The greatest Beethoven pianist of the 20th century?

[Maurice Colgan]

Found them! The long mislaid programmes.

Richter, "People's Artist of the U.S.S.R." actually played Schumann, Schubert, and Rachmaninoff.



Nearly 38 years old

[Peter]

Great that you've still got it! My Richter dvd arrived today - just a question of finding the right time for watching.

[Johan]

My favourite (if I had to choose) would be Emil Gilels (sadly we don't have all the sonatas played by him). I also admire Alfred Brendel.
(I don't say this as a pianoplayer. I play the violin.)

[ruudp]

Johan I whole heartedly agree. I've got some sonata's and the 5 concerti played by gilels...just WOW...stunning really.I also got the arrau set, it doesn't really work for me. The few Kempff I've got are very nice aswell though. You can see Kempff and Gilels performing beethoven pieces on youtube, such a joy!

[gardibolt]

Not sure I'd call her greatest, but I have a definite liking for Annie Fischer's interpretations of Beethoven; she has a very different touch that brings out some wonderful nuances that are missed in performances by folks like Arrau, Serkin, Brendel and Schnabel.

[PDG]

This is a very tricky question, would be interesting to see what you guys all think!

Regards,
Dave

Forgive me (should forgiveness be needed), but in terms of bringing Beethoven's sonatas to the digitally-atuned masses at a bargain price, then you cannot exclude Jeno Jando's wonderful Naxos set. Or Bernard Roberts on Nimbus. £20 or £30? If you can't afford it, claim it on the NHS!

[atserriotserri]

After many months, I can come back to this forum.

My first listening of the sonatas was of the Ashkenazy set. Michael has considered “neutral”, and I feel the same. And as him I don’t regard it as negative, I think it could be considered perhaps as a “good reference”: balanced, technical, good sound… On the other hand, I haven’t listened to his Piano Concertos. Are they also “neutral”?

Then I listened to Rubinstein. I admire him a lot, but I think one should distinguish between piano concertos, which were a relevant part of his repertoire, several times recorded… and I consider great recordings; and the sonatas. I guess there must be a reason why someone like him recorded 3 (or more) times in his life LvB Piano Concerts, Chopin’s main repertoire, Brahms Piano Concerto…but only recorded 5 (I think “les adieux”, “moonlight”, “appassionata”, “pathetique”, “waldstein”); I guess he focused on those sonatas that allowed him a better display of his virtues. To put it simple, I think that his Concertos may have more “authority” (I hope you understand what I mean) than the sonatas. I love Rubinstein but have the feeling he’s not highly regarded when talking about LvB works. Am I right?

Then I listened to Gould. I mentioned long ago in this forum that I think he deserves attention, but I would be extremely naive (to avoid other epithets) they don’t qualify for this “best LvB pianist” topic. Just say that his Piano Concertos are closer to “orthodoxy” than the Sonatas, which in some cases (hammerklavier for instance) could even be considered as "a provocation".

I still have to listen to many records I bought at a shop that liquidated its vast stock: Among them are the complete Brendel Philips set (‘80s), the Schnabel volume of that “great pianists of the 20th century” collection by Philips, 100% LvB (Diabelli variations, 4th piano concerto, and 3 piano sonatas: waldstein, 30 and 32. From your words, great expectations have raisen!

What about Badura-Skoda? And Arrau? And Schiff? Concerning Arrau I've moved from not giving him much consideration to some dislike. I'm curious about Badura-Skoda and Schiff.

[Horowitz17]

Rudolf Serkin, definitely

[Preston]

Has anyone heard of Dinu Lipatti? I am sure that y'all have. I was listening to a piano program on the radio a while ago and it stated that Dinu would not dare to perform Beethoven because he felt that he was not worthy to.

Eventually Schnabel talked him into performing a sonata of Beethoven's. I can't remember the sonata.

Wikipedia states that he was one of the finest pianists of the 20th century. He had Hodgkin's Disease for around the last 7 years of his life.

[Quijote]

Sorrry to throw a spanner into the works (and sorry for using such a clich&#233, but asking who is the greatest 20th century pianist is akin to asking who was the greatest 20th century composer. There are/were many. Why do we have this almost obsessive need for taxonomy? For an example of where this sort of posting leads, I consider Richard Clayderman and Liberace to be the greatest pianists of all time, because that's what I think. See? (I am being ironic, of course).
I do understand that forum members simply wish to put forward their personal favourite pianist, but why on earth should there be 'THE greatest pianist' of the 20th (or any other) century?

[Peter]

Sorrry to throw a spanner into the works (and sorry for using such a cliché), but asking who is the greatest 20th century pianist is akin to asking who was the greatest 20th century composer. There are/were many. Why do we have this almost obsessive need for taxonomy? For an example of where this sort of posting leads, I consider Richard Clayderman and Liberace to be the greatest pianists of all time, because that's what I think. See? (I am being ironic, of course).
I do understand that forum members simply wish to put forward their personal favourite pianist, but why on earth should there be 'THE greatest pianist' of the 20th (or any other) century?

You have a point Philip, but the thread was in relation to the greatest Beethoven pianist, and clearly Liberace isn't a contender! I personally think Schnabel was one of the finest Beethoven interpreter's but as an overall pianist it is of course impossible to say - Schnabel's Chopin was dreadful!

[Tod]

I bought my Ashkenazy set fairly recently at HMV Oxford st, London for £31 and I'm sure I've seen it on Amazon.co.uk too - maybe you've a Pom relative you could ask to bring it over

Great idea as I have many English relatives, but I finally managed to get my hands on the complete Vladimir Ashkenazy set under the label 'London' by Decca records down here in little old Sydney. Happy days!!! I can see myself wearing out these CDs too if that were at all possible. Amazingly they also had the Schnabel set, but I couldn't afford both, so I'm going to get that later.

[JA Gardiner]

Glad you got it Tod - enjoy! As for the Schnabel set - well I've seen that selling here in London at the Music discount centre - you can find them online - for £10. So maybe that Pom relative may have their uses still...

[Tod]

Glad you got it Tod - enjoy! As for the Schnabel set - well I've seen that selling here in London at the Music discount centre - you can find them online - for £10. So maybe that Pom relative may have their uses still...

Thanks again J. Will look into it.

[Michael]

Great idea as I have many English relatives, but I finally managed to get my hands on the complete Vladimir Ashkenazy set under the label 'London' by Decca records down here in little old Sydney. Happy days!!! I can see myself wearing out these CDs too if that were at all possible. .

I got my Ashkenazy set back in 1990 when CDs were still a novelty and I couldn't believe that a couple of small boxes could contain all the sonatas. If they were vinyl they would be worn through by now but they still sound the same as the day I bought them. Just out of curiosity: my set takes up ten CDs and is the only set I know that has the sonatas in correct order. Have they changed the layout or remastered them in any way?