra, Wang, Argerich,...
prooved that they have a remarquable technique.

[emilye]

Yuja Wang?? oh no! listen piano sonata by Liszt.

In my opinion really fast pianist: S. Richter (e.g.etude op. 10 no. 4- Chopin), M. Argerich, Volodos, Horowitz and many others.

[asiantraveller101]

Argerich in her recording of Chopin Prelude in B-flat minor! Jaw-dropping speed! EEEK!

[lelle]

Alfred Cortot uses some unusually fast tempos in his early recordings. He always kept it musical though!

[philb]

I would agree that Richter might be one of the fastest (after I heard him wreck Sonata op. 111).

but I guess thats just my opinion...  

[pianisten1989]

According to Schiff (check out his lecture on the Hammerklavier), it's as accurate as any other. I know this is almost blasphemous, but I doubt even Beethoven played it that fast!

But we have to rememer that Beethovens piano had way lighter keys than the modern ones...

It's a stupid question in the first place.

Why is this a stupid question? I think it's one of the less stupid questions, since it's a fact, and you can measure who the fastest pianist is... Not like the "Who's is the best pianist" or "What beethoven sonata is the best?"

[pbryld]

Check out Rod Miller starting at 1:50.

Doesn't seem much compared to this: (from 5:55)

(Yes, she plays it too fast, nevertheless this beats the crap out of that guy :p)

[sevencircles]

Some pianists are superfast when in comes to a certain technique like trills perhaps but are really limited in other respects. The clips below feature pianists that are or were true speedmasters, they master most pianotechniques really well (Barereīs octaves might be a bit weak perhaps due to his small hands)


Barere playing Schumann toccata

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gCHDms_Ero

Cziffra playing chopinīs thirds etude

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlG9yN9qmrA&feature=related

Libetta playing Ignis Fatuus

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4IRfLAqguE

Hamelin playing hr2 with his own cadenza

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBygW-3ffOY


All of these pieces are demanding indeed, Ignis Fatuus and and Hamelinīt HR 2 cadenza in particular, and too play them as fast as the recordings linked is a feat very pianists in the world can do.

Cziffra and Hamelin (in their prime) are propably the fastest tastefull classical pianists I have heard, when it comes to double notes and octaves in particular.

[destini]

sevencircles makes a good point here. I agree that certain techniques should be taken into account. And if one can not only perform arpeggios (or ostinatos) strikingly fast, but chords as well, he (or she) should play them in a manner so that they sound really crisp. It is possible to play really fast but unless it sounds readable it doesn't count. So I think it's about not only speed but also articulation. Why I say it at all - it seems like it is clear for a professional pianist or the most of you here, - is because I've seen a video on youtube "the fastest pianist ever", and while technically that person may have been the fastest (counting by notes per second), it sounded so cacophonous that I couldn't understand how one could come to decision to upload it in principle!