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Best Pianest in History?

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Lemurnator

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I've always loved piano music but I don't know much anything about the people some consider virtuosos of the instrument. Of any time period who is pretty much generally accepted as the most skilled, gifted, genious pianest?
 
I don't know what the experts will say, but I know Rachmaninov was a pretty damn good pianist in his prime.
 
It's pianist. And probably Mozart, although I would think you could certainly consider Beethoven, Rachmaninov and Liszt as well.
 
Take your pick, there aren't too many in that elite class (this list isn't comprehensive, but covers a lot):

* Arthur Rubinstein
* Vladimir Horowitz
* Sviatoslav Richter
* Sergei Rachmaninoff
* Franz Liszt
* Sergei Prokofiev
* Frédéric Chopin
* Charles-Valentin Alkan
* Kenneth Allen
* Martha Argerich
* Claudio Arrau
* Vladimir Ashkenazy
* Ludwig van Beethoven
* Jorge Bolet
* Johannes Brahms
* Alfred Brendel
* Van Cliburn
* Alfred Cortot
* Georges Cziffra
* Bill Evans
* Leopold Godowsky
* Glenn Gould
* Friedrich Gulda
* Marc-André Hamelin
* Yoshiki Hayashi
* Józef Hofmann
* Keith Jarrett
* Evgeny Kissin
* Li Yundi
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
* Maurizio Pollini
* Bud Powell
* Anton Rubinstein
* Jordan Rudess
* Clara Schumann
* Rudolph Serkin
* Dmitri Shostakovich
* Art Tatum
* Arcadi Volodos
* Krystian Zimerman
 
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Now, Pianist as in actual Piano virtuoso... we can only really judge from the start of recorded music, not before. We can surmise that people like Mozart were outstanding pianists, but we really don't know. All we know for certain is that they were good composers.
 
typhonsentra said:
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Once....twice....three times....

Personally, I'm a Beethoven man.
 
Frédéric Chopin was the most technically gifted. His piano pieces are some of the hardest compositions for pianists to play.

Keith Jarrett is probably the best jazz piants alive today. His improvisational skills are unmatched.


Yes, and looking at Cyborg's list, I am reminded that Glenn Gould was the shit back in the day.
 
1 more

Dmitris Sgouros.

Mstislav Rostropovich is a great pianist but a better cellist my sister tell me. She plays in a symphony so who am i to argue
 
This guy:

17.jpg
 
I'd say that (for me) it would be a tie between Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.
 
OpinionatedCyborg said:
Besides being an amazing player, his unorthodox playing style made him interesting to watch. Canadian too!
Click to expand...

His recordings are very interesting because if you listen closely you can hear him grunting and making other strange noises while he plays.

A truly fascinating individual.
 
I don't know who the best is, but I know my favourite piece...

Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No 2 - I Moderato Allegro; II Adagio Sostenuto; III Allegro Scherzando
 
There's always somebody better. For example John Petrucci and Ywngie Malmsteen are incredibly talented guitarists but there's probably a handful of guitarists even more amazing that people just don't know about yet (and might never). Such as someone that has mastered the Sitar that would end up being one of the best guitarists (I assume theres similarities between the 2 instruments but I just kind of threw that one out there).

There's not as many videos of pianists floating around the internert as there are guitarists. But I'd have to say some contemporary Jazz pianists (which I prefer over classical music) would be considered some of the best. I say contemporary because it seems virtuoso musicians are pushing the limits more and more as time progresses.
 
Frédéric Chopin - amazing stuff; quite melancholy. Composer who wrote the most pieces for piano solo. The movie "The Pianist" - its soundtrack is all Chopin - and very good at that.

George Gershwin - the jazz mood is great; most modern of my choices; I love "Rhapsody in Blue."

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Franz Liszt
Ludwig van Beethoven
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
 
Zero said:
Frédéric Chopin - amazing stuff; quite melancholy. Composer who wrote the most pieces for piano solo. The movie "The Pianist" - its soundtrack is all Chopin - and very good at that.
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Interesting/off-topic fact: My aunt met the main actor from the movie "The Pianist" at a small party (only 5-7 people) and got to talk with him for about 3 hours.
 
tt_deeb said:
Interesting/off-topic fact: My aunt met the main actor from the movie "The Pianist" at a small party (only 5-7 people) and got to talk with him for about 3 hours.
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That's cool. I like Adrien Brody as an actor, I guess. "The Pianist" was an awesome movie.

What'd he have to say? Three hours is quite a while.
 
There sure are a lot of people confusing "pianist" with "piano composer".
 
Non Classical:

Galt McDermot is pretty dope. He's the guy who scored HAIR. His song "Coffee Cold" is a killer.
 
demon said:
There sure are a lot of people confusing "pianist" with "piano composer".
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Quite a few composers also played piano as well, you know. Rachmaninov in particular was allegedly a beast without peer.
 
Raoul Duke said:
Quite a few composers also played piano as well, you know. Rachmaninov in particular was allegedly a beast without peer.
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I know, but people here are referring to composers' compositions, not their playing. And besides, how can you really comment on a pianist's playing without ever having heard it?
 
Raoul Duke said:
Quite a few composers also played piano as well, you know. Rachmaninov in particular was allegedly a beast without peer.
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Agreed Rachmaninov was an astounding talent. He only had 9 days to practice the his 3rd piano concerto before he left to america for a tour where it would debut. Still I think Listz could've taken him.
 
Scott Joplin was pretty good... and you can hear recordings of him playing, thanks to piano rolls punched as he played.
 
There are some horrible responses in this thread, and from posters I respect too. Man! *shudder*

The best pianist in history was Franz Liszt; there are simply no two ways about it. He single-handedly invented the solo recital in the 1830s. He elevated the instrumental virtuoso above the opera diva for the first time ever. He dominated the concert platform for thirty years solid and continued to teach and compose for twenty years after that, eventually producing about a thousand compositions, with roughly 80% written for piano. And after his death, his pianistic and compositional style gave rise to no fewer than four distinct musical movements in the early 20th century, each of which would remain influential to composers until the 1950s.

And besides which, it was widely agreed by his contemporaries that he had not merely the most powerful mechanism up to that time, but also an entrancing, Orpheus-taming-the-beasts kind of warm, full tone that could send shivers up the spine of everyone in the audience. I can't think of any pianist alive today with that kind of charisma.
 
sonarrat said:
There are some horrible responses in this thread, and from posters I respect too. Man! *shudder*

The best pianist in history was Franz Liszt; there are simply no two ways about it. He single-handedly invented the solo recital in the 1830s. He elevated the instrumental virtuoso above the opera diva for the first time ever. He dominated the concert platform for thirty years solid and continued to teach and compose for twenty years after that, eventually producing about a thousand compositions, with roughly 80% written for piano. And after his death, his pianistic and compositional style gave rise to no fewer than four distinct musical movements in the early 20th century, each of which would remain influential to composers until the 1950s.

And besides which, it was widely agreed by his contemporaries that he had not merely the most powerful mechanism up to that time, but also an entrancing, Orpheus-taming-the-beasts kind of warm, full tone that could send shivers up the spine of everyone in the audience. I can't think of any pianist alive today with that kind of charisma.
Click to expand...

See? Told ya Listz could've taken him.
 
sonarrat said:
There are some horrible responses in this thread, and from posters I respect too. Man! *shudder*

The best pianist in history was Franz Liszt; there are simply no two ways about it. He single-handedly invented the solo recital in the 1830s. He elevated the instrumental virtuoso above the opera diva for the first time ever. He dominated the concert platform for thirty years solid and continued to teach and compose for twenty years after that, eventually producing about a thousand compositions, with roughly 80% written for piano. And after his death, his pianistic and compositional style gave rise to no fewer than four distinct musical movements in the early 20th century, each of which would remain influential to composers until the 1950s.

And besides which, it was widely agreed by his contemporaries that he had not merely the most powerful mechanism up to that time, but also an entrancing, Orpheus-taming-the-beasts kind of warm, full tone that could send shivers up the spine of everyone in the audience. I can't think of any pianist alive today with that kind of charisma.
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Plus he supposedly had countesses and baronesses fighting in the aisles to get close to him. Rock star before rock, as it were.
 
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