Great classical pianists

I pulled the Perahia/Haitink Beethoven PCs off the self and listened to 1/2 yesterday.  It was great to be reminded of what a great Artist the young Perahia was.  For the record I still think he is superb, but his earlier recordings had a freshness and spontaneity and superb passage work to die for.  The Second sometimes eludes great artists, but here it sounds youthful, boisterous but well behaved, and the musicians phrase completely naturally with bar lines completely disappearing.

So many great Pianists past and present.  I saw Horowitz twice at the tail end of his career, Arrau once, Pollini a few times...all great in different ways.  

A brief list of players that I would have liked to see but didn’t :

1) Annie Fisher

2) Wilhelm Kempff 

3) De La Rocha

4) Leon Fleisher 

5) Rudolf Serkin  I actually did see one of his last concerts-he regrettably should have hung it up by then

I did see one of Artur Rubinstein last concerts and it was memorable, particularly his Schumann.

My current favorite is Vikingur Olaffson 

Arrau in Op. 111 is one of my desert island discs