good pianists
 

can we collectively start a list?

Glenn Gould
Cecil Taylor
Sun Ra
Leon Fleisher

Re: good pianists
 

Are you implying these people are better than Elton John and Billy Joel? :eek:

I see what you did here.

Re: good pianists
 

these people are better than most people! :P

Glenn Gould could've been the best artist who ever lived, ever. next to Bach himself anyway.

Re: good pianists
 

Dammit Greenpea beat me to it.

Re: good pianists
 

Bill Evans

Re: good pianists
 

bobby crush is unbeatable,came to fame in the uk during the 70's,still around now i think.

Re: good pianists
 

what about ray charles? i don't listen to much pianer music, but i know that he's very highly regarded?

Re: good pianists
 

Dave McKenna, known as the best bassist in the East for his powerful left hand.

Re: good pianists
 

Mike Garson

...and even though I've intentionally avoided that whole Elton John / Billy Joel thing for a while now

I have to throw my two cents in...


I agree, they both suck

Re: good pianists
 

Keith Jarrett is god. No argument!

And, of course, Oscar Peterson. And maybe Keith Emerson, although I am not sure he counts as a pianist really. And Tom Waits does ok, but not awesome.

Re: good pianists
 

kid cue - fellow piano fiend, eh?

for classical music I like

Glenn Gould (for bach) - his genius doesn't hijack the music like other pianists, but actually manages to bring the music out. (good call kid cue)
Emanual Ax (for beethoven, chopin)
Murray Perahia (chopin)
Maurizio Pollini (chopin)
Vladimir Ashkenazy (for mozart and chopin)

for jazz I love

marcus roberts
keith jarrett (is the best jazz improv pianist in the world just listen to the koln concert to know)
vince guaraldi (of peanuts fame)

Re: good pianists
 

Strangelet have you heard any Leon Fleisher? he's probably my favorite classical pianist, next to Gould (who was not human, so he kind of doesn't count). search out the recordings of Brahms, Schumann, and Grieg piano concertos with the Cleveland Orchestra...!

Perahia i've always liked, if only to use as some sort of neutral measuring stick har har.

i saw Emanuel Ax play the Emperor piano concerto back in high school, he was pretty awesome IIRC.

Re: good pianists
 

thanks for the recommendation. I'll definitely check him out.

I'm really picky when it comes to Chopin. I think he's got to be the most misunderstood artist in terms of his intentions and aesthetics. The stock artur rubenstein leaves me cold half the time. My theory is he's more close to Bach in sense and sensibility then he is to any other romantic period composer. That's just my theory.

Re: good pianists
 

what about Craig Armstrong? too much pop music?

for nice music also, try Rubén González, probably the greatest cuban pianist.

Re: good pianists
 

I was going to mention him. Instead, I'll second it. :)

Re: good pianists
 

Talking about that! Gonzalo Rubalcaba...maybe not the best but the most famous.

Re: good pianists
 

really? why do you say that?

Chopin has always struck me as being extremely obvious.

Re: good pianists
 

Obvious in the same way bach is obvious you mean? chopin's work is a violent refutation of the excess ornamentation of the romantic period. he's a much more disciplined, classically structured composer than say, schubert or liszt or bizet.

Which is why he's able to create a more emotive response, imho. But i take it you're not such a fan? he's not very popular. which I really don't get. I think he was god incarnate.

Re: good pianists
 

no way. he's great. if we're getting into this scene let me add michael nyman for his composition work.

bb mentioned tom waits. "The piano has been drinking" is brilliant in its own tom waits way.

Re: good pianists
 

i don't think of Bach as obvious, other than being obviously baroque. Chopin i liked earlier (and i always thought he was quite popular, much more than Liszt), but his compositions always seemed to have this linear or even 'narrative' quality that made it difficult for me to listen to him repeatedly. i felt like once i got the story there was nothing else to be gotten. i'll dig out my recording of the ballades & scherzos today though.

Gould didn't like him either....

Re: good pianists
 

I really don't find him popular at all with people who listen or play classical music. Gould's response is pretty much in the same vein as anyone else I talk to and I find it based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the music. Chopin was never meant to be played in the miniaturist,precious, pretty way he's usually interpreted. Which explains why gould would call him a failure in all of the big roles music fills. The rain drop prelude is a prime example. Chopin detested it being associated with "rain drops" and thought the idea someone would write a song about "rain drops" the way saint seans was writing songs about swans and liszt was writing songs about love dreams was preposterous. The only narrative chopin ever admitted to was polish history, not unlike beethoven's use of narrative.

My suggestion is to play it without the prettiness. Wrest it away from ballet pas de deuxs and parlour room aesthetics and emphasize its intellectual homage to bach (chopin was trying to emulate bach more than anyone else). In this way I find him the most challenging and rewarding to play.

Re: good pianists
 

i think the readership of this thread has plummeted now that you and I are nerding out on this shit so I'll just end by this quote

Re: good pianists
 

And what about Brad Mehldau?

Re: good pianists
 

okay, i was a total idiot for dissing Chopin. he is awesome. i absolutely hear you on the "un-romanticism" of his music too.

Strangelet can you recommend some Chopin recordings? the only one i have is Philippe Entremont playing the Scherzos, Ballades, and Waltzes, which seems pretty good, if not very often cited.