I like Horowitz and Gould not for their incredible technique, but for the passion, intensity and intellect they bring to what they play.
Great classical pianists
Alexandra Dovgan is the pianist of her generation.
In the last century there was Richter. Today Trifonov. Now a new phenom. What is it in the Russian water that produces such giants of the keyboard?
We enjoy all great pianists. Rubinstein, Pollini, Argerich, Backhaus, Kempf, Michelangeli, Schnabel, Pogorelic, Gilels. Please add your favorite to this embarrassment of pianistic riches. But there is primus inter pares.
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Nobody can negate what you just say about them... I discovered Bach thanks to intense Gould playing of the Goldberg ... And Horowitz is Russian pianist... It is enough for me ... And his reputation need no advocate so much he is great pianist in every aspects universally recognized ... But each one of us had our own personal intimacy moments with someone... We are partial because we love too much, especially me ... 😊 My strong convictions about pianists does not means that i am right about all i said ...This goes without saying but is better if i say it ...😊 The only very good thing about very strongly expressed opinions, right or wrong, would be that some will listen a less known pianist for the first or the second time in a different mood, or way , to test any claims or to perceive it perhaps... Thanks OP for this piano thread...
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My favorite version of the Chopin mazurkas which is my best prefered opus from Chopin was by Antonio Guedes Barbosa... A pianist with a natural rythmical sense and a spontaneous simplicity of expression that is very convincing to me in these idealized dances ... Most others pianist so high are they in perfect playing for me miss the difficult cut/transition between rythmic parts to some degree ... Yakov Flier is not so successful in this as Barbosa but he play very well anyway and did not annoy me anywhere by a lack of rythmic coherency ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5UKFIHGwJk&t=13s Now listen Flier strong expressive power in Rachmaninoff : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0VOoJG-O_Q&t=103s
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One of the greatest not so well recognized Italian pianist is Sergio Fiorentino ... “The only other pianist” – Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli “Recently I listened to a pianist on the radio who impressed me very much: Sergio Fiorentino, do you know him?” – Vladimir Horowitz
This pianist as Radu Lupu as Moravec, never play less than at his top usual expressive and tone colors mastery ... In Rachmaninoff he play as expressively as the Russian Neuhaus fluid mastery and as Raphael and Michaelangeli for the brush colors ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnmUNLgB944 Natural spontaneous simplicity as the only sophistication is with him over any proposed mere plastic perfection ....He is more than perfect ... And to convince the sceptic: Chopin as not heard often , here virtuosity serve the expression in a natural never affected way as in Jazz improvisation : Chopin etudes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dD2AKelo8M8&list=PLMeOYP-ZXc_2THgAtVRu9yEOlvDVIc0E- Chopin preludes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASX7qQCKOc0&list=PLMeOYP-ZXc_2THgAtVRu9yEOlvDVIc0E-&index=2 Chopin Nocturnes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvoI1nl-MmM&list=PLMeOYP-ZXc_2THgAtVRu9yEOlvDVIc0E-&index=4 The Version of Moravec , the most perfect one i listened too had this one as a rival , here we listen the pieces not as idealized perfection but more as a spontaneous intimate moment ... I dont criticize Moravec here by the way who is one of my best three pianists... |
Expression of the essence of a complex set of emotions is not accomplished through plastic formal perfection ... Listening music with the partition to verify the playing is not the way to listen music... Elementary teaching is not playing nor listening ... Here we propose 4 top pianists and ask the question , which of them give the impression that Lucifer and Mephisto themselves play at the piano ? The projection of an emotion mesmerizing the crowds as Liszt did, the first pianist putting crowds in trance , cannot be only the mere "representation" of emotions in a perfect -plastic way...It takes a power to put a spell in the way Mephisto was able to do to buy the soul of Faust or even of crowds... How Liszt was able to create a music piece able to describe the spell as working ? How a pianist can do it really not as a mere esthetical moment, but really convey the spell itself as working really ? For me Ervin Nyiregyhazi win... Fiorentino amazing beautiful version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSaQB5YXV7g&list=PLMeOYP-ZXc_2THgAtVRu9yEOlvDVIc0E-&index=6
Ervin Nyiregyházi imperfect but stunning spell version : mephisto valses no1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpzW7RH0cgY Now try the second mephisto waltzes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtSHsZj566Q
Horowitz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPE83YfNcZY Richter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIWqTWeVKKk
Which version put you in front of the devil playing himself ? Which version does not give a mere"representation" of the evil madness but give you the evil madness itself playing in you ? For me it is without even without a doubt E. N. who does not even try to play well but instead play powerfully ...So much we feel uncomfortable ...Incredible vertigo confronted with madness .. if you think that E.N. is a failed pianist unable to play perfection listen to this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIC-bGI_Frc
«Ervin Nyiregyházi was a direct pianistic descendant of Liszt and Beethoven, as he studied with: Erno Dohnányi, a pupil of Eugen d’Albert, a pupil of Franz Liszt, a pupil of Carl Czerny, a pupil of Ludwig van Beethoven .
Arnold Schoenberg wrote the following about Ervin Nyiregyházi: "...a pianist who appears to be something really quite extraordinary... I must say that I have never heard such a pianist before... What he plays is expression in the older sense of the word, nothing else; but such power of expression I have never heard before. You will disagree with his tempis as much as I did. You will also note that he often seems to give primacy to sharp contrasts at the expense of form, the latter appearing to get lost. I say appearing to; for then, in its own way, his music surprisingly regains its form, makes sense, establishes its own boundaries. The sound he brings out of the piano is unheard of... And such fullness of tone, achieved without ever becoming rough, I have never before encountered... as a whole it displays incredible novelty and persuasiveness. ...it is amazing what he plays and how he plays it". »
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