10 Famous Pianists You Should Know
MAURIZIO POLLINI
GLENN GOULD
WILHELM KEMPFF
YUJA WANG
MARTHA ARGERICH
SVIATOSLAV RICHTER
VLADIMIR HOROWITZ
ARTHUR RUBENSTEIN
EVGENY KISSIN
DANIEL BARENBOIM
Maurizio Pollini
Maurizio Pollini (born January 5, 1942) is an Italian pianist. He is known for performances of compositions by Chopin and Debussy, among others. In a career spanning nearly 60 years, Maurizio Pollini is one of the greatest keyboard legends. He has a broad repertoire ranging from Bach to contemporary composers and has recorded works from classical, Romantic and contemporary repertoire to worldwide critical acclaim.
Glenn Gould
Glenn Gould (1932-1982) was always an unorthodox pianist, choosing isolation over society. He was best known to the public for his eccentricities - wearing gloves, a scarf and overcoat in summer weather, soaking his hands in hot water before playing the piano, and humming and singing while playing. Beyond this, his legacy of nearly 80 CBS recordings is among the most significant and challenging musical documents of our time.
Every recording Gould made was provocative. His vigorous, introspective, and mannered keyboard style has been influential among some musicians, although he taught no students and left no musical descendants.
Wilhelm Kempff
Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (1895–1991) was an archetypal German musician, born into a family of church organists and cantors. The most spiritual Austro–German tradition, from J.S. Bach and Mozart to Beethoven and Schubert, was central to his sensibility.
Kempff was neither a daredevil at the keyboard nor one to venerate technique for technique’s sake, his pianism marked above all by clarity of tone, judicious tempos, magical soft playing and a famously lyrical legato.
Yuja Wang
Yuja Wang was born into a musical family in Beijing. After childhood piano studies in China, she received advanced training in Canada and at Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music under Gary Graffman. Her international breakthrough came in 2007 when she replaced Martha Argerich as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Two years later, she signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon and has since established her place among the world’s leading artists, with a succession of critically acclaimed performances and recordings.
Martha Argerich
Born in Buenos Aires, Martha Argerich’s early piano instruction stressed lyricism and feeling: "When the sound is empty," her teacher said, "it sounds like a pair of pants walking into the room with nothing inside them." At 8 years old, she made her debut playing a Mozart concerto, and she would go on to become the first pianist from the western hemisphere to win first prize at the Chopin Competition in Warsaw. Today, although she plays Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, her repertoire centers on composers such as Rachmaninov, Ravel, Prokofiev, and more modern composers, including Lutosławski and Messiaen.
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Richter (1915 - 1997), was a Soviet pianist whose technical virtuosity was combined with subtle introspection, making him one of the preeminent pianists of the 20th century. Though his repertoire was enormous, he was especially praised for his interpretations of J.S. Bach, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, Sergey Prokofiev, and Modest Mussorgsky. Among Richter’s distinguished recorded works are his superb performances of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, as well as his controversial interpretation of Schubert’s Sonata in B-flat Major, which exhibits an unusually slow, hypnotic first movement.
Vladimir Horowitz
Horowitz was the epitome of the classical pianist as virtuosic dynamo, one whose derring-do was an inescapable influence on subsequent generations of pianists. Horowitz showed enough prodigious talent to play for Alexander Scriabin in 1915, just before the Russian composer-pianist’s early death. Horowitz would become a superlative interpreter of Scriabin’s music, which the pianist described as “mystical… expressionistic.”
“Piano playing consists of intellect, heart and technique,” Horowitz said. “All should be equally developed. Without intellect, you will be a fiasco; without technique, an amateur; without heart, a machine. The profession has its perils.”
Arthur Rubinstein
One of the 20th century’s two most iconic classical pianists, Arthur Rubinstein (1887–1982) was a very different man and musician than Vladimir Horowitz, his peer and fellow household name. Rather than a neurotic recluse, Rubinstein was a polyglot raconteur and indefatigable bon vivant who lived to perform; instead of a fire-breathing dynamo, Rubinstein was an elegant virtuoso, his mature playing a spontaneous balance of color, lyricism and verve, with a rich, warm tone.
Over his eight-decade career before the public, Rubinstein played thousands of concerts across Europe and the U.S. to South America, Asia, Australia, North Africa and Russia.
Evgeny Kissin
Born in Moscow in 1971, Evgeny Kissin made his name early with a talent that far surpassed the typical Wunderkind. After many early milestones including an appearance playing both Chopin concertos with the Moscow State Philharmonic at age twelve, he has become — seemingly without difficulty — one of the finest adult pianists on the world's concert stages.
Kissin’s amazing finger dexterity and power have drawn great acclaim and stationed him as a child of the great Russian piano tradition.
Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim, (born November 15, 1942, Buenos Aires, Argentina), Israeli pianist and conductor who was noted for—apart from his musical talents—his bold efforts to promote peace through music in the Middle East. As a pianist, Barenboim was admired particularly for his artistic interpretations of the works of Mozart and Beethoven. As a conductor, he was recognized especially for his leadership of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
