Piano Solo or Concerto Recordings that make you go "wow"

[Holden]

I have the Uchida, and I'm medium satisfied with it. So I wonder if it's due to the music or the performances. How does Klara Wurtz compare to Uchida interpretation-wise?

Many pianists approach Mozart as if this were prissy 'salon' music and Uchida, despite beautiful tone is guilty of this. Wurtz plays the music in a much more red blooded way yet her phrasing, tone colour and choice of tempos makes the music sound really fresh. I love it.

[Brian]

I have a recording which qualifies as a piano solo and concerto recording, that makes me go "Wow!" It's Marc-Andre Hamelin's unbelievable performance of Alkan's Concerto for Solo Piano - 50 minutes of solid WOW!

[bassio]

'Wow' is really different from favorite or impressive. This does not mean that something is only great, but that it probably won't be repeated or emulated ever again. It has to be jaw-dropping .. so if I take this literally, those will be some mentions which come to my mind

Hofmann - Chopin Piano Concertos esp. No.1

Friedman - Chopin Mazurkas (also for the Mazurkas Rubinstein in the 30s on EMI)

Rachmaninoff - Chopin Sonata No.2
Rachmaninoff - Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody No.2
Rachmaninoff - Piano Concerto No.1 Cadenza
(In fact most of his recorded output)

Cortot - Chopin Etudes and Preludes (30s)

Levy - Liszt Sonata (special mention to Argerich and Horowitz)

Gould - Goldberg Variations 1951

Horowitz - many takes, one comes to mind is his Scriabin Etude 8-12

Richter - Many Live performances

I agree with most what is mentioned here too, although I am not that keen on listening to Richter's Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.2 (the one with the elaborately slow introduction) .. how many recordings of him exist of this concerto?

I also predict a very bright future for Sudbin and I only listened to his Scarlatti! .. which is incredible! I had the honour of interviewing him. He will be one of the greatest pianists of this century for sure.

[BorisG]

Gould - Goldberg Variations 1951?

[hornteacher]

This Rachmaninov cycle does it for me every time:

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=91121&album_group=5

[George]

Richter - Schubert D 894, Brilliant - Rachmaninov PC 2 with Wislocki - Finale to Appasionata sonata, RCA - Liszt PC's with Kondrashin. Any solo Rachmaninov performance.

Janis/Kondrashin - Rachmaninov PC 1

Arrau, Ciccolini - Chopin Nocturnes

Cziffra - Liszt Transcendental Etudes

Gulda - Chopin Ballades - His entire Beethoven sonata set on Brilliant Classics.

Gilels - Beethoven Appassionata Sonata, Live Jan 1961 in Green Brillant Classics box. 

Horowitz - Rachmaninov PS 2, Live Carnegie Hall 1981. 

Maria Yudina - Any of her Beethoven, esp Op. 111.

Rudolf Serkin - Beethoven Op. 110, unreleased performance (in the 3 CD set.)  Mono Waldstein, Music and Arts.

Lupu, Annie Fischer, Bernard Roberts - Beethoven Moonlight Sonata (each for different reasons)

Moravec - Pathetique Sonata

Casadesus - Ravel Piano Works 2 CD set.
 
and of course Annie Fischer's complete Beethoven sonatas.

[samtrb]

Richter's incomparable Rach 2 conducted by Wislocki

Horowitz Chopin first ballad
Richter Schumann Papillons (Richter's list is long but his Schumann papillons is often ignored)
Rubinstein Chopin polonaises

[springrite]

Richter - Schubert D 894, Brilliant

Thanks for bringing this one up! Remarkable!

[Holden]

Horowitz Chopin first ballad
Richter Schumann Papillons (Richter's list is long but his Schumann papillons is often ignored)
Rubinstein Chopin polonaises

Agreed and the Fassingsschwanck that goes with it is also unjustly ignored.l The whole disc is a desert island special for me.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Many pianists approach Mozart as if this were prissy 'salon' music and Uchida, despite beautiful tone is guilty of this.

Well, for my money there is anything but 'salon prissiness' in Uchida's Adagio in B minor, K.540 (of Mozart). I listen to this piece by Uchida and come away feeling like I've just been given a glimpse of an extraterrestrial landscape full of icy, unfamiliar things. Frightening yet at the same time edifying...no wrong moves though or the whole thing comes crashing down...

This is actually my favorite "wow" moment for solo piano which probably explains my urgency to defend Uchida... 0:)

[zamyrabyrd]

Well, after all, as any Latin student can tell you, that IS the original meaning of the word concerto:

con ("with") + certo (certare..."to fight, contend, struggle, do battle" or alternatively "to debate")

The original implication was always one of struggle and fighting. The much more civilized connotation of "act together" or "decide together" came centuries later.

Dirk (whose 5-1/2 years of classical Latin occasionally come in handy)

Thanks, occasionally I remember some Latin from 4 years (where did it all go???)

Rachmaninoff playing his own 3rdPC is quite incredible.

ZB

[rubio]

Gulda - Chopin Ballades - His entire Beethoven sonata set on Brilliant Classics.

Where are Gulda's Chopin Ballades available? How does he compare to Perahia?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

I would also add:

Any live Cziffra.

Prokofiev's fourth piano sonata (particularly the slow movement) by Richter at the 1966 Aldeburgh festival.

Richter's Beethoven Op.111.

Ashkenazy's Scriabin sonatas.

Prokofiev again - the fifth piano concerto with Browning/Leinsdorf. That sanguine interlude towards the end of the piece - all of one minute long - protrudes like a sunburst amid the chaos of its surroundings. Very out of place but so strategic...

Cherkassky's Chopin (early Cherkassky).

Bartok's Out of Doors by Kocsis.

Egorov's Bach Partita no. 6.

Bavouzet's solo Ravel.

Siirala's Brahms third piano sonata.

[George]

Where are Gulda's Chopin Ballades available? How does he compare to Perahia?

They are on the OOP GPOTC set. Compared to Perahia, they focus a lot more on technical finish and less on beauty. If you have trouble finding it, PM me. 

[rubio]

They are on the OOP GPOTC set. Compared to Perahia, they focus a lot more on technical finish and less on beauty. If you have trouble finding it, PM me. 

I have found it on amazon.de .

[Zhiliang]

Another wow moment for me is Pogorelich's Chopin Nocturne Op. 55 No. 2, one listen and its already my favourite nocturne.

Do share any other beautiful recording of this work.

[George]

I have found it on amazon.de .

Great! If you like it, try his Chopin preludes. I have the version from the Prisitine Audio Website.

[BorisG]

Where are Gulda's Chopin Ballades available? How does he compare to Perahia?

Gulda's 1954 set of Ballades is available in the out of print Philips Great Pianists series. It is Gulda's Volume 2. Amazon's marketplaces have it at inflated prices. More interesting than Perahia. More interesting than either is Demidenko on Helios.

[Bonehelm]

Lang Lang Carnegie Hall Recital.

Don Juan fantasie, to be specific.

[Norbeone]

Most of Gould's Bach. (in particular: 1981 Goldberg Variations, D Minor and F Minor Keyboard Concertos and.......well there are too many particulars, now that I think of it)

Gould's Brahms Intermezzi and Ballades.

Gould playing his own transcription of the Prelude to Wagner's Die Meistersinger

Gould playing the Fugue from Hindemith's 3rd Piano Sonata.


Argerich - Prokofiev's Toccata op.11