Favorite Pianists


I've recently become obsessed with great piano music. Not necessarily classical, just great. Like the thread I started regarding acoustic guitar, this follows the same lines. Who is your favorite? It doesn't have to be based on the ability to play fast or on the technical ability side of it. It just needs to be moving. Needs to be able to pull you in and tell a story of your past. I guess the best term to describe this is simply beautiful music.

As of right now, Ludovico Einaudi is my absolute favorite. I've listened to quite a bit of this genre lately and George Winston, Peter Kater and Kevin Kern all get high marks from me. But none of them move me like Ludovico Einaudi.

If you have an absolute favorite, just one that hits you like no other, post it. If you have several, list them.

Thanks!
tiggerfc
Stevecham

Agree on Martha Argerich- How could I have forgotten to mention her? She is so very good with so much music, but she really rises to the top as a pianist for chamber music.
manny perahia and marc hamelin.i have many cd's of each of them,and not one a dud.
Anyone heard any recent releases from Keith Emerson? Any good?

I have not kept up with him since his ELP days.
Surprised nobody mentioned Mike Garson. ( David Bowie) Garson is my personal favorite and runner up is Keith Emerson.
Hank Jones, wonderfully fluid & lyrical pianist from the great Pontiac Michigan musical family, including Thad & Elvin...all gone sadly.
Martha Argerich - especially her Prokofiev and Rachmaninov recordings
Lyle Mays - solo and with Pat Metheny group
Nicky Hopkins - with so many, too many to count, Stones, Who...
Rabbit - on Pete Townshend's solo albums
Elton John
Stephen Kovacevich - on the 5 Beethoven piano concertos
Serge Rachmaninov
Chris Stainton - on Tommy and Quadrophenia
Roy Bittan
Hi Newbee,

It is nice that you join the forum.

As I am impotent in deciphering Chopin’s notes so I can’t comment on Ivan Moravec. The only Chopin recording I have is Adam Harasiewicz’s performance. Sadly this winner of the 1955 International Chopin Piano Competition is now long forgotten and overshadowed by the 2nd place winner (Vladimir Ashkenazy). Even the 3rd place winner (Fou Ts’ong) has his followers in Asia nowadays.

Speaking of Chopin, do we have any update on Pollini? Would this multi-talented pianist ever finish the recording of Bach’s well-tempered clavier book II or any other new recording(s)?

Happ Listening.

Otto
Next to last generation should include Ivan Moravec. An outstanding if under recorded and publicized player of classical music. His Chopin is some of the finest available.

Hard to really recommend the last generation due to a lack of breadth of their programs without mentioning the music in which they have shown great potential, for example Chiu in Prokofiev, Lewis in Beethoven, Bavouzet in Debussy (and Ravel), Lortie in Ravel (and who is building a credible discograph as well). The list seems to go on but I will not. :-)
My mindless mistake left Arrau uncovered. Yes, Photon46 is right. Arrau’s achievement in balancing virtuosity, introspective and philosophical pianism of his unlimited repertoire is purely unbelievable.

Every time my 12-year-old daughter is puzzled by various interpretations of the pieces she is learning, my suggestion to her is always referring to Arrau’s reading first.

Helplessly I can not speak of Arrau without mentioning “The Lion of Keyboard” – Wilhelm Backhaus. The pianist even “defeated” Bartok in one prestigious piano competition in 1905. The piano playing of Backhaus and Arrau always reminds me “objective interpretation”. Another thing I admire Backhaus is that he was exempted from the “attack” of Steinway piano. He prefers the pianos from Bosendorfer or Bechstein. By listening to the simple warm-up notes of his last recital on Bechstein piano, you would be amazed by the rounded and majestic tone released from his finger tips. Another example validates Furtwangler’s remark on music performance - “Tone always comes first; before anything else – tempo, rhythm, phrasing and interpretation”.

New generation pianists Paul Lewis, Till Fellner, Hélène Grimaud and Liref Ove Andsnes are showing us the promising future of classical piano performance. Let’s keep our ears open.

Happy Listening.

Otto
I used to be very much into Keith Jarrett, still a fan of his, but recently discovered and fell in love with Masabumi Kikuchi.
Richter's Schubert
Brendel's Beethoven
Schiff, Perhia, Gould for Bach- can't pick just one
Ohlssohn - Chopin

Also generally like Kissin (also some very good Schubert, but totally different than Richter), Fellner, Lewis.
I always thought Claudio Arrau stuck a fine balance between virtuosity and introspective/philosophical pianism. I agree with most of what Yu11375 said, although I've rather liked Brendel's playing myself. I quite like Andras Schiff's playing as well, another example of great balance IMO.
Ingrid Haebler. Although she is not the greatest pianists but she is definitely my favorite one.

Most pianists either demonstrate their super human skills (Horowitz & Brendel), philosophical readings (Schnabel & Kempff) or witty personal interpretations (Gould & Gulda). Some pianists even exercise overpoweringly showy tone in recordings and performances to prove their capabilities (contemporary Lang Lang and his prior generation counterpart, Richter).

Not Haebler! Limited recordings available to us indicate her subtle and sensible touch on keyboard. She leads you to the most inner core of music in such a neutral way that you just “glide” with the flow of music. No weight burden, nor compass direction. Free from any conscious activities of mankind. That’s the very point I admire her. Great music should come to you not the other way around. By this perspective, Haebler’s achievement is unsurpassable.

Only aged Serkin in Beethoven’s last 3 piano sonatas provides us a glimpse sense of such liberty.
Nicky Hopkins...check his playing on Jerry Garcia Band's "let it rock". amazing.
Vladimir Horowitz is my favorite musician.Byron Janis is excellent also for classical.Both play Rachmaninoff to my liking.I never cared for Van Cliburn playing Chopin.
For Jazz I really like so many artists it is hard to single out a top few but they would have to include

Earl Hines
Erroll Garner
Oscar Peterson
Dave Brubeck
Bill Evans
Bud Powell
Herbie Hancock

Technically the best of the lot has to be Art Tatum. I doubt there has been or ever will be anyone that matches his combination of virtuosity and improvisational skills, twinkle fingers! What a delight to hear him at his best.

And as for women of this genre check this out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Bhebd9Wbkk&feature=related
Gould, and a trio of ECM artists: K Jarrett, Bobo Stenson, and Marcin Wasilewski
Les Dawson;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F19zGHoWpL0&NR=1

Chico & Harpo Marx;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XsWI9EEric

Hinge or Bracket
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHUO2RrQd4Y

Victor Borge
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3Z2mrpqtRo

Rowan Atkinson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd0UAdpBNUg&feature=related

......................but seriously folks,
a few of many and in addition to those already mentioned,

Tori Amos,
Ivo Pogorelich,
Jools Holland,
John Ogdon.
Just look at the photo of Diana Krall at the top of the music section, that's a pianist. I wouldn't even care if she brought her piano.
The giants such as Richter, Gould, Monk, Jarrett et al. were mentioned, I believe, a few others that are worthy of (much) attention:
classical: Alice Sarah Ott (breathtaking Liszt), Andreas Staier (Schumann as it was meant to be), Markus Schirmer, Evgeni Koroliov and, yep I do think so, Katia & Marielle Labèque (very fine Satie performance)
jazz: Red Garland, Esbjörn Svensson (such a great loss...), Marc Copland, Jürgen Friedrich, Kris Defoort and I don't think I saw McCoy Tyner before...
rock, broadly speaking: Keith Emerson, Rick Wakeman, Mike Ratledge
A few more jazz favorites:

Count Basie
Tommy Flanagan
Geri Allen
Benny Green
Ariel Pocock -- local high school talent
Bobby Timmons
Roberto Fonseca
Chano Dominguez
Bebo Valdes
Chucho Valdes
Aruan Ortiz
Arturo O'Farrill
Actually Keith Jarrett was mentioned with Bill Evans near the top. He's one of my favs so I looked for his name first. Not bad company those two pianists could keep, although I doubt Bill would put up with Keiths crap! :)
First let me add Keith Jarett to the list, and second I would like to add Chick Corea. As other have stated, I can't believe we have gotten this far into the thread without mention of them.

I just picked up a DVD copy of Miles Electric which includes a live performance recorded the Isle of Wright festival 40 years ago to the day that features Miles and both Keith Jarrett and Chick Corea, as well as Jack DeJohnette (Jack is one of my personal favorite Jazz artist, typically a drummer but he has also played piano on some of his recordings). Sorry for digressing off topic...
Gene Harris, I second that emotion! What I'd give to possess his talent. I don't think there's ever been a player who projected more soul and feel good music than Funky Gene! RIP Mr. Harris...
For the life of me, I don't understand why Fred Hersch is seldom, if ever, mentioned in the same light as the above artists. So I'm doing it; Ha!
Classical - Glenn Gould
Jazz - Bill Evans
Rock - ?...I'll have to think a bit more about that.
There may be a couple of other favorite pianist lists in another thread or two... Obviously Monk changed things a lot and was great. There's probably not anyone as earth shaking currently active, (maybe because now there's less new ground available to shake)... a few more good ones you might find in a jazz section:

Vijay Iyer
Don Preston
Paul Plimley
Cecil Taylor
Myra Melford
Matthew Shipp
Simon Nabatov
Achim Kaufmann
Horace Tapscott
Michiel Borstlap
Sophia Domancich
Jean Michel Pilc
Francois Bourassa
Sylvie Courvoisier
In addition to the great ones mentioned about, Eddie Higgins has some great recordings on the Venus Label. SACD and LP's available.

If you're into vinyl, the Bill Evans 45 lp box set is fantastic
Wow, amazing that that was the first mention of Herbie Hancock!

How about some props for Bud Powell, McCoy Tyner as well?
Jazz,Thelonius Monk without question and a tip of the hat to Horace Silver and Herbie Hancock.
As one who grew up listening to Marian McPartland every Saturday night on my local NPR station, I have to say that she is a wonder and a blessing to America's jazz culture. She will always be the greatest in my book for this alone.
Excellent recs so far. Thanks for the great response to this thread. Keep on adding to the list!
Gods own Pianist; Art Tatum


I didn't realize God had his own pianist,amazing!!!!
Lynne Arriale plays beautiful, but not smooth, jazz in a trio. She really should be much better known. "Nuance" and "Long Road Home" are probably her LESS accessible albums.
When it comes to Classical piano, for me it's Ashkenazy, period. But another guy I've really enjoyed lately is John Bayless--if you've never heard his music, check it out.
Horace Silver, Thelonius Monk, Hank Jones, Dave Brubeck, Bobby Timmons, Bill Evans; "Did I leave anybody out? The Jazz pianists are all mine".
My favorite jazz pianist today: Bill Charlap
My favorite 60's jazz pianist: Bill Evans
My favorite classical pianist: Murray Perahia (great solo works abound)

Have fun.