Great classical pianists

As indicated by others, there are so very many.

I saw Lang Lang play at The Barbican, London, a few months ago, and thought him impressively mechanical yet unmusical and without soul.

You might enjoy the wonderful Spanish player, Alicia de Larrocha, who passed in 2009, and recorded much on usually well turned out Decca records.

If you web search for: Hélène Grimaud, and look for "videos" the first film that comes up is:  Beethoven - Piano Concerto No. 4, Op. 58 (Orchestre de Paris ...  a most spellbindingly touching performance on the evening after 9/11, of Grimaud and the Philharmonie de Paris under Eschenbach. There is a Guardian review of the concert explaining the circumstances of the day's events and the resulting music making. Grimaud is a highly intelligent and sensitive player. 

Aldo Ciccolini playing Satie (EMI records) and more.

Yevgeny Sudbin is a super music maker based in the UK, whose Scarlatti Piano Sonatas are stellar. I heard him play at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford, he has great feeling and judgement, as have so many of his and even younger generations of students who must conjure with the greats noted above.

Finally, I mention Anna Szałucka, a Polish player based in London also of great interpretive intelligence and energy. I disclose she taught my daughter all the way through to a distinction at grade 8. The BBC has broadcast her live, she has won piano competitions at Tallinn, and much more. Electric. Enjoy.

A brief list of players that I would have liked to see but didn’t :

1) Annie Fisher

2) Wilhelm Kempff 

3) De La Rocha

4) Leon Fleisher 

5) Rudolf Serkin  I actually did see one of his last concerts-he regrettably should have hung it up by then

I did see one of Artur Rubinstein last concerts and it was memorable, particularly his Schumann.

My current favorite is Vikingur Olaffson 

For Beethoven and Chopin….give me Gilels.  Mozart…Uchida.  Bach…Andrew Rangell.  Or Gould if only he wouldn’t sing along!  Also Kempf for the big Germanic Romantics. 

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.