This question isn’t just about hands… it’s purely about physical presence.
_____ is to piano as Shaq is to Basketball…
I’d say Richter and Weissenberg. Richter looks like he could play offensive line… while Weissenberg seems like he could’ve been a tremendous athlete, probably QB. He also seems to keep in great shape - look at that upper body. His pecs are p[ossibly bigger than my biceps
Any thoughts?
Size or towering presence really don’t matter!
Some of the most staggering bootlegs I have ever heard are by one of the shortest and tiniest pianists of all time, Alicia de Larrocha. Many of her live performances from the late 60s, 70s and early 80s relegate most of her bulkier male colleagues to the ranks of mere amateurs! Her Gaspard de la Nuit from a 1968 Carnegie Hall recital is by far the most hair-raising version I have ever heard and that includes the likes of Argerich and Michelangeli.
She was all-too easily pigeonholed as a specialist of the Spanish repertory by critics but at her peak, she had very few rivals, including those athletes of the keyboard…Her live Liszt sonata, Kreisleriana, Bach/Busoni Chaconne (to name but a few cornerstones) are nothing short of stupendous!
I totally agree. DeLarrocha was a giant DESPITE her small stature.
I have a Brahms 2nd concerto by her, and she seems to almost have the same kind of power as Richter did.
Indeed! Ditto regarding her live Rach 2. (or live Rach 3, Emperor, Chopin F minor, Ravel D major…)
If size iz da important sheeyat den Ohlsson.
True, I saw Ohlsson play the Rach 4 and he is a beast.
pozzibly tha BEAN fo hiz natural GIRTH
Is it John Candy reincarnate?
No da Wilde!!!
a week uff conztipation relieved at diz moment
my friend’s father knew him well, and said that after he was institutionalized, he just stayed in his room, which had a piano, and played furious music like TEs and rach etudes and shit ALL DAY LONG.
if you ask me, he didn’t go crazy, but finally locked into the zone we’re all after.
A TRUE SDC GOD
Hahaha damn, Respect the OGDON.
My favourite Alkan Concerto rec is OGDON, without a doubt. Simply stunning. And chances are he was sight-reading for that rec.
What a god.
Rach was huge and had a monstrous span. One could say he was born for it.
absolutely correct
i’ll post that sometime soon
in fact i’d post ANY ogdon, because i don’t want that whore of a wife, brenda lucas, to get another fucking dime off his genius
it’s really her that drove him off the deep end
somebody has to post the rachmaninoff etudes from the great pianists series. the e-flat minor it awesome. his later recording sucks.
fauzt r u talking about da EMI Testament rec?
anyone read her book? what’s it like?
random question about da rachson 1. He recorded it twice right? I have one on diz EMI 3 cd sheeyat but it’s not freakishly fantastic, iz da other one better?
I believe the TESTAMENT and GPOTTTC material is from the same recording, 1971, iirc.
The Late rec is on EMI, issued in 2002, recorded in 1988.
da 
phyzical implication fo da zake of fury n zpeed iz naturally unmatched
well he shorly lozt 3kg or mo in diz live TE vid 
diz one iz da shit:
yeah, the emi is the one that sucks…now i remember.
After seeing vids of Cziffra and Kapell–look totally at home at the keyboard.
koji