Best performance of...

[pianoman53]

I'm sure that there has been a topic like this made before, but I'm simply too lazy to find out. Also, it should be renewed a bit once in a while, shouldn't it?

So my hopes are that people will share, what they think is, the best performance of pieces. Also, it would be fun if it would be a bit more than "Chopin Ballade no 1 - Zimmerman, Chopin Ballade no 2 - Zimmerman, Chopin Ballade no 3 - Zimmerman...."

The point is obviously to bring, hopefully, new recordings to the table, and to make people aware of all the beautiful recordings that actually exists.


So I start with a few:

Chopin, Scherzo no 2 - Louis Kentner:

Schumann Romance no 2 - Benno Moiseiwitch:

Mozart fantasy C-minor Kv 475 - Edwin Fischer:

[perfect_pitch]

Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto - Olga Kern
Brahms - Piano Concerto No. 1 in d minor - Maurizio Pollini/Stephen Kovacevich
Stravinsky - Trois Mouvements de Petrushka - Maurizio Pollini
Liszt - Piano Concerto No. 2 in A - Hungar (don't know the first name)

[pianoman53]

Really, you don't prefer Horowitz or Rachmaninov on the Rach 3? I always thought those two were the best, by far...

Anyway:
Liszt, Un Sospiro - Frederic Lamond (1941):

[blazekenny]

Mussorgsky - Pictures at an exhibition - Sviatoslav Richter
Rachmaninov - 2nd piano concerto - Richter/Karajan
Liszt - Dante Sonata - Arcadi Volodos
Liszt - Les jeux deaux a la villa d´este - Claudio Arrau
Chopin - Complete nocturnes !!! - Ivan Moravec
Brahms - Piano concerto no. 1 d minor - Arthur Rubinstein
Chopin - Polonaise A flat op.53 - Arthur Rubinstein

[perfect_pitch]

Really, you don't prefer Horowitz or Rachmaninov on the Rach 3? I always thought those two were the best, by far...

Nah... Rachmaninoff's is definitely interesting from an historical point of view but he himself said that he was terrible at performance and suffered from anxiety. It's good, but incredibly fast and a little sloppy.

Horowitz's isn't bad, but Kern seems to have a power and intensity that is hard to beat. I've only heard a performance of Horowitz in his 70's, and that performance was pretty weak I thought. Granted he was in his 70's so I was impressed that he could play that piece at his age.

Brahms - Piano concerto no. 1 d minor - Arthur Rubinstein

I've never heard Rubensteins, so I can't possibly debate that, but I think Pollini and Kovacevich is hard to beat.

[xiaoyuhuang43]

Beethoven- Piano Concerto No.4 - Claudio Arrau
Beethoven- Piano Concerto No.5 - Alfred Brendel
Schumann Carnival Op.9 - Claudio Arrau
Liszt Years of Pilgrimage 1 - Alfred Brendel
Ravel Left Hand Concerto - Leon Fleisher
Saint Saens Piano Concerto 2 - Arthur Rubinstein
Bach WTC - Andras Schiff

[rocklandpiano]

It would be a crime to talk about piano in rock without mentioning the Professor, Roy Bittan. Bittan has been playing with Bruce Springsteen since 1975, and he has a prowess at the keyboard like few others in history. I think that this song, more than any other, showcases that. Just listen to the build-up in the opening. He starts with some tender chords, but as he goes on, the piano climaxes to the perfect level of power to match Bruce’s vocals. And that’s saying something.

https://listverse.com/2012/01/01/top-10-greatest-piano-performances-in-rock/

[worov]

Mozart fantasy C-minor Kv 475 - Edwin Fischer:

Edwin Fischer is master. I like it very much. However in Mozart, my favorite interpreter is Mitsuko Uchida :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1D3V4SX-k0

I agree on Ivan Moravec in the Chopin nocturnes. He's one the great Chopin performers.

Claudio Arrau is my favorite Schumann interpreter (I could even say he's my favorite pianist). I also like Cristina Ortiz's recording :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3kEpZq4cBA

[pianoman53]

Edwin Fischer is master. I like it very much. However in Mozart, my favorite interpreter is Mitsuko Uchida :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1D3V4SX-k0

I agree on Ivan Moravec in the Chopin nocturnes. He's one the great Chopin performers.

Claudio Arrau is my favorite Schumann interpreter (I could even say he's my favorite pianist). I also like Cristina Ortiz's recording :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3kEpZq4cBA

I really like some of Uchida's playing, but there is something with modern pianists...There is no spontaneity, and you know that they probably did the mixing at least as long as the playing itself. Though, the c minor fantasy is just a bit too flat for me. It stays in super-p for too long, for my taste. But it's obviously very nice, anyway
 

[chopin2015]

Best beethoven 5th concerto-rubinstein
Best ravel sonatine -gieseking

[kriatina]

Most inspiring Rachmaninov Piano Concertos 1 and 2 played by Peter Katin (Decca 1971).

Most inspiring Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 played by by Malcuzynski (Music for Pleasure 1960).

Most inspiring Chopin preludes and Etudes played by Cortot (1933/1934/1939/1949).

[outin]

I seldom use the word best (especially in this kind of context since there are many performances for me yet to hear). But I was watching a dvd with Michelangeli playing some Scarlatti and Debussy the other night and I must say he did everything with such perfection...I have never been a huge fan of Debussy but played the way he did the set of preludes was pretty captivating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1T958NWjweg


For Scriabin a couple of my favorites (just random pieces from UT, most of what they recorded is worth listening to):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvc2K_5JWho
Sofronitsky

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j8gd_BBWiw
Kastelsky

With Chopin too many good ones to even begin...

[perfect_pitch]

Schumann Carnival Op.9 - Claudio Arrau

Have you heard Michelangeli playing it??? Spectacular...

[pianoman53]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mvc2K_5JWho
Sofronitsky

Ooh, That's one of my favorites too!

[pianist1976]

Chopsticks: Tom Hanks + Robert Loggia duet

[pianoman53]

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody no 6 - Grigory Ginzburg

His Tarantella from Venezia e Napoli used to be my favorite, but now I find it slightly too fast:

[chopin2015]

Ravel sonatine-sokolov

[worov]

My favorite performance of the Goldberg Variations by Rosalyn Tureck :

Part 1 :

Part 2 :

Part 3 :

Part 4 :

Part 5 :

[sehmett]

The point is obviously to bring, hopefully, new recordings to the table, and to make people aware of all the beautiful recordings that actually exists.

Evgeny Kissin - Liszt, La Campanella

Daniil Trifonov - Rachmaninov, Rhapsody on a theme by Paganini

Freddy Kempf - Chopin, Etude Op.10 No. 12

[worov]

I really like some of Uchida's playing, but there is something with modern pianists...There is no spontaneity, and you know that they probably did the mixing at least as long as the playing itself. Though, the c minor fantasy is just a bit too flat for me. It stays in super-p for too long, for my taste. But it's obviously very nice, anyway

I like some old masters too. What about Lili Kraus ?

Clara Haskil is one of my favorite too, but her recording is available in Youtube.

[camille101]

Dinu Lipatti - Alborada del Gracioso.
The best glissandi we will probably ever hear

[kriatina]

Most inspiring deep-feeling Beethoven Sonatas played by Claudio Arrau
and most inspiring Mozart played by Alfred Brendel
(...he is also quite inspiring as a lecturer of music in his Master Classes...
I was very lucky to have a chance and listen to him
when he gave a lecture/Master Class at the College of Music)
and the most inspiring interpreters of "old English music" on keyboards like harpsichords etc.
are for me Thurston Dart and George Malcolm.

[casey3040]

Valentina Lisitsa plays a wonderful Rachmaninoff Prelude in g minor op. 23 no. 5. -

Emmanuel Ax - Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 -

Rach 3 - Either Horowitz or Argerich.
Yundi Li or Lang Lang - La Campanella
Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations