Piano on vinyl - the best


Thus far, my piano recordings on LP are somewhat limited. The best being Keith Jarrett Koln Concert, in which the tunes are very listenable, upbeat and the recording quality is solid. I am sure there are many others which I am not familiar with.

Current favorites:

Keith Jarrett - Koln Concert

Regina Spektor - Name it. (Great modern recordings)

Vince Guaraldi - All (mono)

Tori Amos - Boys for Pele, Choir Girl, Little Earthquakes

Marian McPartland - Live at the Hickory House.
chris74
Jdaniel, I don't have problems with smearing or lack of focus (at least none that bother me), but I would agree that piano is difficult for LPs for another reason. Even a slightly off-center LP can have noticeable change in pitch, and this bothers me more with piano than most other instruments. For example, on the Satie box set I mentioned, two of the three LPs are very slightly off-center. It's not a big deal, but enough that I end up playing the 3rd LP more often.

Dave
Thanks, I've tried everything and now look to SACD/CDs of piano works. My system is Vandersteen 3a Sigs, VPI Scout 9" arm and Dyna XX2, weighted at a little over 2.2 grams. I've experimented with many different speaker placements, but have stuck to placement formula provided by company, no change though.

An example you might be familiar with is Rubinstein's Chopin PC #1, towards the end of side one on Lp the piano sometimes loses its pearly quality and gets a slight, "dirty" sound...but so does the SACD reincarnation!

I also get it during the "gallop" back to the final "big theme" in the third mov't of the Ashkenazy Rachmaninoff 2nd PC. Not on the CD though.... One Lp that is fabulous and--for all intents and purposes--**should** distort (but doesn't is the RCA Prokofieff PC #2 with Liebowitz/PCO. Wow.
Nojima plays Liszt and Nojima plays Ravel on Reference Recordings. Breathtakingly Life-Like in every way and superb playing too. It firmly breaks J. Gordon Holt's rule regarding recorded music.
Wolfgang Dauner, "Tribute to the Past - solo piano", HGBS 20012LP: 750 signed copies on vinyl, hurry.
http://www.dauner-around.com/shop-lp.htm
(sorry in German only, anyway, click the icons to sample the music)