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Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

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Topic: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great (Read 2781 times)

fftransform

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Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

on: August 20, 2021, 07:56:17 AM

We all have favorites, but probably we also all have some "big names" that we don't really like. But I'm more interested in pianists who you didn't like for a long time, but then found a recording(s) that won you over. For me, the Richter Miroirs (the 1965 Prague one) and Kissin's Pictures at an Exhibition come to mind, I used to think both were very dry. Ok, Richter is still pretty dry usually, but it showed me the genius everyone always talks about. His Shosty p&f performances are also unparalleled in some of them.

Feel free to also list people who you don't like but are open to reevaluating. For example, I've never been impressed with Yuja (beyond her awesome technique), but I remember hearing more recent stuff that was much more colorful and mature, sound-wise. If someone knows some interesting recent interps of hers I'd check them out.

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lelle

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #1 on: August 22, 2021, 09:54:29 PM

Ohhh that's a tricky question. I generally don't consider pianists great if most of their playing feels "eeeeh" and then there's one recording that is good

Pianists I think are great generally have many recordings I like and few I don't like.

Richter is a bit of a special case because he has many recordings I love a great deal, but he also has many recordings that are not to my taste (generally feeling too fast and mechanical).

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anacrusis

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #2 on: August 29, 2021, 09:39:47 PM

Khatia Buniatishvili's playing is not always my cup of tea, but there are many things to like in this interpretation:

Beautifully orchestrated, emotional, just great.

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lostinidlewonder

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #3 on: August 30, 2021, 02:31:40 AM

"At the age of 26, while on tour in Venice, he read in the papers about a flood disaster back in his native Hungary. He hightailed it to Vienna to give concerts in aid of the victims. They were a huge success, raising so much money that his was the biggest private donation to the relief fund."

The greatest pianist ever!!! No need to even mention the name.

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jacobson747

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #4 on: August 30, 2021, 03:23:55 AM

Quote from: lostinidlewonder on August 30, 2021, 02:31:40 AM

"At the age of 26, while on tour in Venice, he read in the papers about a flood disaster back in his native Hungary. He hightailed it to Vienna to give concerts in aid of the victims. They were a huge success, raising so much money that his was the biggest private donation to the relief fund."

The greatest pianist ever!!! No need to even mention the name.

Franz Liszt? Liszt's charitable performances convinced you that he is a great philanthropist and therefore a great pianist? Interesting!

For me, I heard a recording of the Beethoven Diabelli variations and Bach Goldberg variations by a pianist I knew to be famous but never heard play. His name - Igor Levit. I knew from these 2 recordings that he is in fact a great pianist - one of the greatest living today. In some ways, maybe the greatest living. His recording of the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven only further confirmed this for me. My only wish - Slow down a little a small number of movements of the 32 sonata set. That's it.

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lostinidlewonder

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #5 on: August 30, 2021, 05:09:31 AM

I mean, it's only a small part of it all but this kind of selflessness is something you don't see much of in super stars. Perhaps the fact that royalty would change official plans to go listen to him play? I have no idea which royal member would change anything to listen to a pianist these days

Greatness can be measured in many ways I guess.

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ivorycherry

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #6 on: August 30, 2021, 01:43:29 PM

Pogorelich Playing Chopin scherzo 3 really really impressed me(I’m not one to judge who’s great or not).

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fftransform

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #7 on: August 30, 2021, 07:12:49 PM

Anyone here convinced that Trifonov is some sort of genius? I've yet to be impressed by . . . anything of theirs tbh. What's their best?

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anacrusis

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #8 on: September 01, 2021, 05:12:48 PM

Trifonov is not my cup of tea as a musician. I'm also surprised that Richter recording won you over on Miroirs, his Noctuelles is rather fast and... brusque? Which is not the right character for some night moths to me

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fftransform

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Re: Performances that Convinced you a Pianist is Great

Reply #9 on: September 01, 2021, 06:58:13 PM

Quote from: anacrusis on September 01, 2021, 05:12:48 PM

Trifonov is not my cup of tea as a musician. I'm also surprised that Richter recording won you over on Miroirs, his Noctuelles is rather fast and... brusque? Which is not the right character for some night moths to me

I'm not a big fan of that choice either - though the technical execution of the concept is still awesome. Did you listen to the Alborada from that recital? It starts at 14:00, the timestamps are messed up on that upload.

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