Which pianists can you think of that have elite or almost elite tech level - but very seldom unleash it?
Sometimes it comes in the form of pianists who usually play at modest tempi - but in occasional passages you hear something unexpected that really demands a higher dexterity level than you thought they possessed.
BOLET
Several others though - Sokolov and Richter both have among the most extraordinary techniques ever seen, but they never let technique be explicitly apparent in their performances and so you rarely think about them when these questions arise. Gelber feels like something like this too. I highlight Bolet above however because he often didn’t even use it when he should have.
Yes, of course - Godowsky. de Pachmann is also somewhat underrated in this department, though I wouldn’t single him out as a great virtuoso.
da BZcholah 
Did he still have it by the 70s? That famous Carnegie recital makes me doubt it. During the time of the Prok 2 he definitely did. Otherwise I’d probably say Arrau, though it might be the same situation for him.
Michelangeli
Alwayz in cruize mode, wonder wut he would zound lyk in INZANE RAPE MODE 
AHAHAHAHA
da problem wiz a mofo lyk da ABM iz dat
da RAPE MODE iz zo foreign to hiz prax ztylee, dat if he zuddenly tried it, tvil lykly juz cauze a mental breakdown n inability to procezz da ‘wrong’ tactile zenzationz hez now zuddenly feelin on hiz fingahtipz, wiz da firzt zmudged pzzg leadin to inztant fakerudy etc 
if u want to zound gud in INZANE RAPE MODE, u haff to PRAX cuntziztently in dat mode
lyk da RECTUM
Cortot kinda a had a turbo mode he rarely practiced into
Lhevinne
supposedly Godowsky (yeah right, and Santa came down the chimney yesterday and held my cock while I took a fuckin piss)
Serkin
Schnabel
Tbh I think Bolet had a significant problem with chord execution. I hear it a lot in live rapid chordal passages… seems to me that he’s often not very clean there.
Not a fan of his laid-back approach, tbh kind of a proto-lezbo, wiz skills
Even his earliest recs like the selected Liszt TE’s from 40’s broadcasts - a big pile of MEH and irrelevant when we have legends of today who play circles around this profound slow mofo
There are very few recs of his that I like, maybe the Flederdong and Spanish Rhapsody from those 60’s broadcast but even then - nothing to write home about
In a blind listening test you would say “this fucker needs to practice until he can play the work”
His Tannhauser is quite good if you speed it up 1.25x, then it sounds like Claire Huangci on a bad day.
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I adore Bolet, but maybe only really ~1969-1980. I’ve never been a fan of his early recordings, and already from around 1977 onwards you can’t always count on him. His best work however has a remarkable beauty to it, and pianism which is always both refined and sophisticated. In my mind he’s unquestionably one of the great names of the previous century.
I think he was much better in stuff like 
Schubert transcriptions than the TEz.
ahahahaha da GHEYLORD pure moizt iz legit
TECH pozz ZCHOLAH level
He had a fantastic Village People outfit on in the great peniztz dizc inlay though 
Da CORTOT.
Diz mofo’s weakness is octs n mixed pimp-style techs, but randomly wikid finga tech n panache
Rudolf Jerkin. One just has to listen to his live Chop Ets or Prels to realize that he had more tech than he iz usually credited for.
Da JERKIN!
Ahahahah da JELQING
Does anybody have the Danacord disc of live stuff when he was a young mofo? I remember the repertoire been kind a bad ass.