Do any of you have any piano playing idols that you aspire to match?

They can be living or dead...I was just thinking about this today when I looked at a recording of Wilhelm Kempff play the third movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. Absolutely fantastic, and the fact that he's 90 when he played it makes it even better! Was he a better player when younger?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqSulR9Fymg Just fantastic!

Another person is Yundi Lee, his La Campanella is the best i've ever heard.

Not too fond of Lang Lang...too much of a showman really.

What are other's thoughts on this?

George Gershwin and Mrs Mills. Different styles but both knew how to play very well.

Murray Perahia, Mitsuko Uchida, Noriko Ogawa, Angela Hewitt, Masa Tayama are my piano idols.

I always thought Rolf from the Muppets was pretty good!

Seriously though, saw Jools Holland last night, and his show was awesome.
I just hope that one day I might be good enough to polish his piano!

A

I love Ogawa and Hewitt too

I would also love to be able to come close to the way Louis Lortie plays Ravel.

and Perlemuter! has anyone seen his video of Gaspard de la Nuit on youtube? he plays the whole thing chewing gum as if he could quite happily fall asleep- how does he do it!?

And Rachmaninoff of course- now there's inspirational playing if ever i heard it.

Never try to match though- you have to play like yourself, not anyone else.

I watch Valentina Lisitsa videos on you tube.
Her hands are so fast and fluid....and effective. wow wow wow
I aspire to play the Liszt transcription of Die Stadt the way she does, totally gothic.

Bernd Glemser for Schumann and Scriabin, Leif Andsnes for Grieg and Rachmaninov, Marc Andre Hamelin for anything he touches, Thomas Vasary or Baremboim for Chopin, and Mikhail Pletnev as he has so much individuality.

Norika Ogawa is lovely! She was at the Chet's summer school...
Gershwin is amazing, and I really love Horowitz

Not sure if I idolise anyone but if we're allowed dead pianists as well as the living then presumably we're allowed the slightly obscure as well as the famous, so how about a list that includes all the above such as Ashkenazy, Bill Evans, Duke Ellington, Gershwin, Rachmaninov, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Robert & Clara Schumann, Oscar Peterson, Brahms, Debussy, Ravel . . . none of whom are obscure. The best player of Liszt I ever heard (and I do mean "ever" - I have recordings that aren't as good as his live performance was) was Callum McLeod: He no longer plays (much).

many composers who were also pianists are my idols, these peoples always rise my passion in piano..

-chopin
-bartok
-debussy

many more

Some pianists who have caught my ear:

Susan Tomes, for the magnificent Faure Op. 15 quartet that Domus recorded years ago. It remained the Radio 3 critic's first choice some decades later.

Kissin, for the Chopin Bb minor Scherzo that he played in strict tempo, so that you felt the pulse throughout: probably a lot nearer to Chopin's own playing (to judge from the latter's writings) than anyone else now living.

Perahia, for his description of how he prepares to play a Mozart concerto: on the plane flying to the gig, he thinks through the whole work (no score; it's all in his head), and decides what changes, if any, he will make in his interpretation.

Norika Ogawa
Gershwin
Jools Holland

(and at the moment, if I'm ever as good as my teacher... )

Carol*Piano - She's very Idol

I know you aspire to be me ben...

I do!!

I've already started on the cream cakes!

best you make a start on your piano practice

Obviously the best ever is Claudio Arrau

Others, in no particular order:

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli
Artur Schnabel
Annie Fischer
Vladimir Horowitz
Artur Rubinstein
Radu Lupu
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Peter Serkin
Maurizio Pollini for his Chopin etudes
Peter Katin
Alfred Brendel
Moura Lympany (aka Mary Johnstone) - for her Prokofiev
Peter Donohue
Aleksei Volodin
...

Makes you despair doesn't it. Why would anyone ever want to listen to my feeble efforts


Alfredo Perl does a good straight version of the Beethoven sonatas

Lang Lang and Dong-Hyek Lim aren't bad either

I've heard there was a guy called Liszt in the 19th century that was pretty hot, but unfortunately I never heard him play. And a century earlier there was some moody bloke from Bonn ... never got to hear him either, but he wrote some good stuff.

For me, it's Emanuel Ax and Daniel Barenboim.

Danemann.

Wot, no Martha Argerich? Dinu Lipatti? Angela Hewitt? Richter? Cortot? And what's Brendel doing in the list? Tut tut.

Edward

When I was a very little girl, my Mum had an LP of piano music by two men called Farrante and Techer. I think that was how it was spelled. Does anyone remember them and were they very good??
Bev.

Argerich is only good at stuff that involves playing at 100mph

if you watch something like her video of Liszt Funerailles (youtube), she isnt as amazing; loses the feel of the piece because she's too concerned with making it sound virtuosic

Not being a pianist, I've never listened to most of people mentioned here, but I wondered if any of you pianists had seen Anna Markland play (former Young Musician of the Year) and what you thought of her? I've seen lots of (non-famous) pianists perform over the years, but I can still remember Anna Markland's performance from about 10 years ago. She played Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and it was absolutely spellbinding. I've seen Rhapsody performed several times since, but it's never had the same effect on me as when AM played it. I've often wondered why she hasn't had a higher international profile, although I gather she's diverged into singing now as well. Has she simply followed her chosen path, or was she not considered "good enough" for an international career? I thought she was amazing

I heard Anna Markland when she came to give a masterclass at our local music school a few years ago. She was a very good teacher and a lovely person & she gave a short recital at the end, which was excellent. She hadn't even decided what to play in advance & just had a short warm-up while we had tea. She did say she had a very young family & a teaching practice, as well as a career in singing, but still managed to do some performing on the piano. I don't know whether she'd wanted an international career, but I got the impression she was happy doing different things & enjoying family life.

don't forget Schroeder, from comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz.
what he could do with only 4 fingers on each hand.

pietro

. . . and a toy piano!

I loved Schroeder! In one episode he had a cupboard full of spare pianos and Beethoven busts

for a deeper insight into Schroeder for the unaware (from wikipedia) funny stuff:

Schroeder was introduced as a baby on May 30, 1951, but aged to the maturity level of the other characters over the next three years. His birthday was in 1954 revealed to be January 18. He initially had no notable characteristics, but soon, Schulz had the idea to incorporate his daughter Meredith's toy piano into the strip. He decided to give it to the newest character in the strip, and thus the character as he is known to millions of fans was born. The origin of his name can be found in Schulz' 1975 book, Peanuts Jubilee: "Schroeder was named after a young boy with whom I used to caddy at Highland Park golf course in St. Paul. I don't recall ever knowing his first name, but just 'Schroeder' seemed right for the character in the script, even before he became the great musician he now is."
From his first appearance at the piano on September 24, 1951, Schroeder has played classical pieces of virtuoso level, as depicted by Schulz's painstaking transcription of sheet music onto the panel. Schroeder is often found playing selections from a sonata by Beethoven, his favorite composer. As revealed in one strip wherein Lucy took his bust of Beethoven and smashed it, he has an entire closet full of Beethoven busts. Every year, Schroeder marks December 16, the birthday of his hero. Schulz once revealed that he had originally planned to depict Johannes Brahms as Schroeder's idol, but decided that Beethoven simply sounded "funnier." He was once in shock when he forgot Beethoven's birthday. When Charlie Brown's baseball team is required to have a sponsor to play games, Schroeder's sponsor is Beethoven. In the early strips Schroeder also played other composers. Schroeder generally wears a shirt with thick black stripes. In the animated TV specials and movies, it is colored purple.
Schroeder is usually depicted sitting at his toy piano, able to pound out multi-octave selections of music, despite the fact that such a piano has a very small realistic range (for instance, and as a running joke, the black keys are merely painted on to the white keys). On one occasion, Charlie Brown tried to get him to play a real piano and Schroeder burst out crying, intimidated by its size.
Schroeder's other distinguishing mark as a character is his constant refusal of Lucy's love. Lucy is infatuated with Schroeder, and frequently leans against his piano while he is playing, professing her love for him; however, Beethoven was a lifelong bachelor, and Schroeder feels he must emulate every aspect of his idol's life, even if it is insinuated that he reciprocates Lucy's feelings. In a story arc where she and the rest of her family have moved out of town, Schroeder becomes frustrated with his music and mutters disbelievingly that he misses her, realizing that, despite his animosity towards her, Lucy has unwittingly become Schroeder's muse and he cannot play without her. Sometimes, he gets so annoyed with Lucy that he outright yanks the piano out from underneath her to get her away from him. However, he does allow Charlie Brown to lounge against the piano, because of their solid friendship.
[edit] Schroeder's piano
The piano's capability is illustrated in 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas. Lucy asks Schroeder to play "Jingle Bells". Schroeder plays it in the style of a conventional piano, then manages to generate the warm tones of a Hammond organ, but Lucy cannot recognize the tune until the now-irritated Schroeder plays it, with one finger, in the tones of a normal toy piano. It's the only time in the history of the television specials that his toy piano ever actually sounds like a toy piano, with 'plinking' sounds.
Schroeder is normally a very passive character, content to play his music, but he can be angered quite easily, especially if his music or his idol Beethoven are insulted. In one short Lucy points out to him the woefully inadequate single-octave range of a toy piano; an angry Schroeder yanks it out from under, causing her to conk her head on the floor (This became more of a running gag in the strip's later years). On another occasion, Lucy asked if pianists made a lot of money, and Schroeder flew into a rage: "Who cares about money?! This is art, you blockhead! This is great music I'm playing, and playing great music is an art! Do you hear me? An art! Art! Art! Art! Art! Art!" (the last five words punctuated by slamming his hands against his piano).
The musical notes Schroeder plays also seem to have substance; characters are able to touch them as they appear in the air. Snoopy, for example, once decorated a Christmas tree using a handful of them, and has on at least one occasion been seen dancing atop the musical staff containing the notes.
On two occasions, Lucy went so far as to destroy Schroeder's piano in an attempt to be rid of the "competition" for his affection. She once threw it into a sewer and the piano was washed out to sea. She later threw another one into the dreaded Kite-Eating Tree, which apparently ate pianos as well. Schroeder ordered his replacement pianos from the Ace Piano Company (when Charlie Brown asked if his piano was covered by insurance Schroeder replied, 'How do you explain to the insurance company that your piano was eaten by a tree?'). On another occasion Lucy, armed with a baseball bat, smashed to pieces a bust of Beethoven sitting on top of his piano; Undaunted, Schroeder calmly picked out a new bust from a closet well-stocked with duplicates.
The only time Schroeder accepted a gift from Lucy was when she gave him a sketch of Beethoven-she was then shocked to find he had a gigantic portrait of Beethoven the size of a wall.
[edit] Portrayals
• Chris Doran first voiced Schroeder in animation, in 1965's A Charlie Brown Christmas. Various actors since then have portrayed Schroeder including Todd Barbee, who also voiced Charlie Brown from 1973 to 1974.
• The Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown featured Skip Hinnant as Schroeder in the 1967 version, and Stanley Wayne Mathis in the 1999 version.
[edit] Trivia
• The Green Music Center at Sonoma State University has a recital hall named after the character due to Jeannie and Charles M. Schulz's contributions to the university and ties to the community.
• An album of classical piano music titled Schroeder's Greatest Hits has been released by RCA Victor. Ostensibly an album of piano music recorded by Schoeder himself, the recording consists of many of the solo piano works that Schroeder has been known to play over the years - primarily Beethoven, but Chopin, Brahms, and Bach are also represented

QUOTE(ad_libitum @ Nov 26 2007, 11:36 PM)

QUOTE(mennea @ Nov 26 2007, 07:05 PM)

don't forget Schroeder, from comic strip Peanuts, by Charles M. Schulz.
what he could do with only 4 fingers on each hand.

pietro

I loved Schroeder! In one episode he had a cupboard full of spare pianos and Beethoven busts

One of my "living" piano idols has to be Alfred Brendel. I was lucky enough to attend a recital of his over the summer, and being someone who rarely even gets out to recitals of any sort and could still count on one hand the amount of classical concerts ive been to it was a pretty big deal. It was also the first "all piano" recital ive been to... but it was truly awesome, abolutely fantastic.

Apparently he's planning on retiring from playing concerts next year, see here... http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainmen...1&cset=true

I could give a very long list here of other idols but its late and im half asleep typing this as it is....
Schroeder's great too

So you judge one of the greatest pianists of the last fifty years on a YouTube video? Surely you jest. In case anyone is foolish enough to be convinced by such an argument then please take a listen to her play:

Bach toccata in C Minor BWV 911 (split into 2 because YouTube doesn't allow > 10 mins)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nir_Cq4aXhI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqp2_LaYoSU

Chopin Andante Spianato
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tk4HPtmtjE

Ravel Jeux D'eau
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4JYYRa832c

Mozart Sonata in C for 4 hands with Evgeny Kissin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4u20TPA6PA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpLPHy_foUQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E57gjdbjoEU

That's enough YouTube (ed)

Edward

Argerich is a brilliant pianist, but I don't agree that her most popular recording -of the Chopin preludes- is untouchable, as i am constantly told and am always reading. However she is a charismatic and gifted star.

Once a pianist gets to a certain level we are just quibbling about details. Not that they don't matter! There are hundreds of awesomely good pianists alive today. Every Conservatoire has half a dozen piano teachers - and most of them can really play! Then there is an army of private piano teachers, many of whom hoped to be recitalists and can also play pretty good.

You can be utterly superb yet only able to make a modest living as a classical pianist. Perhaps if music recocrding had never been invented ... but then I would never have heard Horowitz, Artur Rubinstein, Michelangeli, ... and countless others


... and yes Edwardo: Martha Argerich? Dinu Lipatti? Angela Hewitt?, and a few dozen more - all fine pianists

Richter? ... you can't argue with his technical ability, but I've never enjoyed listening to his recordings - there is something lacking.

Cortot? ... have never heard his recordings, though I have read "Rational principles of piano technique", and didn't find it to be very much use. And he says "not a single piece of Chopin's should be omitted from the education of the pianist". Obviously he is not talking about normal human beings then.

I would defend Brendel's right to be in the list. He has made some poor recordings but even Horowitz had a few poor years when he was on medication for depression. Brendel's best stuff is excellent. Of course I am a Beethoven fan so I am biassed!

When I saw this question I dashed off a glib reply "Claudio Arrau" - but I am a Beethoven fan, and he plays Beethoven very well. The question I really answered was "Who, in your opinion, best interprets the Beethoven sonatas. Not the question that was being asked at all! I then listed a dozen or more other great pianists that I admire. I was chided both for some that were in the list, and for a few great ones that were not.

This set me thinking that such a question deserves a non-glib answer. I pointed out that there are probably thousands of wonderful pianists, and above a certain level we are quibbling about detail. That was a feeble evasion.

So here is a considered response to the original question:


There is no "best" pianist. Playing piano is not like running 100m, where 9.89s is "better" than 9.9 (on a particular track, at a particular time). It is more like "running" in general. Over a short sprint a top 5000m runner will certainly beat the man in the street, but he won't have a chance against a 100m specialist. Over longer distances the positions are reversed.

What has this to do with piano? That it is unlikely that a Bach specialist could play Prokofiev so well as a Prokofiev specialist, and vice versa. But it is worse. Even within specialisms, there is not even a best baroque-style or romantic-era pianist or best interpreter of Chopin or Beethoven. The Ballades and Scherzi need different skills (sheer virtuosity) from the Nocturnes (lyricism, independence of the hands), and the Mazurkas and Polonaises need different skills again (Mastery of subtly difficult rhythms).

But if forced to name just ONE pianist, and restricting it to performers that, if not still alive, were alive recently enough to leave us good quality recordings or videos (so Cortot and Rachmaninov are ruled out because of the dreadful recording quality, and Listzt, Kalkbrenner, Chopin etc. for more obvious reasons), and discounting my bias for interpreters of Beethoven and taking into account the phenomenal genius of Argerich, Perahia etc., and basing it entirely on the actual quality of the performances, the closest to an outright winner (and this is just one opinion) is:

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli


So if anyone has a different answer they have to explain how their choice is "better" than Michelangeli!

Emil Gilels, because whether he was playing a titan of a concerto like the Brahms second, or the miniaturist gems of Grieg, his conveyance of mood and musical imagery, as well as that beautiful tone and finesse, for me... put him up there with the true Gods of piano playing. He was also one of the finest Beethoven interpreters of his day. Anyone who has'nt got his Deutsche Gramophone recordings, just get them !

I admire many of the pianists you mentioned already. But I recently discovered a new idol, Branka Parlic. Unfortunately, I never heard her in a concert, but just on radio once and saw (and heard!) bits of her concerts on YouTube. I became recently very interested in minimalist music - to my own surprise, I always thought I'm much more of a mainstream girl - and she plays them exactly like I would have like to hear them.

I was wrong. Horowitz was the best!

I prefer your earlier answer: Just as chess players argue about whether Fischer, Kasparov, Korchnoi, Capablanca or someone else (Staunton? Kraminic? Karpov?) was the best ever chess player: There is no best, just different. If there was a "best" there would be no argument.

(Actually, it was Bobby Fischer!)

Actually it was Rashid Nezhmetdinov!!!! (no argument)

David's reading the Fischer, 60 best games book you lent him: He'll argue with you!

Tamas Vasary was the first pianist to make an impression on me when I was a child - I remember enjoying his sensitive playing of Chopin. Also, I have a very high regard for Peter Katin's Rachmaninoff recordings.

Five fantastic pianists (Lang lang is good - close your eyes and listen).

Wihelm Kempff at 90. Amazing - especially considering that he had begun to develop Parkinson's disease. Yes - he was even better when he was younger. I saw him in 1974 when he was approaching 80 but could have passed for 55. Even at 90 there was still something very youthful in his looks and his attitude. But he has been dead for over 15 years. So many of he all time greats died in the 1990's.


Personally I'd like to acquire:

The fullness of tone of Claudio Arrau, combined with the the Bell-like quality of Vladimir Horowitz, the accuracy of Michelangeli, the speed of Martha Argerich, the fluency and naturalness of Gyorgy Cziffra,the articulation of Glenn Gould, the memory of Angela Hewitt, the musical integrity of Annie Fischer, the all round musicianship of Rubinstein, the intellect of Gyorgy Sandor, the power of Emil Gilels, the consistency of Maurizio Pollini, the charismatic presence of Sviatoslav Richter, and the good looks of Piotr Anderszewski.

Not asking for much is it? My immortal soul for 30 years of virtuosity? Peter Cook, Elizabeth Hurley - are you listening??

I love the old masters but, in terms of contemporary pianists, I admire the passionate playing of Helene Grimaud (not to mention her good looks!) I notice that another poster mentioned Anna Markland - I heard her play Rach 2 a few years ago in Plymouth and enjoyed the performance very much; good to see she is still around.

Months ago I made several smart-a*se replies to this and similar threads. Six months on, knowing more, and much wiser, a simpler answer:

Clara Haskil

I am very fond of Helene Grimaud; having heard her Schumann Op. 54 I was left gasping for more.

I can't make an honest appraisal of her piano playing. She is so pretty that I hear nothing!

I have her Eratus recording of Brahms piano music. Unfortunately theres' no picture of her on the cd sleeve. But her heavy breathing throughout some of the pieces was a bit much, though admittedly it was'nt as bad as when a bloke does it. She also 'murdered' a few of them, i was shocked at how slapdash some of these were, pianos often played as fortes and a tendency to over-inflate things too quickly. Having said that, she is technically brilliant and some of her interpretations i liked. Evgenia Rubinovas, EMI debut disc Fantasies, which i bought the same day as the Grimaud, where some of these Brahms pieces also appear, as well as Schumanns Kreisleriana, and some Chopin...was a lot better. Although just as pretty as Helene- maybe even more- she's a very thoughful pianist, with a golden tone and an incredible dynamic range. I would buy any CD with her as soloist, she's that good.

Martha Agerich- Simply brilliant!!