Pianists who are not famous...but good

[frederic]

I've been fascinated by some pianists who are not well known.
I've got some "Prism Classics" CD's which are budget CD's of the basic classics like Beethoven' 9th and Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. Tea Kalandadze was on a few of them. He (or she, i have no idea) played Rach's Rhapsody on a theme of paganini on one of them. It is the best recording i've heard of this piece even though Tea Kalandadze was only credited with his (or her) name at the back of the CD in very small font.
Also i've heard a few recordings of Kuzmin. He's very good too.

Have you heard any recordings by pianists which you think deserves to be more well known??  

[willcowskitz]

Being a pianist isn't like it used to be. In my opinion there aren't many great pianists out there, but "alright".

Take Horowitz or Liszt, they must have been good for real. Cziffra's playing was freaking divine as well. Rachmaninoff himself couldn't concentrate on playing much because of his composing but he could had been good if he really cared about _playing_ the piano that much. Then there are hundreds of "great" pianists that could never reach the capabilities of those who really deserved the attention they got. Now there's Arcadi Volodos, and after hearing a couple of his recordings he certainly will join the group of GREAT pianists. Only been naming a couple romanticians I should bring in Glenn Gould. He wasn't much liked by certain people but he was good at playing Beethoven and Bach. He played them in a way that makes it clear for the listener that the player is actually understanding what his instrument says.

Speaking of pianists at all... I visited Volodos' "official" site and it has this disgusting Sony-stuff on it. It didn't take long to figure out that Sony "owns" Volodos and the praises are actually inspired by the dollar signs blinking in their eyes. All that worshipping critics stuff started to soon disgust me with its exaggeration. Too bad, since Volodos is GOOD.

Many pianists just tackle through their musical studies, mechanically play the instrument and seek for record companies to make themselves fortune. I suppose its a burning-out trend from the 1800's and there are already so many pianists that its difficult to stand out of the crowd. In that sense, congrats to anyone who succeeds at it even to some degree.

[frederic]

Glenn Gould? Not liked by some people? Hes one of the giants of 20th century pianists!
Yes thats true. Some pianists just play the piano, as you said, mechanically and look for a recording company. And they normally end up with a company which records very basic and popular with everyone master pieces which are aimed for people with not much musical knowledge. So even one of those pianist plays like rubbish, these people will think its fantastic.
But, yes, some of them ARE actually good.  

[davy10tunes]

Frederic, I have also discovered a few pianists who are good but not famous.Two to look out for are Colleen Lee and (not sure of the spelling) Von Echenstein.I heard both of these pianists in competitions, they didn't win but they should have.I have been to concerts of world famous pianists who didn't even come close to these two musically, I cannot recomend them highly enough.
Willcowskitz, you are entitled to your own opinion but I strongly disagree with your outrageous comment about Rachmaninoff's playing. Is there something you don't like about it?From what I've read and the recordings I've heard I believe he did care intensly about his playing and can only suggest that you listen carefully to his recordings and read a book about his life if you haven't already.Listen to the Ampico recordings.

David

[willcowskitz]

Frederic: Gould WAS an arguable character in the piano world. Not nearly everyone even liked his way of playing or interpreting or how he hummed at the piano. It was afterwards when appreciation towards him started to rise. I still wouldn't go on calling him a giant if I didn't actually fully agree with it.

davy10tunes: I read a book about Rachmaninoff. He was never really into piano playing as much as he was into composing. He HATED performing, for example. He was a better conductor than a pianist. I've heard several of his recordings and the sound quality unfortunately is very poor always, with all the crackles, clicks and *bzzzzz*. His playing is alright, good even. But his self-critical inconfidence and perfectionistic view didn't allow him to get better than that. When he had first heard Horowitz's performance of his third concerto he didn't want to play it again himself. Rachmaninoff wasn't recognised for his piano playing skills nearly as much as from his capable tone and melodic memory and musical ear. He wasn't a loser at the piano though... At the conservatory he used to perform piano duo pieces with other students and sometimes they ended up trying to out-play each other by increasing the tempo. Rachmaninoff was always victorious. Still I think his piano playing wasn't like Horowitz's or Cziffra's, for example. It was not _virtuousic_. (if that's even a word)

[davy10tunes]

Willcowskitz, we will just have to agree to disagree, though I hope you will keep listening to Rachmaninoff and in time come to realize how great his playing really was.It is in no way inferior to the playing of Horowitz or Cziffra, sure, he was very self critical but if you want to improve you have to be.Rach never considered himself a finished pianist and strived to improve his technique all his life, even after his concert career was over.Just because someone isn't impressed by their own playing does not mean that it is not good.Take (in my opinion the greatest living pianist)Martha Argerich for example, she also does not like to perform and does not regard her playing as anything special.Do you think if she didn't have this "self-critical inconfidence" there would be room for improvement?

 David

[amp]

I agree with Davy....I think Rachmaninoff is an incredibule player, and he should be considered at the same level and Horowitz like Davy mentioned.

To answer Fredric's question, I think a lot of College music professors. At my school the profesors are recorded, very good and known in the music circle, but they are not Rachmaninoff's of this day. I'm reading a book on Vladmir Ashkenazy, he mentioned that the teachers in American tend to be the "in-between" performers (as if they couldn't make it as a concert pianist), but in Russian it is only the best performers that are teachers. Interesting.

[frederic]

Regarding Glenn Gould:
I think Glenn Gould has suffered mental illness so he's a bit strange and yes, you can hear him singing in his recordings.

After Liszt, Rachmaninoff is one of the greatest pianists who ever lived.
But the reason why he hates performing so much is because he's always travelling and is sick of it. Like once when he was about to board a train a friend asked him "when will you be home?" and Rachmaninoff pointed at a train and replied "This is my home"
And i totally agree with Davy.

Yes Horowitz was a great pianist but Cziffra.... yes, he was a bit super human with the technique but besides that....whatelse?

   

[amee]

Glenn Gould?  I heard somewhere he much prefered records to actual live playing because there was too much noise in the audience at concerts.  Didn't he die because of a burst blood vessel in his head?  I might be thinking about the wrong person...

[amee]

Yes, Glenn Gould was a bit crazy.

[xenia]

Do you people know pianist KEMAL GEKIC ?

(his CD ''Transcendental etudes'' of Liszt,of course,is famous)

 

[tosca1]

Paradoxically, we may a prefer a good pianist to a famous pianist.
Some pianists have become famous through idiosyncratic playing which may be compelling but coloured more by the performer than the composer.
Fame is an external trapping and can depend on shrewd career moves or even good fortune.  Fame seekers are likely to egocentric and that can be a problem with playing the piano as the performer may be unable to  fathom  the musical depths  of what is being played.
Certainly there are some amazing pianists who have become famous by virtue of their pianistic integrity. However the good pianists by far outnumber the famous and that is not necessarily a bad thing.

[willcowskitz]

davy10tunes: I must disagree. His playing could be called "lifeless" if anything (just a sec before you jump off the chair... OF COURSE I'm speaking for myself). And you got stuck with the fact that I pointed out he was self-criticistic (huh?). I didn't mean it resulted in him not being a good piano player, but his OVER-self-criticism did have a bad impact on his confidence, and that DID affect his mood and via mood just about everything. He was TOO perfectionistic, if you ask me. I don't feel like arguing about such thing as "how good do YOU think HE played?" anyway. I'm sure we can agree here. (agree to disagree)  

Frederic:  Seriously how do you know how good Rachmaninoff was? Read about it? I did too, and when Liszt has been said to be unbelievably energetic and how when he played the piano the room filled with mysterious atmosphere and direct transfering of emotions from his part to the audience, Rachmaninoff has mostly been said to be accurate and fast. I'm sure he did enjoy music, but not really his own when hearing it from himself. Rachmaninoff was not a virtuoso in the same sense as Horowitz or, YES, Cziffra. Cziffra is fast ok he's all that crap, unbelievable technical abilities and accuracy and whatever. To add: he's energetic, thoughtful, temperamentic and one of my favourite interpreters. His playing is rich in colour and mood changes. Too many times I have to agree with his interpretations of pieces, he simply is <insert a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious word>. Just because he is technically <insert a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious word> it doesn't mean one has to suspect his spiritual side. Anything he plays sounds so deep AND he has the ability to make almost anything sound easy. Have you really listened to many of Cziffra's recordings? I've heard a couple of Rachmaninoff's and well, too bad the recording technology was crap at the times, but they aren't really very enjoyable. To me it seems you think too little and agree too much. That is, of course, just my personal view based on the profile I've drawn of you without really knowing you. Stay on the chair.

p.s.  I'll look for Rachmaninoff's records still. Of course I want to hear how a person like him played music. I'll be sure to let you know if I find a good recording, maybe even something that could prove him to having had virtuousic abilities.  

[frederic]

I'm off my chair...