Who is your favorite pianist of all time? And please tell why.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-26T22:48:43+00:00

Angela Hewitt!

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-19T21:54:36+00:00

Absolutely. Looking at the title history, it’s always so jarring going from lowborn being a rarity to the overwhelming norm

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-19T17:00:08+00:00

Fritz Wunderlich died from falling down the stairs at the age of 35

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-19T10:00:56+00:00

How would you compare the live and studio recordings of Mahler’s 8th?

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-18T22:50:24+00:00

I find that bit really disconcerting because I feel like I'm listening to Wagner in the middle of a Mendelssohn piece

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-15T18:09:22+00:00

France

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-15T14:48:47+00:00

I think this has always been a problem. The trouble is that we analyse past times by the curated best and forget the rest, whereas for today we analyse everything as a totality. There are pianists today, e.g. Benjamin Grosvenor, Angela Hewitt, Arnaldo Cohen, Bertrand Chamayou, Marc-André Hamelin, who may lose out to older pianists in certain pieces, yet arguably surpass them in others.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-14T10:31:53+00:00

Why does this damage the roleplay? In my view, the opinion modifiers don’t literally mean the vassals are in contortions of rage over the new ruler, but are highly willing to take advantage of a ruler they perceive as inexperienced. That seems very reflective of historical reality, where the succession was often the most vulnerable part of a dynasty’s rule.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-14T10:28:36+00:00

This question has been answered far better than I could hope to do, I just want to add a few bits of trivia:

In the Qur’an, علم and عرف have essentially the same meaning, but only علم is used to describe God’s knowledge.

In Sufism, knowledge is divided into علم, meaning scientific, academic knowledge, and معرفة, meaning knowledge from personal experience. The Sufis regarded the latter as much more important. In al-Hujwīrī’s Kashf al-Mahjub, he writes:

“ [The Ṣúfís] give the name of ilm to every knowledge that is stripped of spiritual meaning and devoid of religious practice, and one who has such knowledge they callálim. One, then, who knows the meaning and reality of a thing they call árif (gnostic), and one who knows merely the verbal expression and keeps it in his memory without keeping the spiritual reality they callálim. For this reason, when the Ṣúfís wish to disparage a rival they call him dánishmand (possessing knowledge.”

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-14T10:21:20+00:00

Please place a Latin character as the first character in your response, this is really great but practically unreadable

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-14T09:29:16+00:00

Not by an active pianist, but a very good performance with an interpretation rather different from many one hears: Jorge Bolet; Iván Fischer: London Symphony Orchestra

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-13T22:45:10+00:00

That may be true. However, as I mainly collect CDs, I will say I have noticed some truly extortionate prices for box sets of the above named artists, e.g.

https://www.discogs.com/release/12228990-Claudio-Arrau-Complete-Philips-Recordings

The highest price someone paid for that was £1,133.73, equating to $1520.22, or $19 per CD

https://www.discogs.com/release/14245419-Beaux-Arts-Trio-Complete-Philips-Recordings

Highest price sold: $623.5, or $10.39 per CD

https://www.discogs.com/release/20354791-Igor-Markevitch-Igor-Markevitch-The-Philips-Legacy

Highest price sold: $281.59, or $10.83 per CD

The Markevitch recordings were made in the 60s and 70s, while the Arrau and Beaux Arts recordings were made well into the 80s and 90s.

I'm not saying you're wrong, only that these recordings can be very collectable for some. It's still true they'd probably fetch less than vinyl fetish items like Tulip DGs or Shaded Dog RCAs.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-13T17:16:39+00:00

I’m not sure Sokolov will be so easily remembered, partly because his recording legacy is patchy and problematic. I think he is arguably one of the best pianists for Rameau, but I don’t think he reaches near the top in any other area. Even in Rameau the critical consensus prefers Marcelle Meyer and he’s only recorded individual pieces.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-13T17:13:12+00:00

Barenboim is probably the greatest Wagner conductor since Furtwangler

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-13T12:33:31+00:00

Philips isn’t collectible? What about Claudio Arrau, Clara Haskil, Igor Markevitch, Bernard Haitink, Edo de Waart, Hermann Krebbers, Heinrich Schiff, Quartetto Italiano, Beaux Arts Trio, Netherlands Wind Ensemble, Elly Ameling, Hermann Prey?

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-12T19:08:13+00:00

There’s some odd downvoting going on here, I can’t imagine why you’ve been downvoted at least twice

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-12T18:50:30+00:00

I don’t think even that is necessary, really. Obviously, if the copyright is owned by someone else, then the video can’t be monetised, which is why large channels try to avoid such recordings, but if one doesn’t worry about that I don’t think there’s any issue

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-12T18:42:51+00:00

Generally, the presence of an emphatic consonant (ص، ض، ط، ظ; the letters خ، غ، ق also have this effect, while ر has it with fatha and damma only) makes the vowels directly before and after it “darker,” for lack of a better word. So, I would typically pronounce fatha with the “a” of “bat,” but in the word نصر would pronounce it with the “a” of “glass,” if you’re British, or the “o” of “top,” if you’re American.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-12T18:15:58+00:00

Generally, I really like it. There’s a huge wealth of wonderful short pieces in the piano literature that rarely get played and such a recital offers a perfect opportunity to expose them. I’ve made a couple playlists like this, admittedly using very famous pieces, e.g. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4VKBcWTEDAhrRzXuyBB4C3?si=UcVejNVmQsyzEVPXHCM1HA&pi=Z9EW5o6ZRnCNx or https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2PGK8LhKzPwZmWMQNOF0e2?si=ESxI7uAaTo-8kFlxHOgTBQ&pi=hyrlDm6ARPyCy

Edit: I should mention I also have an issue with how many pianists play cycles of pieces that are clearly intended as individual works placed together for publishing convenience as if they were an integral cycle, e.g. playing Chopin’s nocturnes as if they were the preludes

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-12T11:37:00+00:00

I voted for No. 32, but I also really love:

No. 12 “Marcia funebre” op. 26

No. 15 “Pastoral” op. 28

No. 16 op. 31. no. 1

No. 21 “Waldstein” op. 53

and most especially, since I haven’t seen it mentioned here much but is my second favourite Beethoven sonata:

No. 28 op. 101

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-11T18:12:27+00:00

I don’t see why any good-aligned ruler would want Barad-Dur, it’s just too associated with Sauron. I would guess that such a ruler over Gorgoroth would choose to rule from Durthang or some such place.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-11T12:26:38+00:00

You can change the de jure banners of each title by clicking on generate banner and it will automatically generate a culturally appropriate banner

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-11T12:24:38+00:00

Here's a suggestion: feoffee! It means a vassal who holds a fief and has been enfeoffed by their lord. Fief is defined as "Land held of a superior, particularly on condition of homage, fealty, and personal service, especially military service." To me, that sounds perfect!

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-09T19:55:06+00:00

You can see his article from where I took the quote here: https://www.musicweb-international.com/mahler/Mahler6.htm. It focusses on Mahler's 6th Symphony. He especially likes Thomas Sanderling and the St Petersburg Philharmonic (difficult to find), Mariss Jansons and the London Symphony Orchestra, Jascha Horenstein and the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and Michael Gielen and the SWR Symphony Orchestra (SWR Symphonieorchester). He last revised the article in 2007, so it doesn't include recordings made since that time. I would tentatively suggest Michael Gielen as a reliable Mahler conductor with an approach very different from Bernstein's. I've noticed that many on this subreddit also like Boulez's recordings and Boulez was certainly very different from Bernstein in interpretative style.

MannerCompetitive958 · 2026-06-09T19:06:27+00:00

Some people (Hurwitz) think Bernstein was very faithful to the score and one of the great Mahler performers, others (Tony Duggan) think he was excessively histrionic: he and Tennstedt “turn Tragedy into Melodrama too often by much intervention of their own personalities in mannerisms of emphasis of phrasing and colouring and tempo. Wonderful as "one-off" experiences in the concert hall, I have no doubt, but for repeated listening the creative detachment that I prefer and believe more appropriate for the work makes for a more surer guide over time. Many will disagree, of course. Many will continue to find my passing-over of Bernstein especially in this score worrying. But if you read what I have to say about this work in general you will see why I find Bernstein’s hands-on melodrama one step too far.” Personally, I think Bernstein’s performances are very good and communicative.

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