Famous Piano Players Greatest Classical Pianists

• Ludwig van Beethoven (Germany, 1770-1827). He became well-known as a piano virtuoso in his day, with a powerful and direct playing style.
• Frederic Chopin (Poland, 1810-1849). Chopin played with a soft, elastic delicateness. Listeners said that he had the ability to create inky and subtle colors.

• Franz Liszt (Hungary, 1813-1886).One of the most famous piano players of all time! He had piano superpowers, and used to dazzle audiences with his extraordinary abilities.
  He was well-known (and mocked!) for acting dramatically while performing, contorting his face with passion and swaying his body.
• Anton Rubinstein (Russia, 1829-1894). A powerful pianistic force of nature. He used to give his audience headaches! Still, he had a wonderfully poetic and noble way of playing. Apparently he used to make loads of mistakes when he played, since he was focusing on expressing his personal idea of the music.
• Hans von Bulow (Germany, 1830-1984). A virtuoso, who performed the premieres of both Tchaikovsky and Liszt's first piano concertos. He had an incredible memory. He once learned an entire piece by reading the score on a train journey, then performed it the same evening at a concert!
• Sergei Rachmaninoff (Russia, 1873-1943). He was known as a famous piano player before a composer. His hands were ridiculously large, which allowed him to make huge stretches across the keyboard. His playing style was extremely clean and precise, and his tone was apparently golden and lyrical.
• Josef Hofmann (Poland, 1876-1957). A supreme virtuoso, with a calm and neat playing style. He had all sorts of inventive modifications to his piano to get the effects he wanted. For instance, some of his pianos had narrower keys than normal for his small hands!
• Arthur Rubinstein (Poland, 1887-1982). A charming old world personality combined with a well-traveled, well-read intellectual, and of course a master pianist.Rubinstein's powerful, golden interpretations are filled with the joy of music, and made him one of the most famous pianists of the 20th century.
  
  
  
• Claudio Arrau (Chile, 1903-1991). Arrau had a very rich and heavy tone, and an ability to bring out moving emotions from simple melodies. I really like his "Romantic" style of playing. He even has a wide avenue named after him in Santiago, Chile. Wow!
• Vladimir Horowitz (Russia/America, 1903-1989). He is famous for his electrifying performances of Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies. He liked to alter the scores of composers' pieces to make them more "pianistic". He was also able to play astonishingly quickly, and with huge ranges in volume.
• Sviatoslav Richter (Russia, 1915-1997). Richter seemed to be a superhuman. Immensely talented, he would perform pieces exactly the way composers had written them, which made him criticize other famous piano players.
  I once heard an anecdote, in which Richter turned up to a performance where the windows had been broken in by a fierce blizzard outside.
  Richter calmly sat at the piano and played perfectly, while icy winds blew all around the room. It's usually almost impossible to play piano if your hands are cold - your fingers seize up and don't move! But somehow Richter did it.
• Jorge Bolet (Cuba, 1914-1990). He has a percussive and weighty playing style, which has what I'd call a "glassy" tone. I find his playing a bit slow sometimes, but I still really like it. He had an ability to inject an infinite variety of images and feelings into his interpretations. Because of this I find listening to his performances really rewarding!
• Dinu Lipatti (Romania, 1917-1950). Lipatti was an astonishingly talented virtuoso, who tragically died at the age of 33 from cancer. He left a small handful of recordings (about 5 CDs), which inspire listeners with their perfect musicality. He's one of my favorite pianists!
• Gyorgy Cziffra (Hungary, 1921-1994). He had an eventful life, which included performing in circuses and being a tank commander in WW2. His playing is explosive and fiery.

• Alfred Brendel (Austria, 1931-). Known for giving thoughtful and intelligent performances. He thinks that it is a pianist's job to be responsible to the piece, and not to show off or disrespect the composer's work.
• Martha Argerich (Argentina, 1941-). She has a confident and stormy playing style, with a ferocious speed. She also has a wonderfully delicate touch, and a very warm tone.
• Maurizio Pollini (Italy, 1942-). A virtuoso of the highest order, Pollini plays with a shining, energetic, and perfect technique. His massive repertory covers several hundred years of piano music, right up to modern composers.

My Favorite Famous Piano Players

I think that composers are the most important people in music. After all, without composers, there wouldn't be any music!

But performers are also important. They translate the composer's vision into something we can hear and enjoy. They also add their personal artistry, creating a unique interpretation.

This is especially true with a piano, since it's a very complex instrument which can express a huge range of shades and moods.

Here are my top three famous piano players, with a video to demonstrate what I like about them:

1. Vladimir Ashkenazy, playing Tchaikovsky's September: Hunting Song, from The Seasons. Listen to Ashkenazy's bright, lively, and perfectly controlled interpretation:
   
   
2. Claudio Arrau, playing Liszt's concert study Un Sospiro (A Sigh). I find the warmth and emotion in this performance exceptional:
   
3. Martha Argerich, playing Maurice Ravel's Jeux d'eua (Water Fountain). Listen to how Argerich's flowing technique sounds like a golden fountain: