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Vicky Brandt Thank you.
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I have been following Alexander Malofeev. An incredible young talent! The video I am posting is the first one I saw of him and I was blown away by his skill level at such a young age. (It is ten years old.) I have continued to watch him and even had the chance to see him live last summer in Napa.
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Lipatti was a *phenomenal* pianist and musician. His Chopin Barcarolle is magnificent, as is his b-minor Sonata. I believe it was Stephen Hough who said that his recording of the Ravel Alborada del Gracioso (from Miroirs) was the greatest five minutes of recorded piano playing ever, or something to that effect. His Liszt Petrarch Sonnet 104 is, for me, untouchable (and I include Horowitz in the also-rans).
Lipatti studied with Cortot.
He became seriously ill in his early 30s. I believe Igor Stravinsky and Wilhelm Backhaus donated money to try to save him. Hodgkins Disease, an illness that is very manageable now took him at 33.
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Yury Favorin
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Yulianna Avdeeva
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Don Allen I was lucky enough to see her play in person yesterday! I love her playing!
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Vikingur Olafsson from Iceland. I first heard of him on tonebase. He would be a great guest!
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Susan I’d like to second that. Vikingur Olafsson is capable of producing the clearest pianissimos I’ve ever heard. It’s other worldly.
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The two pianists that come to mind that I love sharing with people are Mark Markham and Raoul Koczalski.
Raoul's recording of Chopin's Ballade #4 is astounding! He is one of the true heirs to Chopin.
https://youtu.be/sOHg33Shwl8?si=6YQ4IxRK1zeMgV5t
Mark has been a dear friend of mine for many years. He served as the collaborative pianist to the legendary American soprano, Jessye Norman for two decades. After Norman died unexpectedly in 2019, Mark started playing for other prominent singers like J'Nai Bridges (mezzo) and Limmie Pulliam (tenor), but he also started playing more and more solo concerts. The one I will share here is particularly astonishing because he was actually supposed to play a shared concert with the tenor Limmie P, but Limmie fell ill just an hour before the concert, and the concert organizers asked Mark to play an impromptu solo recital to salvage the day. Mark didn't have any music with him and had not prepared for this moment. Quite remarkably, he dove deep into his memory and proceeded to play a magnificent solo concert and even communicated with the audience making for an illuminating and very gratifying afternoon. His solo recitals are always elegantly and beautifully performed so I encourage others to go down the rabbit hole on Youtube seeking out his performances both as a soloist not to mention his performances with the great Jessye Norman. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/live/F00XwTZqRK0?si=Cxd6U0pv9kJRp3ZN
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Letizia you are so right about Hazel Scott but of course we must include Nina Simone. I love Nina Simone! Her rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone is sublime.
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Definitely: Elisabeth Virsaladze!
You can easily find pretty much on YouTube. She makes it all look so easy for us mere mortals.......
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Karel Houbenski Not Elisabeth but Eliso
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Karel Houbenski Agree! She is amazing!
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Piotr Anderszewski (won the Gilmore award in 2002) is a musician's musician and though he has an established concert career doesn't seem terribly well known here (possibly he's more famous in Europe). I heard him live at Carnegie Hall in 2008 and wrote my impressions: https://wwwmiscellaneousmusings.blogspot.com/search?q=piotr+anderszewski
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VL oh my goodness, yes! His Bach, his Mozart, his Szymanowski… flawless and totally captivating.
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The Italian pianist Sergio Fiorentino (1927-1998). No showmanship, everything from the heart of a pure soul. Here is his Chopin Ballade no. 1 from a live recital in 1993. Also check out his Liszt and Rachmaninoff
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So many. I will name a few that come to mind instantly.
Shura Cherkassky
Arkadi Volodos
Alexei Volodin
Ilya Itin
Rudolf Kerer
Vlado Perlemuter
Samson Francois
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Alexx Thank you. Arkadi Volodos’ Plays Brahms album is the best interpretation of Brahms piano pieces I’ve heard. He’s an amazing pianist.
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I only know Lipatti from his recordings, but those are head and shoulders above any other pianist's performances of the same pieces. Chopin's Barcarolle and Ravel's Alborada del Gracioso in particular are extraordinary.
Mieczysław Horszowski is another pianist that I rate very highly. I twice heard him play at the Wigmore Hall in London. The first time was the 80th anniversary of his Wigmore debut, and the second was to celebrate his 99th birthday. Radu Lupu, Andras Schiff and Murray Perahia were in the audience. It was amazing enough that at 99 he could still play the piano, but even more so that he could play better than almost everybody else. He had a way of dissecting the music and putting it together again so that it was absolutely clear how it worked (I have heard something similar in the conducting of Benjamin Britten and Simon Rattle).I have heard Sviatoslav Richter a few times live, and he was another stunning pianist. His recording of Rachmaninov's 2nd piano concerto puts others in the shade.
Shura Cherkassky had an extraordinary way of playing the piano and made it sound like nobody else.
Glenn Gould, although highly eccentric in his performances, as in his life, is another pianist that I would never like to be without. Every time I listen to his recordings I hear something new in the music that nobody else has brought out. His Bach is decidedly better than his Chopin, however, and he seems to have been completely unable to sustain the Larghetto of Chopin's first piano sonata.
The more I think about it the more pianists come to mind, so I shal stop now.
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Dr Julian Money-Kyrle What an experience it must have been to hear Richter and Horszowski live! They were both very well known during their lifetimes, less so now, so thank you for reminding us of them. The vagaries of fame....
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I forgot two pianists who are exquisite musicians but never attained the heights of popularity many others did: Ivan Moravec (to whom I was introduced by a Czech scientist) and Janina Fialkowska, whom I stumbled across because of this YouTube channel that compares recordings of (mostly living) pianists playing the same pieces side by side, with intelligent commentary by the owner of the channel, Ashish Xiangyi Kumar. Fialkowska's Chopin etudes are a revelation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0hoN6_HDVU&t=1356s
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Vicky Brandt thanks for giving a shout-out to Ashish Xiangyi Kumar’s YouTube channel - a veritable treasure trove of piano music, and possibly the richest and most wondrous gift to classical pianists on that platform. It never ceases to amaze me.
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Vicky Brandt I came across this post a few weeks too late - I would have mentioned Janina Fialkowska too! So, instead of being first, I will back you up on her, for a few reasons:
- I'm a loyal Canadian, so, obviously
- She is a powerful interpreter of Liszt and Chopin. I believe she gave the premiere concert of the Liszt 3rd concerto after it was discovered? Anyway, her recording with Hans Graf and the Calgary Philharmonic of the Liszt # 2 just rocks, and has been one of my favourites for years
- She has the incredible almost tragic story of developing a rare cancer in her upper arm, having a MUSCLE TRANSPLANTED to replace what they had to remove, and regaining her career after a lot of hard work. Including playing Ravel's Cto for the left hand, with her RIGHT hand:
https://youtu.be/0BuWXo0SGN4?si=h9YIE6tiTVqwiqiG
- and she has been involved in making classical performance more accessible to smaller communities in Canada.
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