Classical Music for Aficionados

gdnrbob, those who don’t read German have no idea just how evil he was. Wrote more anti-semetic tirades then he did music .
German Historians who I studied with drew a straight line from Wagner to Hitler .

kef_lover,

I watched the utube episodes.
iI was very impressed with the pianists as well.
But, you’re right, Bolet is the master.

R

rvpiano,

Thanks for checking that out. Being an accomplished pianist yourself, perhaps the master class was not as intriguing for you as it was for me. I was fascinated by the spectacle of these impressive pianists being put through their paces and baring their artistic souls for Bolet and the public. Some of his critiques must have been quite humbling for these brave musicians.
In the end, I was most impressed by their ability to reshape their interpretations on the fly in response to Bolet’s advice. It demonstrated their true technical command. I had always wondered how much of a particular pianist’s interpretation was dictated by their technique or lack thereof in a piece such as this. I came away even more impressed by them, even though Bolet clearly was operating on an entirely different level. Truly fascinating stuff for me.

@schubert ,
And, he was a total deadbeat...

I listen to a lot of classical music, mostly solo, a lot of piano, with a strong preference for the more ethereal and less bombastic.
A good intro is "Great Pianists of the 20th Century", featuring most of the best.
The best pianist of my lifetime was Sviatislav Richter, and he made hundreds of recordings.  Among my favorites are the Chopin Nocturnes and the Rachmaninoff Preludes.
The greatest living pianists today are Alfred Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, and Vladimir Ashkenazy, though I suspect none are playing recitals today, but still conducting.  I suspect many of you audiophiles might appreciate Barenboim's "On My New Piano", on which he plays a piano with a little different design, inspired by his visit to and playing of one of Chopin's pianos.
Other favorites, dead or alive, old and not so young:
Emil Gilels
Vladmir Sofronitsky
Claudio Arrau
Michail Pletnev
Evgeny Kissin
Grigory Sokolov
Andras Schiff
Angela Hewitt
Aldo Cicollini
Martha Argerich

All my recording are high definition (mostly flac), downloaded free torrents off the internet.
I find recordings using several sites, and I use QBitorrent to manage the downloads to my external hard drive.  My first hard drive (4TB) is full, and the second one (5TB)
is now functioning.