# who is the greatest pianist of all time, what is the general consensus?



## MusicFree (Jun 16, 2014)

these questions tend to be subjective...but there is always a general consensus on these types of questions.......

who is considered the greatest pianist of all time


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## Aramis (Mar 1, 2009)

Lang Lang ssssss


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Aramis said:


> Lang Lang ssssss


If there is a God she will emit cold pianos over Your head for suggesting such! It is of course Yundi Li!

/ptr


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## shadowdancer (Mar 31, 2014)

Have fun:
http://www.talkclassical.com/7204-greatest-pianist-all-time.html

Disclaimer: This is an endless discussion


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## Matsps (Jan 13, 2014)

Charles Valentin Alkan - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles-Valentin_Alkan

I have seen two quotes about him, but I'm not 100% sure if they are well sourced.

"A better pianist than I" - Franz Liszt (on Alkan)
"...the most perfect technique I have ever seen" - Rachmaninoff (on Alkan)


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

MusicFree said:


> these questions tend to be subjective...but there is always a general consensus on these types of questions.......
> 
> who is considered the greatest pianist of all time


I'd say there is never a general consensus on these questions.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Sviatoslav Richter, due to enormous depth of repertoire and for one of the greatest techniques of all time.


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

Liszt was quite the show-stopper in his day


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Aramis said:


> Lang Lang ssssss


Not by a Long Long shot.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I don't have an opinion on that, but Rachmaninoff, who was a very good pianist, made a less grandiose assessment, picking Josef Hofmann as the greatest pianist of his day.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

v.








It's a toss up between *Tom the Cat *(see _The Cat Concerto _with Tom of "Tom & Jerry" fame playing Liszt's Second Hungarian Rhapsody -- 



) and *Bugs Bunny *(see _Rhapsody Rabbit _where Bugs takes on the same Liszt Rhapsody -- 



).


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## sharik (Jan 23, 2013)

MusicFree said:


> who is considered the greatest pianist of all time


*Svatoslav Richter*


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## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

No one will ever know because there's no way of comparing the great pianists of the pre-recording era with those of the recorded generation. (and there's also the problem of defining "great" -- ie technically vs musically, about which no two people will share the same opinion).


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

GGluek said:


> No one will ever know because there's no way of comparing the great pianists of the pre-recording era with those of the recorded generation. (and there's also the problem of defining "great" -- ie technically vs musically, about which no two people will share the same opinion).


Exactly. I mean, how can we know that Tom the Cat or Bugs Bunny is actually more accomplished than, say, Fred or Wilma Flintstone who left us no recorded evidence of their skills.

I will suggest, however, that modern trained pianists may be technically more skilled than those of older generations since the new fellows have to learn all of the stuff the old fellows knew (Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Rachmaninoff) plus the latest additions to skill sets that come from the latest generation of pianists/composers (Stockhausen, Boulez, Xenakis). There was a time when Liszt was considered beyond the abilities of the best trained artists; yet today the kids in music school are handling his tunes. So, a lot is relative.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

SONNET CLV said:


> [...]
> There was a time when Liszt was considered beyond the abilities of the best trained artists; yet today the kids in music school are handling his tunes. So, a lot is relative.


"Tunes"? 

The 'standard rejoinder' here is that there is a difference between 'handling' the music and and negotiating it with the ease required to allow 'free' interpretation. Alkan's music may be even more challenging that way than Liszt's - a possibility given weight by the recordings of several pianists.


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## Mister Man (Feb 3, 2014)

brianvds said:


> Not by a Long Long shot.


He did ask for a _general consensus_.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Mister Man said:


> He did ask for a _general consensus_.


Quite right. Somebody commented here recently that Lang Lang was the only concert pianist who can reliably fill the hall, every time. Sounds like a general consensus to me.

Moral: Be careful what you ask! :lol:

You can hear him now, streaming with the Gustavo person, in Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto.

http://www.kusc.org/laphil/


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## CypressWillow (Apr 2, 2013)

Well then, how about a sub-category of the greatest Feline pianist? Can we achieve consensus on Nora? I Long Long to see her honoured:






At any rate, she gets my vote.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

The correct answer is Bavouzet.


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

On page _two_ already, and no one yet mentioned Art Tatum!!!


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

The question is impossible to answer, especially for a complex instrument like the piano. You have to look at repertoire for a start. Who is good at what?
For example, for Bach you might say Gould although Perahia runs him very close. But you wouldn't choose GG for eg Mozart or Chopin.
For Liszt you might pick Cziffra but not for Beethoven.
What can be said is that there are certain pianists who bring something really special to what they play beyond the norm. A modern day example is Argerich.


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## Guest (Jun 17, 2014)

Well, until we get to the end of time, how can we judge for _all _time?

In my current mood, my choice would be Les Dawson or Victor Borge.


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## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

I say there is no ONE great piano player but there are many.I think most great composers like Beethoven,Schubert,Chopin,Liszt & Joplin are dead.They had plenty of piano music.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

mtmailey said:


> I think most great composers like Beethoven,Schubert,Chopin,Liszt & Joplin are dead.


Well, if you think about it, most great composers have *always* been dead, no matter when you lived.


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## Hmmbug (Jun 16, 2014)

> Lang Lang


Surely not! The best pianist would of course be Yanni! Or Clayderman!

Blech. That hurt to write.

In all seriousness though, only judging on what I've been able to hear, I would pick Richter.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

My problem is that there is at least a dozen pianist that I find blazin' in that they overlap in repertoire and interpretation, I could not for the life of me choose one over the other as, as soon as I had singled out one I would change my mind due to a hundred and one esoteric reasons that linger in the cloud of perfect pianism's!

Why settle for one when You can have them all!

/ptr


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## amfortas (Jun 15, 2011)

ptr said:


> Why settle for one when You can have them all!


Because you can't have them all. You have to choose.

Now get to it.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

amfortas said:


> Because you can't have them all. You have to choose.
> 
> Now get to it.


Yes I can, breaking the rules is my middle name!

/ptr


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## DavidA (Dec 14, 2012)

In a poll organised by the Gramophone magazine the first three were: Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Richter in that order.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

SONNET CLV said:


> On page _two_ already, and no one yet mentioned Art Tatum!!!
> 
> View attachment 44652


This was the first thing that came to my mind. I would probably say Franz Liszt and Art Tatum. Art Tatum isn't classical but his pianistic improvisation and technical skills were other-wordly. Horowitz used to watch him play and implied that Art Tatum was a much better pianist. As far as Liszt, we only have his reputation and piano works to judge him by but he seems firmly implanted in the top 1 or 2.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Dustin said:


> This was the first thing that came to my mind. I would probably say Franz Liszt and Art Tatum. Art Tatum isn't classical but his pianistic improvisation and technical skills were other-wordly. Horowitz used to watch him play and implied that Art Tatum was a much better pianist. As far as Liszt, we only have his reputation and piano works to judge him by but he seems firmly implanted in the top 1 or 2.


I thought we were commenting on pianist we hear today. But if we're judging by history, then Chopin... hands down. No question for me.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

Vesuvius said:


> I thought we were commenting on pianist we hear today. But if we're judging by history, then Chopin... hands down. No question for me.


The reason I didn't include Chopin in the mix for greatest ever is his admission that Liszt played Chopin's own etudes much better than him. But maybe he was just being humble.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Dustin said:


> The reason I didn't include Chopin in the mix for greatest ever is his admission that Liszt played Chopin's own etudes much better than him. But maybe he was just being humble.


They were both mightily impressed with each other, that's for sure.


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

What would we do, if we found the greatest pianist?


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Vaneyes said:


> What would we do, if we found the greatest pianist?


Focus his talent on the David Letterman show as the latest classical music playing geek-weirdo-oddity. Have him play some difficult piece that is all surface glitter, proving to the mainstream audience that classical music is boring and its performers are asocial misfits.


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## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Vaneyes said:


> What would we do, if we found the greatest pianist?


Dress him up as Liberace and pretend it's the 70's. Of course, we'd also have to procure an appropriate pool-boy for him. Necessities are necessities!


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## Vaneyes (May 11, 2010)

Enough clues have been given and received. And the winner is...Bang Bang!


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Lope de Aguirre said:


> Dress him up as Liberace and pretend it's the 70's.


That video is sheer genius.


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## GriffinPlays (Jun 29, 2014)

Well it depends I guess on what interpretations you like, I have done that, and have found that I believe Valentina Lisitsa is my choice, her renditions of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos are one of the most beautiful things I have heard so far in my experience of music, but I guess it all depends....


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

DavidA said:


> In a poll organised by the Gramophone magazine the first three were: Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Richter in that order.


With the constraint of "recordings available", surely.
Kind of hard to imagine the top 3 aren't Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.

I sometimes wonder with these "of all time" threads if people are forgetting that there was music before recordings...
cheers,
GG


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

GraemeG said:


> With the constraint of "recordings available", surely.
> Kind of hard to imagine the top 3 aren't Beethoven, Liszt and Rachmaninoff.


I wonder if Beethoven belongs on this list. He was certainly known for a time as *one* of Vienna's top pianists, but he was bested in a piano duel in the late 1700s by Woelfl, except for free improvisation (which we don't credit much these days, more's the pity).

In any event, by about 1814 his career as a public performer was over.

Perhaps Clara Schumann or Alkan instead? Chopin? Thalberg?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

"Who is the greatest pianist of all time?"

I think it depends upon which syllable you accent in "pianist".


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## mitchflorida (Apr 24, 2012)

How about Chick Corea?


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

As "all time" has not yet passed it is not possible to tell!

Even if We look at the 150 or so years of recorded history where we have some sort of comparable reference material it is hard to single out one individual! I would find life unbearable to the brink of pointlessness without a number of pianists! To many names to single out even a few.

So I still standby my decision that there is not one that can be singled out! I can at least say with some level of certainty that it cant be Alfred Brendel!

/ptr


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

There have been many 'greatest pianists of all time',....in different pieces and at different times. My vote for the greatest pianist of the past century is a tie and is well-known by all the 'geezers' on TC; as young as you may be. 

Glenn Gould and Earl Wild


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

kv466 said:


> There have been many 'greatest pianists of all time',....in different pieces and at different times. My vote for the greatest pianist of the past century is a tie and is well-known by all the 'geezers' on TC; as young as you may be.
> 
> Glenn Gould and Earl Wild


Ouch, I didn´t see that coming .


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## kv466 (May 18, 2011)

I'm sure you've seen many a post of mine as I have, yours. It is no secret here


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## stevens (Jun 23, 2014)

Is it anybody here in this forum who has heard ALL pianists in the world? I have not even heard Beethoven. Not Liszt, not Mozart, not Brahms, not Debussy


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

stevens said:


> Is it anybody here in this forum who has heard ALL pianists in the world? I have not even heard Beethoven. Not Liszt, not Mozart, not Brahms, not Debussy


Good point. Some of the old ones could have had a very sketchy style. Better to judge the pianists we are actually able to hear on recordings. And fame or being a "name" doesn´t guarantee anything. Listen to Paul Wittgenstein - absolutely clumsy and usually rather terrible.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

joen_cph said:


> Good point. Some of the old ones could have had a very sketchy style. Better to judge the pianists we are actually able to hear on recordings. And fame or being a "name" doesn´t guarantee anything. Listen to Paul Wittgenstein - absolutely clumsy and usually rather terrible.


I'll call Your Paul Wittgenstein and raise You one David Helfgott! (Or should I cry him a river?)

/ptr


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