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Topic: Who is your favourite alive pianist?  (Read 18752 times)

Offline candypiano

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Who is your favourite alive pianist?
on: April 09, 2012, 09:38:13 PM
In the past century, great pianists like Glenn Gould, Arrau Claudio, and Vladimir Horowitz brought pleasure to people via their music.  In the twenty-first century, who is the pianist that gives you inspiration?  Who will make you want to attend his/her concert?

Offline perfect_pitch

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #1 on: April 09, 2012, 10:20:06 PM
Maurizio Pollini...    ;D

The guy is a legend.

Offline austinarg

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #2 on: April 09, 2012, 10:24:11 PM
1. Martha Argerich (she is a fellow countrywoman, to put her any lower would be a disgrace)
2. Boris Berezovsky
3. Yuja Wang
“Talking about music is like dancing about architecture.” - Thelonious Monk

Offline j_menz

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #3 on: April 09, 2012, 11:23:13 PM
Me.  ;D
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline revanyoda777

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #4 on: April 09, 2012, 11:56:56 PM
Murray Perahia without a doubt. His recordings of the Goldbergs and Partitas in particular are amazing, and his Chopin Etudes recording is the best one out there imo. (just listen to the op.10 no.1 :O)

Offline zezhyrule

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #5 on: April 10, 2012, 12:10:48 AM
Argerich and Perahia, as already mentioned, and add Zimerman and Cecile Ousset  :)

Oh wait, was I only supposed to say one...  ;D
Currently learning -

- Bach: P&F in F Minor (WTC 2)
- Chopin: Etude, Op. 25, No. 5
- Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 31, No. 3
- Scriabin: Two Poems, Op. 32
- Debussy: Prelude Bk II No. 3

Offline chauncey

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #6 on: April 10, 2012, 01:25:10 AM
My favourite male pianist right now is Evgeny Kissin. My favourite female pianist is Valentina Lisitsa.


Buut that's just me :P

Offline rachmaninoff_forever

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #7 on: April 10, 2012, 02:56:46 AM
Valentina lisitsa is my favorite female pianist.  However, Yuja Wang is the most attractive female pianist!
Live large, die large.  Leave a giant coffin.

Offline j_menz

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #8 on: April 10, 2012, 03:01:40 AM
Valentina lisitsa is my favorite female pianist.  However, Yuja Wang is the most attractive female pianist!

Hahah, so hormones or hearing?  ;D
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline marik1

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #9 on: April 10, 2012, 04:32:22 AM
Who will make you want to attend his/her concert?

I don't separate male pianists from female--all that matters is if one speaks something with the music, or just plays piano (even well). From the alive pianists, other than Grigory Sokolov, I'd put on my list pretty much (widely) unknown or well underrated names, but I'd still suggest to check them out--all of them are on youtube:

my favorite ingenious Ekaterina Novitskaya, Oleg Boshniakovich (who due to his illness plays only in Moscow, and whose music making is simply sublime, for the lack of better word), one of the most serious musicians of our times Alexei Lubimov, breathtaking spectacular Ilana Vered, Valery Afanassiev, Alexander Serdar, Sergei Babayan, Alexander Korsantia... and at least a dozen of other very interesting musicians, who for one or another reason unfortunately did not make it to the very top, but IMO, by far much more interesting to listen to and enjoy than most of so called "top" modern pianists.

Some of the famous names, whose concerts I attended, but for sure will never go again:

Maurizio Pollini
Emanuel Ax
Nikolai Luganski
Efim Bronfman
Lang Lang
Yuja Wang

Best, M

Offline pianowolfi

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #10 on: April 10, 2012, 06:49:10 AM

Nikolai Luganski


Ha funny that you would say that, I just missed his Rach 3 under Pletnev here, I preferred to practice instead...

Offline marik1

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #11 on: April 10, 2012, 08:47:56 AM
Ha funny that you would say that, I just missed his Rach 3 under Pletnev here, I preferred to practice instead...

No doubt, that was much better spent time...  :)

Best, M

Offline 49410enrique

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #12 on: April 10, 2012, 09:49:20 AM
that's a tuffy, i wouldn't separate on sexes per say either but i do have different folks who are tops depending on the type of music or even for a certain composer, heck i even have subcats for 'older' or more seaoned pianists vs. young guns, be that as it may the question asked for is for a single name so i reluctantly follow the request (though i could certainly spout a list including some names still not mentioned)

it's an organic rank (i.e. changing, evolving along with me an my sensibilities) but as of right now my top pick for Yeol Eum Son. She's incredible.

Offline piano_vs_science

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #13 on: April 10, 2012, 11:23:59 AM
STEPHEN HAWKING!!! ;D
"e^ix=cosx+isinx"
Leonhard Euler

Offline montygolfear

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #14 on: April 10, 2012, 06:03:19 PM
I don't separate male pianists from female--all that matters is if one speaks something with the music, or just plays piano (even well). From the alive pianists, other than Grigory Sokolov, I'd put on my list pretty much (widely) unknown or well underrated names, but I'd still suggest to check them out--all of them are on youtube:

my favorite ingenious Ekaterina Novitskaya, Oleg Boshniakovich (who due to his illness plays only in Moscow, and whose music making is simply sublime, for the lack of better word), one of the most serious musicians of our times Alexei Lubimov, breathtaking spectacular Ilana Vered, Valery Afanassiev, Alexander Serdar, Sergei Babayan, Alexander Korsantia... and at least a dozen of other very interesting musicians, who for one or another reason unfortunately did not make it to the very top, but IMO, by far much more interesting to listen to and enjoy than most of so called "top" modern pianists.

Some of the famous names, whose concerts I attended, but for sure will never go again:

Maurizio Pollini
Emanuel Ax
Nikolai Luganski
Efim Bronfman
Lang Lang
Yuja Wang

Best, M

Whatever happened to Ilana Vered ? She made some good recordings in the 70's and 80's with Decca I believe.

Offline zezhyrule

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #15 on: April 10, 2012, 06:37:03 PM
Ah, how could I forget Mikhail Pletnev. I love his Scriabin Preludes :3
Currently learning -

- Bach: P&F in F Minor (WTC 2)
- Chopin: Etude, Op. 25, No. 5
- Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 31, No. 3
- Scriabin: Two Poems, Op. 32
- Debussy: Prelude Bk II No. 3

Offline 49410enrique

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #16 on: April 10, 2012, 06:47:30 PM
nevermind

Offline jas_sorian

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #17 on: April 11, 2012, 06:44:39 AM
Valentina Igoshina is still alive, right?  ;D

Offline piano_vs_science

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #18 on: April 12, 2012, 08:12:13 AM
what??? that comment with the funny video is gone!!! :o


actually...my favourite pianist alive is Valentina Lisitsa
too bad Stephen Hawking doesn't play piano :(

i wonder why scientists never play the piano...
"e^ix=cosx+isinx"
Leonhard Euler

Offline sevencircles

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #19 on: April 14, 2012, 04:53:17 PM
Quote
too bad Stephen Hawking doesn't play piano

I think he meant Stephen Houghking  ;)



Offline revanyoda777

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #20 on: April 15, 2012, 02:06:25 AM
I think he meant Stephen Houghking  ;)





LOL! Hough is great as well. He's playing a recital near my area pretty soon :)

Offline newto43

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #21 on: April 16, 2012, 10:07:11 AM
This is my own amateur video of my favourite pianist ever! I've been around for 52 years, my father  was a pianist and I believe this 17 yo self taught young man will go very far!! Please feel free to critique this clip, however please consider what you are going to say considering the following: remember amateur video, 17 yo, self taught and playing for only 3 yrs!!! Thank you.

Offline albertus_magnus

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #22 on: May 20, 2012, 03:37:55 AM
Ingrid Haebler

Offline werq34ac

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #23 on: May 20, 2012, 02:34:27 PM
My violin teacher had lunch with Stephen Hough, with absolutely nothing to do with music.


But anyway, Argerich is one of my favorite pianists of all time and she's alive so.... Argerich. Though I do like Pollini and Zimmerman a lot.

Lisitsa, she's very good, but I don't think she compares to Argerich and Pollini. Same with Kissin. Very good pianist, but I'd rather listen to Argerich if they recorded the same piece.

Also, I don't think anyone's mentioned Barenboim, whose Beethoven is fantastic. He's still alive right?
Ravel Jeux D'eau
Brahms 118/2
Liszt Concerto 1
Rachmaninoff/Kreisler Liebesleid

Offline bronnestam

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #24 on: December 06, 2012, 09:33:47 PM
Per Tengstrand. Oh, so I know him and I am biased as h*ll  ::) ... but I've listened to so many by now, and I have not found anyone, dead or alive, who has such a superior technique. His rendering of the Beethoven sonatas are the best I have heard EVER.

Another favourite of mine is Pletnev, who has a similar style, I think.

Offline rachmaninoff_forever

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #25 on: December 06, 2012, 11:46:16 PM
Hahah, so hormones or hearing?  ;D

It has nothing to do with hormones!!! >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(
Live large, die large.  Leave a giant coffin.

Offline j_menz

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #26 on: December 06, 2012, 11:50:22 PM
It has nothing to do with hormones!!! >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

It's taken you eight months to decide?  :o
"What the world needs is more geniuses with humility. There are so few of us left" -- Oscar Levant

Offline vsrinivasa

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #27 on: December 07, 2012, 12:15:19 AM
I like Murray Perahia. His recordings of Beethoven are good. Valentina Lisitsa plays everything a little too fast for me.

Offline andreslr6

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #28 on: December 07, 2012, 02:02:58 AM
I'm not sure if I have a favorite living pianist, but they have recordings which are among my favorites: Kissin's 2nd and 3rd Prokofiev piano concertos, Ivo Pogorelich's Gaspard de la Nuit played in a recital in Japan I believe, and Koji Attwood's Scriabin sonatas (4th, 5th, 7th and 10th), the ones he has on youtube recorded on recitals as well.

Offline clavile

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #29 on: December 07, 2012, 02:28:51 AM
A lot of people seem to hate him, but I LOOOOOOOOOVEEE Lang Lang!
Joy,
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Currently Practicing:
Pirates Of the Carribean- Jarrod Radnich
Mozart Concerto, 2 Piano
Bach Invention
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Offline blazekenny

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #30 on: December 07, 2012, 03:02:24 PM
Ivan Moravec and Barenboim for sure. Also Mitsuko Uchida ?

I hate these piano athletes like Berezovsky, Lugansky, Lang Lang, Yuja Wang, Valentina Lisitsa going just for the fast fingers. Teenager boys may find it entertaining and might fill up their body with adrenaline, but its no music whatsoever (I attended a disastrous Lugansky recital Chopin / Liszt and he just banged the hell out of it and his playing was absolutely contrary to what these composers wrote)
Really...How come that these pianist have no sound at all ? Martha Argerich also snipes the piano at enormous speed, yet alot of her performances are nice

Offline sevencircles

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #31 on: December 07, 2012, 05:08:32 PM
(I attended a disastrous Lugansky recital Chopin / Liszt and he just banged the hell out of it and his playing was absolutely contrary to what these composers wrote)

I heard him play a Schubert fantasy with Vadim Repin and he was great. Almost like a young Martha Argerich.

Possible that Repin was one of the main reasons that he played so well.  ;)

Offline patrickd

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #32 on: December 07, 2012, 05:26:35 PM
Sokolov, Hamelin, and Pletnev.

Offline mahlermaniac

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #33 on: December 07, 2012, 06:16:30 PM
My favorite living pianists are not the big names of classical music (though I love classical piano music). Rather, they are from the breed of "new age solo piano" and write their own compostions as well as arrangements of well known songs.  I don't necessarily understand what makes them "new age" as they play lush romantic music, not stuff that would make you think of Enya or anything.

Anyway, my favorite is David Nevue. Wonderful stuff. He has several albums, I've only one of them but I will definitely get more. Philip Wesley and Brandon Musser are two others I enjoy.

Offline tdawe

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #34 on: December 07, 2012, 06:46:06 PM
I know he leans more to conducting these days, but I'm surprised no one else loves Vladimir Ashkenazy!

Pollini and Argerich are also sublime pianists... outstanding.
Musicology student & amateur pianist
Currently focusing on:
Shostakovich Op.87, Chopin Op.37, Misc. Bartok

Offline mahlermaniac

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #35 on: December 07, 2012, 06:48:05 PM
I do rather enjoy Ashkenazy  ;D

Offline blazekenny

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #36 on: December 07, 2012, 07:20:00 PM
I know he leans more to conducting these days, but I'm surprised no one else loves Vladimir Ashkenazy!

Pollini and Argerich are also sublime pianists... outstanding.
Pollini is quite an interesting case. I have listened to his performance on the Chopin Competition and I think its pretty bad. Overall, he has always been a piano demolisher who only got popular for his amazing memory - Ability to play play Boulez sonatas on concerts without sheet music. But when he got cancer, something broke in him and his playing got so much softer. God, his late Schubert sonatas are amazing !!!

Offline cmg

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #37 on: December 07, 2012, 09:20:42 PM
Valentina lisitsa is my favorite female pianist. 

Is it true Lisitsa was busted in Cleveland last month for shoplifting?  The year before she reportedly punched a clerk at an Albuquerque WalMart for not giving her the "Blue Light" special for free.  Any truth to these rumors?
Current repertoire:  "Come to Jesus" (in whole-notes)

Offline rao217

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #38 on: December 07, 2012, 10:58:40 PM
I've never been to an actual concert, so I'll go by my recordings:

Pollini's Chopin Etudes are marvellous
Askhenazy's Nocturnes and Balldes (also Chopin's) are unparalleled
Argreich is spectacular, but she takes some pieces a bit more quickly than I'm comfortable with
Finally, Joe Hisiahshi (who is not at all classical) composes some nifty stuff and plays them fairly well. I don't think he can compare to the "giants" listed above, though.
"Instead of giving you a chance to say 'He has made a mistake,' he forced you to say 'He has shown how to get out of a mistake.'"

-Amy Fay, on an 1870s Liszt performance

Offline rachmaninoff_forever

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #39 on: December 08, 2012, 02:00:04 AM
Is it true Lisitsa was busted in Cleveland last month for shoplifting?  The year before she reportedly punched a clerk at an Albuquerque WalMart for not giving her the "Blue Light" special for free.  Any truth to these rumors?

Hey, weren't you the guy who said that you made out with her in your car?!

Don't tarnish her name!!! >:( >:( >:(
Live large, die large.  Leave a giant coffin.

Offline cmg

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #40 on: December 08, 2012, 05:57:54 PM
Hey, weren't you the guy who said that you made out with her in your car?!

Don't tarnish her name!!! >:( >:( >:(

Didn't mean to!  I just like bad girls with good octaves.   ;D
Current repertoire:  "Come to Jesus" (in whole-notes)

Offline vsrinivasa

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #41 on: December 08, 2012, 06:29:43 PM
Mitsuko Uchida is my favourite today. I listened to her rendition of Mozart K. 576 this morning, and it was amazing.

Offline ladychopin

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #42 on: December 11, 2012, 12:14:45 AM
There is something else in Argerich....

Offline cadenza14224

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #43 on: December 11, 2012, 03:19:09 AM
For the quality of playing: A tie between Argerich and Ashkenazy
For the eyes:  Alice Sara Ott
For the sheer (yet unbalanced) virtuosity: Yuja Wang and Freddy Kempf

Offline the89thkey

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #44 on: December 14, 2012, 03:39:28 AM
Nikolai Lugansky's Rach 3 is brilliant.

Offline sevencircles

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #45 on: December 14, 2012, 08:30:20 AM
Nikolai Lugansky's Rach 3 is brilliant.

He only spent 3 days of practice before he could play it that well apparently.  :o

Just a myth perhaps.  ::)

Offline the89thkey

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #46 on: December 14, 2012, 05:25:42 PM
He practiced 12 hours for 3 days and learned the whole piece, yes. Not a myth.
However, of course he couldn't play it then as well as he does now. He just knew the notes. Today his recording is one of the best around.

Offline dylbert

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #47 on: December 14, 2012, 05:32:07 PM
Louis Lortie!

Offline the89thkey

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #48 on: December 14, 2012, 08:36:35 PM
Louis Lortie!
Never heard of him. What repertoire does he do best?

Offline thesuineg

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Re: Who is your favourite alive pianist?
Reply #49 on: December 15, 2012, 04:36:08 AM
Me.  ;D

Where can I hear you play, I'm curious.


Pogorelich, though idk recently
Uchida for sure

i don't see anything good in ashkenazy, but i've only heard his ballades, someone wanna enlighten me?


BTW WHO SAID YUJA WANG.........
Have you heard her mozart sonata when she was like 11 years old. A complete robot. Children are supposed to be naturally good at mozart since they relate to the kind of innocence and pure vitality, but Yuja Wang was already trained too damn hard by 11 years old to understand a simply mozart sonata(I actually like that sonata)...
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