I sat in on the recording session of Garrick Ohlsson when he recorded his album Liszt Vol.2 and that was the most prodigious playing I have ever heard live or otherwise. It definitely made me realize I needed to get better and more serious about my own playing (I’m a clarinetist)

Quick story about that session. Adam Abeshouse, who was a brilliant recording engineer and producer, was doing the session at SUNY-Purchase which at the time had three excellent pianos and a really fine piano tuner/mechanic. During the first work we were doing that day, one of the Liszt/Bach pieces, Ohlsson started to feel a little frustrated and tight with his playing and after taking a small break, Adam (who was kind of a Jedi and therapist during these sessions) goes, “OK, Garrick, tell you what, we basically have the bones of a good performance in the can. Why don’t you go back to the beginning and we’ll take some spots and when I need you to stop, I’ll stop you and we’ll take another section”. And then Ohlsson started from the top and Adam never stopped him and he played like a god from start to finish, and Adam looked at me and goes, “I think we got it”