Great classical pianists

Oh my o my o my! A full page of arguments and agreements about classical piano masters on Audiogon! Thank you, you made my morning...

Excellent quality pianists are a dime a dozen today. Now I am more attuned to the Jazz world, but most of them  (Jazz pianists) started out playing classical in their formative years. It is just that Jazz opens the door to much more diversity in style and sound. But even then there are those who do a classical style, that tare amazing and still have a secondary following like a new discovery for me, 'Sofiane Pamart', who also is an adequate composer. You would never guess from listening to his performance at 'Piano Day d' Arte Concert 2021' that he is known in Europe as the Go To backup musician for RAP Artists.
But as far as quality and sufficiency on the keyboards I can list many names but here are just a few:

I will start with the Well know Diane Krall ( the queen of finesse), then The extraordinary Hiromi Uehara (she just enjoys music TOOOO much), then Gerry Bryant, Sarah McKenzie, Marian Albero, Maja Alvanović, Mayo Nakano (marvelous), Michel Petrucciani, Monty Alexander, Yoko Miwa, All magnificent in their own way, and that barely scratches the surface.

Your classical pianists are too tightly bound by a rigid performance controlled by the original score where you take something ton the opposite extreme like Hiromi's rendition of 'Pachelbel's Canon' or better yet Gershwin's "I've Got Rhythm" as she interprets it, actually opens a personal vision of what the mind can actually experience.

Thank you for this video. Ms. Dovgan plays "The Tempest" beautifully, if just a bit slowly in the first movement. She’s beautiful, too, and so young. And so poised. Too bad she wipes her nose at the beginning (1:10).

My favorite young pianist no one so far has mentioned: Igor Levit. But it must be the Russian blood, not the air, that gets into the fingers; Levit was born in Gorky, but has lived in Germany for years. His recording of the late Beethoven sonatas is superb; I’m eager to hear what Ms. Dovgan does with them. He also has several really interesting "recital" albums, my favorite being three variations pieces from very different eras: Bach’s "Goldberg Variations," Beethoven’s "Diabelli Variations," and Rzewsi’s "The People United Will Never Be Defeated," which is the stunning highlight of the set (3 CDs).

My favorite complete set of the Beethoven sonatas, however, is the one by Richard Goode. Not showy at all, but perfectly judged, always intelligent, revealing lines of counterpoint you don’t usually hear in other pianists. Well recorded, too, although again not in a showy way: like you’re in the third row center, not inside the piano.

Grimaud has been mentioned; also a fave. Her recording of the Beethoven Fifth Concerto is my favorite in a crowded field, largely because it is so well recorded. And there’s a DGG SACD of the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, a great and somewhat overlooked piece, that is my primary reference recording: solo piano, full orchestra, solo voices and full chorus. On the same CD, she plays "The Tempest," but Ms. Dovgan’s performance tops hers. The CD is titled "Credo" and contains the astonishing piece by that name by Arvo Pärt. Not a piano showpiece by any means, but a frightening musical composition, superbly well performed and recorded.

Pollini, of course. Schnabel, just because (thrilling to hear those "authentic" tempi—although Beethoven’s use of the metronome is problematic for late works). Never liked Kempf, even when he was the only pianist I knew well (in college). He was a Nazi, too.

As for Horowitz...what can anyone say? No one had such a perfect technique (although Pogorelic comes close occasionally; too bad he burned out so early). My problem with Horowitz is that he shines with "pianistic" pieces—Chopin, Scriabin—and much less so with more interesting music. As far as I know, he never even recorded the Everest the the piano repertoire, Beethoven’s Op. 106. He did record Op. 111, another great and hugely important sonata (see Thomas Mann’s discussion of it in his novel Doktor Faustus), but his interpretation leaves me cold.

@esarhaddon

I cannot disagree with you that many of today’s classical pianists "are too tightly bound by a rigid performance controlled by the original score". However, most of Claudio Arrau’s recordings will demonstrate quite the opposite: he is very interpretative, which is why some individuals, who are classically trained, may not like him as much, as he plays what is written on the score, as well as what is not written, "between the notes," shall we say. However, not all of Arrau’s recordings are magnificent, as he has some mediocre recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos, and Gilels might have the best recording of those concertos that I’ve heard.

As mentioned above, all listed here are excellent, but many are simply master technicians at playing the right keys right on time (Ashkenazy, Lang, Horowitz, et al), without the feeling or emotion behind the music.

Ah, I forgot to say anything about Arrau. As several testimonials here indicate, he has a cult following for sure. And, yes, his "interpretations" are very personal, for a classical pianist, and often compelling. But too often, they're just willful and, well, wrong. For example, take the Arietta movement of the Op. 111 sonata. Or the slow movement of Op. 106. Ritardandos galore where they are not written, and frequently bloated tempi that Beethoven would surely have angrily rejected (again, we know this because of Beethoven's use of metronome markings).