I know this is a ridiculous question, but I’d be curious on what the consensus is with this… if you could only pick ONE. I originally meant to leave it unbounded as long as the pianist left recordings, but noticing how space restricted the polls were I’m splitting it up in four - 78, LP, CD, FLAC/Mp3.
This one is somewhat prophetic, but up until now: I’ve included 10 of the most lauded contenders above which can reasonably be said to belong to the FLAC era (as many as the poll allows), but there are numerous others of course. If your pick isn’t included -> comments.
Bozhanov WAS amazing a couple of years ago (during and shortly after all the competitions he did)
I would go for an unlisted pianist: Lise de la Salle, Pavel Kolesnikov or Einav Yarden… heard some very good stuff from Claire Huangci too. Currently all more interesting than (overworked?) Yuja.
I like Lise a lot, but I don’t think she’s nearly as consistent as YW, who I agree plays too much rep and too often. She had ‘carte blanche’ for a festival here in Paris last weekend (mostly the same rep I already heard her in) but I was overseas. I don’t know if I’ll be able to attend her next Paris recital at the Louvre either. I’m definitely keen to hear her again, however.
No kidding, that could’ve been a disaster but he got right back in there. I’m having flashbacks to da poonani’s brahms 2 where she missed an entry and got completely off sync with the orchestra.
To be fair, it’s rare to be great at this age. Horowitz and Lipatti come straight to mind, maybe Kapell and Ashkenazy. I’m hard pressed to think of too many who I’d have already counted as great by their late 20s, early 30s.
Arrau too - and indeed Volodos - but this is exactly what excites me. I think all of the above have left some seriously good things already - more so than with most pianists in history I can think of at the same age. It might end here. Or it might continue, in which case great times are ahead.
I wish I had that Tyson broadcast since this was the first time I heard about him (but did not yet pay attention to him). The story was something like that he didn’t think he’d go that far and hence hadn’t properly prepared the Rach-3, and his very first performance of it was at the competition. In spite of this however, he needs exactly 4 seconds in the clip zepp posted before I can tell that this is not your ordinary competition participant.
