Now suppose Mephisto exist and touch the piano...Liszt thought about him ...He composed some pieces where it is Mephisto himself who he had summon to play himself through him ... Which pianist can play as Mephisto in person touching the piano ? Liszt , but who else?
It will be pure madness and grace with the power of volcano ...
Philistine "cake tasting" esthetes could say " Full of bad notes and distasteful" when listening E. Ny.
I say that Mephisto himself as Liszt intended him to play was playing not a first prize model pianist with E. Ny. ...
E.Ny. is a genius...
The greatest pianist i ever heard , not always the more perfect, but the most powerfully expressive of all...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSHsZj566Q&list=RDwtSHsZj566Q&start_radio=1
Now listen to Richter, the great disciple of Sofronitsky himself...
Compared to E. Ny. we dont listen Mephisto himself in person playing, we listen to a marvellously well played REPRESENTATION of Mephisto, not the devil himself playing as with E.Ny.
Which one is the best?
It is not a question of taste not even a contest... It is the difference between a perfect image of the devil and the devil incarnated playing himself...
There is no best pianist..
There is level of expressiveness and levels of expressiveness are not levels of formal perfection ...
When we listen Richter we are at ease and contemplating an image... When we listen E.Ny. we are deeply disturbed and it is impossible to listen to him relaxed , our body is tensed as if we assisted to the devil playing... Richter is almost boring compared to E.Ny. ... And Richter is one of the greatest pianist from the Russian school surpassed only by Sofronitsky who anyway is on par with E. Ny. for expressiveness in his own way...
Richter :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n-GrOpTOjs