CLASSICAL PIANISTS A-C
Alphabetical Listing

There are simply too many superb pianists in this group for me to point out all of my favorites. When I was a student, however, a number of these had a significant influence on me and I will mention those.

My mother had records by Geza Anda, Gina Bachauer, Alexander Brailowski, Clifford Curzon, and Gyorgi Cziffra, all of whom were still alive when I was discovering classical music, and these are among the first of the great pianists whose playing contributed mightily to my passion for the piano in particular. I specifically remember with great fondness recordings by Anda of the Liszt Eb Major Concerto, Brailowski of the Chopin Waltzes, Curzon of the Liszt B minor Sonata and the Schubert Impromptus, and Cziffra of the Liszt A Major and the Grieg Concerti.

Later, when I was at University, I had occasion to meet Claudio Arrau after a concert. He had performed the last three Beethoven Sonatas. I remember the concert was sold out and I had a seat on the stage just behind him, looking over his right shoulder. This was my first opportunity to see and hear a great pianist close up and personal. Shortly after he began the difficult double fugue in the Op 110 Sonata, I sensed that his there was something wrong, that his performance was somehow unravelling. Suddenly he stopped playing. No one in the audience was breathing. He sat quietly for a moment, shook his head, and began again. This time it was perfect, the most intensely profound interpretation of that intensely profound work I believe I have ever heard. After the concert, my friends and I went back stage to meet him. We shook hands and before I could muster a platitude or two, he spoke, not letting go of my hand. To the astonishment of all who could hear, he asked "You are a pianist?" I wanted to have my hand bronzed.

I also met, after their concerts during that same period, Jorge Bolet and Lazar Berman whose playing gave me serious pause as to my own pianistic ambitions.



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Åberg, Kerstin (contemporary)
Achúcarro, Joaquín (b 1932)
Aitken, Webster
Alekna, Gabrielius (contemporary)
Alexeev, Dimitri (b 1947)
Amirejibi, Tengiz (b 1927)
Amoyel, Pascal (contemporary)
Anda, Geza (1921-1976)
Andaloro, Giuseppe (b 1982)
Anderszewski, Piotr (b 1969)
Angelich, Nicholas (b 1970)
Anievas, Augustin (b 1934)
Arensky, Anton (1861-1906)
Argerich, Martha (b 1941)
Arrau, Claudio (1903-1991)
Artymiw, Lydia (contemporary)
Ashkenazy, Vladimir (b 1937)
Askenase, Stefan (1896-1985)
Austbø, Håkon (contemporary)
Ax, Emanuel (b 1949)
Babayan, Sergei (contemporary)
Bachauer, Gina (1913-1976)
Backhaus, Wilhelm (1884-1969)
Badura-Skoda, Paul (b 1927)
Bakhchiev, Alexander (1930-2007)
Bakk, Vladimir (1944-2007)
Ballon, Ellen (1898-1969)
Balsam, Artur (1906-1994)
Banowetz, Joseph (b 1936)
Barbizet, Pierre (1922-1990)
Barere, Simon (1896-1951)
Barenboim, Daniel (b 1942)
Barentzen, Aline von (1897-1981)
Barto, Tzimon (b 1963)
Bartok, Bela (1881-1945)
Bashkirov, Dmitri (b 1931)
Bauer, Harold (1873-1951)
Bavouzet, Jean-Efflam (contemporary)
Beach,Amy (1867-1944)
Berezovsky, Boris (b 1969)
Berman, Lazar (1930-2005)
Bernstein, Leonard (1918-1990)
Béroff, Michel (b 1950)
Bidini, Fabio (b 1968)
Biret, Idil (b 1941)
Biss, Jonathan (b 1980)
Bloomfield Zeisler, Fannie (1863-1927)
Blumenfeld, Felix (1863-1931)
Blumental, Felicja (1908-1991)
Blumenthal, Daniel (b 1952)
Boehm, Mary Louise (1928-2002)
Bogányi, Gergely (b 1974)
Bolet, Jorge (1914-1990)
Borowsky, Alexander (1889-1968)
Borwick, Leonard (1868-1925
Boshniakovich, Oleg (b 1920)
Boukoff, Yuri (1923-2006)
Brailowski, Alexander (1896-1976)
Brendel, Alfred (b 1931)
Bronfman, Yefim (b 1958)
Browning, John (1933-2003)
Brumberg, Leonid (b 1925)
Bruno, Giuseppe (contemporary)
Buchbinder, Rudolf (b 1946)
Bundervoet, Agnelle (b 1922)
Bunin, Victor (b 1936)
Busoni, Ferruccio (1866-1924)
Campanella, Michele (b 1947)
Carreño, Teresa (1853-1917)
Casadesus, Gaby (1901-1999)
Casadesus, Robert (1899-1972)
Castro, Ricardo (Contemporary)
Castro Herrera, Ricardo (1864-1907)
Cherkassky, Shura (1909-1995)
Chaminade, Cecile (1857-1944)
Chasins, Abram (1903-1987)
Cherkin, Georgi (contemporary)
Chouchan, François (contemporary)
Chuprik, Ethella (contemporary)
Ciccolini, Aldo (b 1925)
Cimirro, Artur (b 1982)
Cliburn, Van (b 1934)
Cohen, Dame Harriet (1895 1967)
Collard, Catherine (1947-1993)
Collard, Jean Philippe (b 1948)
Cortot, Alfred (1877-1962)
Cosma, Sofia (b c.1915)
Crochet, Evelyne (contemporary)
Crossley, Paul (b 1944)
Curzon, Clifford (1907-1982)
Czerny-Stefanska, Halina (1922-2001)
Cziffra, Gyorgy (1921-1994)

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