Piano Video Lesson: Who Are the 3 Greatest Living Pianists?

Welcome to LivingPianos.com, Robert Estrin with such a provoking question, which is who are the greatest three living pianists in the world? You know, where did I get this idea from? Well, a follower of mine, Max in England, he posed this question to me in an email and I looked at it and I scoffed at it, thought this is ridiculous. How could you possibly narrow it down to three greatest living pianists in the world? And then I got a brainstorm and I got a criteria that I think makes sense. And you can watch this to the end and find out if you agree with this. First of all, I'm limiting this only to classical pianists because it's ridiculous enough.

And first thing I want to do is mention many, many other pianists who deserve to be on this list because in reality it's impossible to really narrow it down to only three, although as I said, I have a way of doing it and you'll see if you agree. So I'm going to start now, I'm going to start with somebody who I've had a great opportunity to study with, Ruth Slanchinska.

Ruth Slanchinska is the oldest living student of Rachmaninoff. She also studied with Arthur Schnabel, Egon Petri, Alfred Courtaud, Joseph Hoffman and she has been performing since she's four years old. She was one of the great child prodigies of the 20th century and even came up with another album just a few years ago and has been concertizing well into her 90s.

So I think she deserves to be on this list. Her playing of the Chopin etudes and Liszt and Rachmaninoff is something to behold. Incidentally, in the description here on YouTube and on livingpianist .com are all of these pianists for you to explore. So that's why this video is going to be really valuable for you.

You know, when I was growing up, it was like Horowitz, Rubinstein, Surkin and Brendel and Alfred Brendel is still with us today and he was the first modern pianist to record all the works of Beethoven. He's also immense repertoire, Schubert, Mozart, you name it and his recording by the way of the Mephisto Waltz was one of my favorites and still to this day the Liszt Mephisto Waltz, so Brendel deserves to be on this list. What list would be complete without Martha Argerich? I remember as a fairly young child at Lincoln Center getting to hear her when she was just really getting her career really noted and I was with my father and his record producer Alan Silver and I remember and I don't remember exactly how he articulated it but something about that she plays fast but like no one else because her speed was spellbinding but it wasn't just all flash. The substance we're playing to this day is just absolutely breathtaking.

Daniel Barenboim is such a versatile musician, pianist and conductor and you know what? Whenever I've learned a new piece, after I've memorized it and I have convictions about it, I always love to listen to recordings and one of the best ones to listen to is Barenboim. He's always spot on, he's got a huge repertoire and it's hard to fault anything that he does. He's really such a beautifully seasoned concert pianist.

Then we come up with Vladimir Askenazi going back, you know he co -won the 1962 Van Clyburn competition with another one of my teachers John Ogden and his blend of technical skill and emotional depth, many pianists appreciate his piano playing.

And there's of course Polini, Maurizio Polini, again huge repertoire and the precision and clarity of his playing is just something to behold.

Who else is there? What about Garrick Olson? Garrick Olson's been around the scene a long time, he's actually the first and only American to win the Chopin competition. He's got in his repertoire 80 concertos. Can you imagine having 80 concertos in your head, in your hands? I don't know how much they're all there ready to go at a moment's notice but that's an astounding repertoire.

Gregory Sokoloff, such emotional depth and introspection to his playing that is unique, it's a unique voice and if you haven't listened to Sokoloff, make a point of listening to his performances, his recordings, he's unlike any other pianist you've heard.

Maria Jowell -Perez is known for her poetic sensitivity and interpretations and for Mozart and Chopin in particular but she plays all kinds of music, wonderful pianist and at this point by the way I want to take note to mention that if my pronunciations aren't all perfect, if you can leave an audio recording in the comments or a clip to them so I can listen to them and everybody can correct anything I get wrong. Mitsuko Yoshida, her interpretations particularly of Mozart and Schubert are just really elegant and once again with a beautiful emotional quality to them.

Andreas Schiff, his Bach, his French suites in particular, just beautiful playing, very very well articulated and crafted interpretations with clarity and insight that is definitely one of the great pianists.

Is Beethoven also, really beautiful playing.

Emanuel Axe is a fixture in the piano world and huge repertoire once again playing all over the world and very expressive performances and both solo as well as chamber music, Emanuel Axe is definitely someone of great note. What about Murray Pariah, known for his refined poetic interpretations and the notice for his ability to break up the clarity and the elegance and really a deep understanding of the classical repertoire.

There are so many pianists, what about Ivo Pogorelitsch? Ivo Pogorelitsch actually gained his fame by not winning the Chopin International Competition. How could that do it? Well it just so happens that Martha Argerius was one of the judges and when he didn't advance to the next round she walked out and that was it and it made such headlines that that actually propelled his career. I've gotten to hear him live as well and there is a real unique voice to his playing that is absolutely somebody in the top tier of pianists.

Christian Zimmerman, again this beautiful elegance and refinement that is something that is really really well worth listening to.

Then there's Jean Yves Thibaudot, Thibodet I should say and once again beautiful playing performances are noted with their elegance and of course the technical skill goes without saying, huge range of repertoire and he connects with a wide range of audiences.

Are you familiar with Marc Andre Hamelin? Oh my gosh his repertoire, he plays some of the most difficult music, the most pianist shy away from. You know the Chopin etudes are hard enough but Godufsky's arrangements of them where he adds and embellishes them to much much more complex works. Well he plays those, he plays Alcon, Busoni as well as his own compositions. Absolutely first -rate pianist.

I'm going to mention somebody who was one of my father's students, Jeff Beagle. Jeff Beagle has carved out an interesting career aside from playing the standard repertoire. He has over a dozen concertos written for him from some of the great great composers from Balkam to Lieberman. It's a pretty remarkable feat that Jeff has achieved.

Leif Ove Anzenes, known for his elegant refined interpretations, thought -provoking music and of course the technical skills to back it up, both solo and chamber music.

Now of course now we're getting to some real heavyweights, Evgeny Kisen. How many of you are waiting for me to mention Kisen? You know he started at such a young age with his virtuosic technique, his musicality, the riveting performances and he'd be on anybody's list as one of the greatest living pianists.

Then there's Carillo Gerstein, a German pianist performing at Severance Hall. I was not familiar with this pianist and I'm going to hear him his performance.

He's playing the Schumann Carnival and the Lisbee Minor Sonata and Ravel Laval's and more in one huge program. Unbelievable. I can't wait to hear this program. He also plays jazz by the way.

What about Lang Lang? Oh my gosh. He's kind of a global ambassador for classical music. He has elevated the piano in China where there are 40, 50 million piano students and captivated audiences worldwide, has a unique voice, takes a stand, doesn't play like everybody else. He'll dare to do things different and he's got the technical skills to back it up.

Yujia Wang, you probably have heard about her playing at Carnegie Hall all the complete works of Rachmaninoff with piano and orchestra.

Unbelievable. All his concertos, the variations on a theme by Paganini, unreal. She is an amazing show person and has the technical skills and the musical depth to back it up. Then there's Carillo Petuzanelli and she plays faster than just about any pianist I've ever heard and pulls it off. It's not all just flash. Her performances have emotional depth. Listen to her, her from the Fisto -Walsk. You can't believe from the very first notes the speed at which she plays that thing and makes such a convincing case. Then you go and try to listen to any other performance and it just sounds so slow by comparison.

Then there's Nobuyuki Tsuji.

He won the Clyburn competition and there is a documentary about him, a surprise in Texas that is riveting and spoiler alert if you don't want to know what this is about then just skip to the next one.

But blind since birth yet plays chamber music, concertos, solo repertoire as fine as any pianist you've ever heard. And you might wonder how could he possibly be able to play cohesively in a chamber music setting.

He listens for the people breathing.

You know how there's a natural breath when somebody is about to play something? Well he can do it all and learning music by rote in some cases can't reach sheet music, right? It's astounding and the documentary is well worth watching.

Then there's Pavel Kulinskov, a Russian pianist who started on violin and his piano repertoire from Bach to Tchaikovsky, an absolutely stupendous pianist you may never have heard of.

Now we're coming to the final stretch and you might wonder how can I possibly have the final people, you know, how do I – well you might have noticed something that's going on here.

The pianists are getting younger and younger and I picked the youngest three pianists who are on the level of all the others, absolutely first rate. And the reason for that is they're people we can enjoy for decades to come and it's great to see a new breed of pianists out there.

Daniel Trifonoff and his technical brilliance and deep musicality are just unreal. Emotional intensity, his repertoire, it's astounding what this man is able to do, a young man and a giant of a pianist.

Alexander Mollefief, even younger still and he's quickly gained international fame, his powerful performances and his emotional depth are unbelievable.

And lastly you may have heard somebody who's youngest one to win the Clyburn competition and Yanchin Lim and oh my gosh, his recording of the complete Chopin etudes and his recording of Liszt and he's only 20 years old and yet he is as fine as anybody else I mentioned here. He's got a lifetime of growth ahead. We can listen to what he's doing with his career. So that is my take on great pianists.

All of you leave other pianists I've left out, I'm sure there are other pianists of equal quality who I haven't even mentioned. There are so many great pianists in this world and I mention these three because they are the three youngest who are on this same unbelievable level of technical and musical giants in the piano world.

Thanks all of you for supporting LivingPianos .com. We are your online piano resource. You're welcome to subscribe here on YouTube as well as LivingPianos .com where you'll get articles and videos that come right to your inbox of your email. I'm Robert Estrin, thanks again for joining me.

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