Negative opinions about great pianists

[stormx]

Hi!!

I am by no means an expert in classical music, but i have recently been listening a lot of it, specially piano music (piano alone, or piano with orchestra).
I have my favourites composers (Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Schumann, Schubert), and i try to buy CDs by famous interpreters.
This way i have performances by:
Argerich, Arrau, Gulda, Kempff, Schiff, Pollini, Cziffra, Freire, Barenboim, Davidovich, Bolet, among those who i remember right now.

Now, lets go to the point:
I have many times read opinions in this forum like:
"Argerich sucks"
"Pollini interpretations of xxxx is horrible"
"Stay away of any recording of xxxxx by Cziffra"
etc, etc

I really find those opinions completely exagerated.

IMHO, any recording of a great composer by a great pianist is worth to listen to it, and can NEVER be considered horrible. Of course, you may have your personal preferences, but i insist that calling "crap" ANY recording of a greast pianist  is completely injustified and unfair.

What do you think?

[dinosaurtales]

I believe that part of the reason you see so many negative reacitons to a player that seem too extreme to be realistic, is that many of these players get built up by the press, themselves, and other musicians in such an extreme way as to be unrealistcally god-like.  It's just a normal way of disagreeing with so much hype.

It's sooooo subjective - it's not like the Olympics, where we hype the heck out of an athlete, but if he doesn't cross the line first.............

Where folks get irritated (me, too) is when the pianist starts to buy his own advertising.  In other words, he starts hyping himself.  That's why there are so many negative posts about Lang Lang - he's become unbearable to be around he's so pleased with himself. 

So even though the posts may appear negative and unproductive, it's one of our only places to vent against irritating behavior.

Mindy

[anda]

IMHO, any recording of a great composer by a great pianist is worth to listen to it, and can NEVER be considered horrible. Of course, you may have your personal preferences, but i insist that calling "crap" ANY recording of a greast pianist  is completely injustified and unfair.

not always. there are performances (i'm thinking right now about some in particular, but i will not name names here - it's irrelevant) that get you thinking "how on earth could x play so bad???".

question is: can you just say "oh, x is no pianist" based on one or two catastrophic performances among hundreds of wonderful ones? or will you ignore these and keep listening only to the good ones?

[stormx]

not always. there are performances (i'm thinking right now about some in particular, but i will not name names here - it's irrelevant) that get you thinking "how on earth could x play so bad???".

question is: can you just say "oh, x is no pianist" based on one or two catastrophic performances among hundreds of wonderful ones? or will you ignore these and keep listening only to the good ones?

I can imagine catastrophic live performances, because every human being can have a bad day...but catastrophic recordings? Didnt the pianist, or the producer, or anyone from the music company realize that it was very bad and should be NOT PUBLISHED? 

[allchopin]

I have many times read opinions in this forum like:
"Argerich sucks"
"Pollini interpretations of xxxx is horrible"
"Stay away of any recording of xxxxx by Cziffra"
etc, etc

any recording of a great composer by a great pianist is worth to listen to it, and can NEVER be considered horrible.

Why not?
Any recording could be considered horrible, if you think it is horrible, not matter who is working the keys.  The first stereotypical statement is different from the second and third, because a generalization about an artist is different than a dislike of a certain recording or set of recordings.  Like you said, every pianist has his/her bad day, as well as his/her ill-fitting niche at the piano (ie, pieces that doesn't suit their style best).  I find it perfectly acceptable to hate a recording by a great artist, which I do very often.  But I don't disrespect them for this.

[anda]

I can imagine catastrophic live performances, because every human being can have a bad day...but catastrophic recordings? Didnt the pianist, or the producer, or anyone from the music company realize that it was very bad and should be NOT PUBLISHED? 

i said performances, not recordings. and, anyway, i have a (live) recording with a great pianist whom i otherwise adore performing the worst brahms 2nd i have ever heard. so what? i never saw in any great pianist more than an exceptional HUMAN being.

[SteinwayTony]

Negative opinions about great pianists = a Piano Forum bloodbath, waiting, asking, begging to happen.

[steinwayguy]

Argerich is terrible in everything I've heard of her, with the exception of Ravel, Prokofiev and Bartok. She's a pianist first, musician second, as best I can tell.

If you want bad performances/recordings, I could make an enormous list of them. There are tremendous amounts of "horrible" performances. Ex. David Helfgott's Rachmaninoff Third, Horowitz's Mephisto Waltz, Argerich's Schumann Concerto.

I can't imagine how you can go around saying every recording by every "great" pianist is worth listening to. I know of a lot of performances that I know I will never listen to again; they're just not worth hearing.

[anda]

I can't imagine how you can go around saying every recording by every "great" pianist is worth listening to.

hey, you also have to learn what NOT to do!

I know of a lot of performances that I know I will never listen to again; they're just not worth hearing.

of course. which doesn't mean you will never listen anything recorded by those particular pianists.

[brewtality]

I love Horowitz's Mephisto Waltz

[Pianoquake]

There are tremendous amounts of "horrible" performances. Ex. David Helfgott's Rachmaninoff Third, Horowitz's Mephisto Waltz, Argerich's Schumann Concerto.

Helfgott is rather sloppy, but I have a video performance of Argerich with Decker and it's not bad at all (but not as good as the Romanians, or Fleisher)

[Troldhaugen]

The definition of " horrible" could be very subjective. It's very possible for many great pianists to give less-than-ideal performances, but they cannot not be a fiasco for sure..otherwise they wouldn't be called "great" in the first place. Each person has a different taste, preference...and so on.

[lostinidlewonder]

Hail Arrau! lol