She is not as charismatic as Bang-Bang but she is, for sure, far more musical.

Who is Bang-Bang?
-L

All of my favourite pianists have been mentioned already, except for Evgeny Kissin. I in particular enjoy his interpretation of The Lark (L'Hirondelle) by Balakirev.

Do you mean LANG LANG? lfactface? Chinese pianist...Just a thought...!

And don't forget:
Simon Barer
Egon Petri
Rena Kuriakou
Nadia Reisenberg
Bernard Ringeissen
Raymond Lewenthal
Leopold Godowsky
Gunnar Johannessen
Solomon Cutner
Louis Ketner
Maria Tipo
Jack Gobbins
Ronald Smith
and several hundred more

How I agree with you, He takes The sonatas to the point of near stalling. a true master.

I see no mention of Rosalyn Tureck, yet her Bach interpretations [1988 Reissued by VAIA in 1993] are fantastic, The best Goldberg ever, at least to my ears.

Finally someone mentions him! And don't forget Yundi Li. I especially like his interpretations of Chopin's music.

I love Arthur Rubinstein's rendition of Brahms' Piano Concerti.

I dont know if that will help, but my favourite pianist is Evgenia Rubinova.
She is an astounding young pianist with absolutely astounding interpretations of every piece that she plays.

I greatly recommend listening to her performance of Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (available on YouTube, just type in "evgenia rubinova"). She also has a cd, featuring excerpts from Robert Schumann, Frederic Chopin and Johannes Brahms. The cd can be ordered from Borders or any e-commerce sites, such as Amazon, E-bay, etc (for really cheap).

She truly turns a sheet of notes into a moving and overpowering piece of art!!! Really really recommend it

When it comes to Bach on piano, I'll pick Glenn Gould-- I don't care how eccentric he may be. He's excellent at bringing out the voicings. And he plays with such energy! Anything outside of Bach, um not so much. I love both his recordings of the Goldberg Variations, but I probably do tend to prefer the 1981 one to the original 1955 version. That's not to say that I'd listen to his Bach at the exclusion of anyone else, of course, but I do loves me some GG!

Krystian Zimerman's recording of Debussy's Preludes on DG are the best I've ever come across (he's not too heavy on the pedal and I feel too many pianists do this to Debussy).

~josh

__________________
"There is no theory. You have only to listen. Pleasure is the law.” ~ Claude Debussy

I have to second (or third) at this point Rubinstein's Chopin. I just purchased my first Rubinstein/Chopin CD and am listening to it currently. It is a set of Nocturnes, Scherzo, and the Etudes. The Scherzos are very inspired.

Alicia de Larrocha does a great Ravel (though i've heard only one other recording to compare it to)

What do people think of Aldo Ciccolini?? I've got a set of his playing Satie that I like a lot.
Also, Has anybody heard Michel Beroff? He is prominently featured on iTunes recordings (especially for Debussy) and I've been curious.

I have him playing the Mozart sonatas, he is good.

foolon the hill I also have the Krystian Zimerman's recording of Debussy's Preludes the "Penguin Guide" gave it 3 stars a few years back and they usualy get things right.

"My Number One" is the Gwhyneth Chen

Got a Chopin box-set, Chopin - The Chopin Experience; Vladimir Ashkenazy. The recordings I have of Pollini (preludes) and especially !Rubinstein! (nocturnes, trois nouvelles etude, and scherzos) are markedly better from what i've heard of this set so far... but I've never heard a lot of these pieces in the set, it really is great. One thing that annoys me though, on some of the recordings, which took place in different venues at different times, there is quite an audible low hiss noise which is very noticable, especially on the Ballades.

Anyway, i am currently listening to and enjoying Etudes, Op. 10.

Does anybody else have Ashkenazy playing Chopin? How do you find it to be? I have some work of his on Beethoven's Violin Sonatas that are just great, not sure how i feel yet about this collection yet as I am hearing most of these pieces for the first time.

Most of my favourite pianists have been mentioned already, but I just thought I'd recommend a few recordings in particular:

Bach's Well Tempered Clavier by Glenn Gould
Bartok's Works For Piano Solo (1) by Zoltan Kocsis (includes the Bagatelles and Romanian Dances)
The complete Mozart Sonatas by Mitsuko Uchida
The complete Chopin Nocturnes and Impromptus by Claudio Arrau
Rachmaninov's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 4, and Rhapsody On A Theme By Paganini, played by... Rachmaninov