I’ve been lurking for a few days now and thought I should introduce myself. Very interesting community you guys have here. I’m still trying to make sense of all the crazy lingo…
I am from the USA, 25 years old, working in software. I play the piano too but not very well. I would like to play Don Juan one day (hence the name) but it’s sadly too hard for me. I hope to stick around and discuss piano technique, share recommendations, etc.
I also realized that @festinfurious is “alkanliszt” on Youtube (right?) which is pretty cool since his video of Le Festin was my first exposure to Alkan circa 2007 and got me into the composer. Nice to meet you.
Whalecum, young mofo! Dun worry about da lingo, n you don’t haff 2 use it, although it’s fun to keep up the tradition here and there.
I share your software and n0ob piano skillz background (probably the worst in this forum in that department). I was also quite starstruck when I found out who @vladspeedster was, having watched his videos for years.
A funny note on that: I read an interview with Hamelin yesterday and at the bottom of the article was 3 videos, 2 of which came from my channel. feelsgoodman.gif, #spreadingdamessidge
My two favorite pianists are Pletnev and Sokolov. There are many more that I like including Hofmann, Yudina, De Larrocha, Annie Ficsher and Grosvenor, just off the top of my head. I’m fairly new to serious/critical listening so there’s still a lot of well-known pianists I’ve barely (or not at all) listened to.
Favorite piano works are Beethoven’s late sonatas, most of Chopin’s big works (ballades, Polonaise Fantasie, etc.) and also some Liszt pieces (Don Juan fantasy, Norma fantasy, sonata, certain selections from Annees de pelerinage)
And yeah, it was Liszt and Alkan that first got me excited about classical piano (mostly midis at the time, since I didn’t know or care about famous pianists). Before that I was just interested in improvising, playing some simple jazz and pop tunes and refusing to practice what my teacher told me to… even then, it wasn’t until years later that I actually learned how to use good practice habits, discipline, and anatomically natural technique. This less-than-ideal environment of my formative years stunted my development pretty badly, I’m afraid
You share quite a few favourites with me. Pletnev has been one of my heroes ever since I was in my teens, and while I’ve certainly had my ups and down with Sokolov over the years I’ve been more in to him than any other pianist now the past 6-7 years. Also a huge AdL fan, and Hofmann is one of my top picks among the golden agers today.
This is an excellent place if you want to hear more with either pianist, or get recommendations for good recordings with others you’ve not yet explored.
classic example of star-power & knowledge-about-thing being inversely aligned. It’s like when I met Nigel Farage when I still admired him. I got to know more about him afterwards and he turned out to be a vile tosser.
my 
vid isn’t great tbh but at the time it was one of the very few vids of him on da tube.
