Amazing Solo Piano Recordings


I'm looking to get your oppinions on the best solo piano recordings available. Style or genre is not important as long as the recording is pristine, clear, open and in your oppinion AMAZING! Please if you can, state artist, label, etc., so we audiogoner's can buy 'em!
bwhite

Showing 2 responses by sbindeman

Ray Bryant has a number of solo albums that are lovely.
Cecil Taylor's solo recordings: percussive, very difficult to follow, but truly remarkable.
Matsuda (sp?) Uchido's Mozart Sonatas and Liszt Sonatas.
Murray Perahia's Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Glenn Gould's Bach's Goldberg Variations.
Alfred Brendel's Beethoven Sonatas, esp the 31st.
Keith Jarrett's Shostakovich's Preludes.
The Horowitz Collection on Sony.
Solo Monk.
Marilyn Crispell and Matthew Shipp are also great but they play mostly in group settings.
Let me also strontly recommend Art Tatum's 20th Century Piano Genius. It was recorded live in someone's apartment. The acoustics are remarkably life-like. You can hear occasional talking in the background, and Tatum and the party-giver engage in casual conversation throughout the two disc set. The effect is like being there at the party yourself in the presence of one of the greatest piano players of all time. The playing itself in awe-inspiring; you often have the impression that several people are playing at once, that no single individual could ever be capable of playing the way Tatum did. In a way, it's almost freakish at times. Fats Waller famously said "I play piano, but tonight [with Tatum around] God is in the house!" Horowitz too was bowled over by Tatum's playing. Don't miss this album.