My ranking of top classical pianists
| Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/09/23 | | Hateful carnelian tank legend | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/09/23 | | Hateful carnelian tank legend | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/09/23 | | Hateful carnelian tank legend | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/16/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Flickering Stimulating Telephone | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Flickering Stimulating Telephone | 12/09/23 | | Rough-skinned Bronze Spot | 12/09/23 | | vivacious reading party | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Flickering Stimulating Telephone | 12/09/23 | | Lavender fiercely-loyal stag film | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Sapphire Hairless University Windowlicker | 12/10/23 | | vivacious reading party | 12/10/23 | | motley navy area water buffalo | 12/10/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Shimmering Dysfunction Becky | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Sapphire Hairless University Windowlicker | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Provocative aqua volcanic crater nibblets | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Comical mexican space | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Comical mexican space | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Comical mexican space | 12/09/23 | | Comical mexican space | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Trip sneaky criminal | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Bespoke bawdyhouse | 12/09/23 | | Rough-skinned Bronze Spot | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/09/23 | | Sapphire Hairless University Windowlicker | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Sapphire Hairless University Windowlicker | 12/10/23 | | Flickering Stimulating Telephone | 12/09/23 | | Excitant senate | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | exciting balding azn | 12/09/23 | | Out-of-control point | 12/09/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | vivacious reading party | 12/10/23 | | vengeful cuckoldry | 12/10/23 | | vivacious reading party | 12/10/23 | | Flickering Stimulating Telephone | 12/10/23 | | vivacious reading party | 12/16/23 | | cyan stubborn forum idea he suggested | 12/10/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Provocative aqua volcanic crater nibblets | 12/10/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Provocative aqua volcanic crater nibblets | 12/16/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 | | Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe | 12/16/23 |
Poast new message in this thread
Date: December 9th, 2023 6:43 PM Author: Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe
Used to be a classical pianist till I burned out (wasn't good enough)
1. Richter
2. Horowitz
3. Pollini
4. Kissin
5. Argerich
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152171) |
Date: December 9th, 2023 6:47 PM Author: Hateful carnelian tank legend
i used to play the piano a lot and know the big names. only one on this list that makes sense is Richter.
Horowitz is too flashy and lacks depth
Pollini too mechanical
Kissin way way way too autistic
Argerich -- simply can't stand her Prokofiev
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152180) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 6:50 PM Author: Twinkling multi-colored box office sweet tailpipe
these are from my generation. There are new talents like Trifonov.
Most overrated pianist is Arrau.
Other good pianists:
Schiff
Sokolov
Ashkenazy
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152185) |
|
Date: December 16th, 2023 1:48 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
No they aren't.
SOURCE: I have "a deeper understanding of the sheet music and technical challenges."
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47177007) |
Date: December 9th, 2023 7:51 PM Author: Excitant senate
pleasantly surprised to see richter at #1.
but list needs more kempf and brendel
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152382) |
Date: December 9th, 2023 7:53 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
Here's the definitive list of GOAT classical pianists in history, limiting the discussion to only those pianists who left behind a sufficiently large recorded legacy to make educated assessments:
1. Josef Hofmann (Rachmaninoff agreed with this)
2. Sergei Rachmaninoff (Hofmann always said Rachmaninoff was #1 and he was #2)
3. Sviatoslav Richter
4. Josef Lhevinne (this is borderline -- he left behind some amazing recordings but it's a pretty small and non-diverse pool of material)
5. Dinu Lipatti (perhaps unfairly penalized for dying very young, but that's the way it goes -- he might have been higher up on the list if he had lived another decade or two)
Honorable Mentions: Gould (in Bach only), Gyorgy Cziffra (in Liszt only), Horowitz (in a subset of Romantic literature only), Leopold Godowsky, Ignaz Friedman, Moriz Rosenthal, maaaaaybe Alfred Cortot in his younger years but that's hard to say with certainty.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152391) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:48 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
I agree, and Gould (for example) was actually pretty fantastic at a lot of 20th Century music.
My parentheticals are slight oversimplifications, but the point is that Gould was Gould because of his Bach, and Cziffra was Cziffra because of his Liszt, notwithstanding the fact that they were both musical geniuses who also did some other things very very well.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152579) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:16 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
Yes to the former, "meh it's more complicated than that" to the latter.
On my list above, we know that all of the "Golden Age" classical pianists were excellent improvisers (because it was expected at that time) and we actually have some recordings where Hofmann improvises. Obviously Rachmaninoff was a next-level improviser, as are all basically all top-tier composers.
Here's a video of Cziffra improvising that matches Tatum in both virtuosity and creativity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVOcF-Fz2tY&ab_channel=Carrut
Incidentally, Cziffra was also an excellent Jazz pianist who grew up playing in Jazz cafes in Hungary.
I have never heard Richter improvise and I'm not aware of reports that he did it, but I'm sure it was within his ability to do so. And even if he never chose to develop that skillset, it doesn't take away anything from the fact that he is easily a Top 5 All Time contender.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152480) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:43 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
I actually do blame classical musicians for focusing entirely on the recreative element of their art and abandoning the creative (not just interpretively but musically) element. The wholesale death of that skillset has turned modern classical music into a dead art in a way that was absolutely not the case 100 years ago.
I think that gets to the heart of what you're saying -- it's the difference between part of a living tradition and being a master of a functionally dead tradition. And I agree with that distinction as a fundamental dividing line. I was just taking issue with the suggestion that it cleaves down to "Jazz pianists vs. Classical pianists" in the context of this thread, because almost every GOAT classical pianist contender I listed above was a first rate improviser and a part of a living tradition.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152560) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:17 PM Author: Comical mexican space
Jerry Lee Lewis played with his feet:
https://youtu.be/h90cfSZ65sg?t=153
That's him as an old man too. Look at him in the 50s.
I deliberately picked Peterson because I wasn't trying to pick the best improviser or best anything really, just a guy I enjoy listening to. Tatum isn't classical.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152483) |
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:39 PM Author: Rough-skinned Bronze Spot
If we count Harpsichord it’s Pierre Hantaï easily not even close
Distant 2nd is Gould but his audio recordings are sps mostly for some reason (one of the few things TBF is cr about tbf)
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152553) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:45 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
Yeah and if we count French Horn, then it's Dennis Brain easily not even close. Whew, this is getting really complicated!
...good thing that OP carefully specified "pianists," and therefore we aren't talking about any other instruments which aren't "the piano" ITT.
Retard.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152564) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:51 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
"Oh well I mean yes, certainly Hofmann was exceptional in many ways, but [since I'm not really prepared to discuss his discography but I want to participate in this thread to show off without having to risk revealing that] in the realm of *the pipe organ*..."
Just shut the fuck up faggot
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152585) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 8:58 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
Here's an acoustic recording of Widor playing his famous "Toccata" on the organ for which he composed it at the age of 88 in April 1932, just one year before he finally retired and let Dupre replace him as titular organist at Saint-Sulpice after an unprecedented tenure of 63 years holding down the fort:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8vz1D_L_OE&ab_channel=GrandCorps
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152606) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 9:18 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
If you weren't so busy being a faggot about Gould upthread, I would share some anecdotes about how he used to go exercise his ears/mind by sitting down in the middle of random restaurants in Toronto with two or three notebooks and a pen in each hand, and then spend an hour or so eavesdropping on multiple conversations that were going on in different booths around him while furiously transcribing all them verbatim simultaneously using stenographer's shorthand.
Source: Lukas Foss (who watched him do it a few times while they were out at dinner together) once told me about it and showed me one of the notebooks he had kept as a souvenir. Incidentally, Foss himself was a sniveling beta little third-tier kike composer whom Gould literally cucked, and by all accounts Foss loved every minute of it. Some things never change...
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152671) |
|
Date: December 9th, 2023 9:25 PM Author: Out-of-control point
To be fair,
*Unzips*
Link?
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5457843&forum_id=2#47152693) |
|
|